Chief Executive Officer

An attorney, Tom Luce received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Southern Methodist University and has been honored with the SMU Law School and University Distinguished Alumni Awards. He was a founding partner and managing partner of the law firm of Hughes & Luce, LLP until his retirement from the firm in 1997.

Chief Program Officer

John Winn has a distinguished career in education policy and a lifelong commitment to quality education for all students. An educator for 35 years, he began his career as an elementary and middle school teacher. He joined the Florida Department of Education in 1984 and served in several responsible positions including Deputy Commissioner and Chief of Staff before being appointed to Commissioner of Education in August 2004. In February 2007 he retired from Commissioner of Education. He joined the National Mathematics and Science Initiative in March 2007 as the Chief Program Officer for AP* and pre-AP courses.

Chief Operating Officer

Clay Mulford joined NMSI from Jones Day, where he was a partner in the Corporate and Securities Law Section. Prior to that he was a partner in Hughes and Luce, where he was a member of that firm’s Executive Committee. In his law practice, he served as lead counsel in numerous high-profile mergers and public offerings, and was featured in The American Lawyer in “Who Represents the New Economy 50.” He is also a director and compensation or audit committee chair of several private and public companies.

Chief Financial Officer

Patty Pickard is the Chief Financial Officer of NMSI and a Certified Public Accountant. During her career she has held senior level financial and management positions in the finance, real estate development, oil and gas, and insurance industries. She served as CFO and COO of several multi-million dollar companies, as Senior Vice President of a multi-billion dollar public ally traded company and as a senior advisor and consultant in mergers of private and public companies.

Communications Director

Prior to joining NMSI, Rena Pederson was Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications for the Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., serving as a senior speechwriter and communications manager. As part of those duties, Ms. Pederson also served on the editorial board of the Counter Terrorism Communications Center at the Department of State, organized an international media conference on attacks on the press, prepared Congressional testimony for Under Secretary Karen Hughes, and helped create the America Is book for distribution overseas.

National AP Training and Incentives Program Director

Gregg Fleisher is the National AP* Training and Incentives Program Director of NMSI. Gregg started his career as an auditor and actuary with Coopers & Lybrand but later decided to make a major career change to pursue his passion. In 1986, he began teaching math to high school students in the Dallas ISD. While teaching, he had one of the highest percentages of students pass the Advanced Placement Program calculus exam/per school enrollment of any public high school in the country. In 1993, Gregg was awarded the Advanced Placement Special Recognition Award by the Southwest Region of the College Board. In 1995, he became the lead math teacher in the new AP Incentive Program.

Director of Standards and Quality

René has taught AP* Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics. She pioneered the AP Chemistry Program at Southlake Carroll High School. She was a member of the AP Chemistry Test Development Committee from 1999-2001-the committee which writes the AP Chemistry Exam. Her syllabus is currently published in the AP Teacher's Guide and she authored the chapter on using technology in the AP Chemistry classroom.

Regional Director

Dale Fleury is one of two NMSI Regional Directors responsible for the administration and implementation of Advanced Placement* Incentive Program grant awards to states.

Most recently, he was Program Director for Advanced Placement Strategies Incorporated, the organization that served as a model for the NMSI grant program. His responsibilities included the implementation, administration, and management of Advanced Placement Incentive Programs in English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Music Theory.

Regional Director

Monica Hayes is responsible for programs in five states as one of two Regional Directors for the National Math and Science Initiative. Monica was formerly the Director of the K-20 Office of Equity, Access, Global and International Education in the Florida Department of Education. She is a native New Yorker who has lived in Florida for the past six years and is currently working on her doctorate at the University of Phoenix.