Chad Colby has more than 23 years of experience in political and education communications. He has worked in three state education agencies including assisting New Mexico’s secretary of education with the adoption of new education reform initiatives; serving as the Communications Director at the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education; and working as an assistant to the Florida Commissioner of Education. Chad also worked at the U.S. Department of Education from 2004 to 2009 and served as the deputy assistant secretary for media affairs and strategic communication during his final two years there. His work transitioned to communications leadership in the education sector including recent work with Achieve and Great Minds. He is currently a consultant to nonprofits. A native of Bloomington, Illinois, Chad graduated from Florida State University.
Term: Current term runs through FY28
Email: boardofdirectors@schoolforadvancedstudies.org
Term: Current term runs through FY28
Robert Maranto (B.S. Maryland, 1980; Ph.D. Minnesota, 1989) is the 21st Century Chair in Leadership at the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas, and previously taught political science at Villanova University. He also worked at the Brookings Institution and for the Clinton administration in the 1990s. He joined Heartland’s Board of Policy Advisors in 2017.
Maranto is interested in civil service reform generally and school reform in particular. Since December 2015 he has edited the Journal of School Choice, having previously served as book review editor. In concert with others Bob has written or edited 11 scholarly books which have sold dozens of copies and are so boring that his own mother refused to read them. These include, President Obama and Education Reform: The personal and the political (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2012), The Obama Presidency: Change and Continuity; (Routledge, 2011), A Guide to Charter Schools (Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2006), Beyond a Government of Strangers (Lexington, 2005), and School Choice in the Real World: Lessons from Arizona Charter Schools (Westview 2001).
He recently co-edited two books appealing to very different audiences: The Politically Correct University (published by conservative AEI), and Judging Bush (published by liberal Stanford University Press). He is now working on a book on education policy in the Obama years and beyond, and another on Arizona charter schools. His more than 70 scholarly publications have appeared in journals including Public Administration Review, Computers and Education, the Journal of School Leadership, Social Science Quarterly, the Journal of Educational Research, and Education Next.
Maranto’s more than 100 op-eds have appeared in venues including the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Houston Chronicle, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Baltimore Sun. In 1987 Bob played for the University of Minnesota’s National Champion College Bowl team. In his non-existent free time Bob hikes in the mountains.
Term: Current term runs through FY29
Email: boardofdirectors@schoolforadvancedstudies.org
Term: Current term runs through FY29
Term: Current term runs through FY29
Email: boardofdirectors@schoolforadvancedstudies.org
Term: Current term runs through FY29
With over 12 years of experience in commercial real estate and development, Hannah Cicioni is a seasoned leader in the Northwest Arkansas real estate landscape. As Owner and Commercial Executive Broker of CRD Real Estate & Development, she has helped guide projects that support growth and revitalization across the region’s downtown districts. Hannah’s work spans adaptive re-use conversions for hospitality-driven developments, multi-tenant mixed-use redevelopments, and ground-up housing projects. She brings a strategic, execution-minded approach that helps investors, owners, and developers make confident decisions backed by real-world development experience. Deeply invested in the community—especially Downtown Rogers—Hannah is actively involved through various Nonprofit boards, currently serving on the Music Moves board. She is also a Business Board Member of F1RSTNB of NWA as well as over 10 years of service to the City of Rogers as active Board of Adjustment member and current City of Rogers Planning Commissioner. Alongside this civic work, Hannah owns multiple businesses and development projects, with a focus on long-term value and responsible growth.
Term: Current term runs through FY29
Rod earned graduate degrees in biology while studying and writing about the evolution and ecology of venomous snakes. These endeavors took Rod to Ethiopia in search of the poorly known Ethiopian Mountain Adder and gave him the opportunity to complete a multi-year study of Timber Rattlesnakes inhabiting an agricultural area of Missouri. During this same time, Rod developed into an enthusiastic educator while teaching a variety of university labs such as Biology, Human Physiology, Human Anatomy, Herpetology, Vertebrate Natural History, and Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy.
After completing his PhD at the University of Arkansas, Rod worked as a manager in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wildlife Refuge System. He first served as the Deputy Project Leader for Ruby Lake National Wildlife in northeast Nevada, and later as the Project Leader for the North Platte/Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge Complex in the Nebraska sandhills. Both duty stations were two of the most remote in the lower 48. Rod greatly enjoyed the nearly 6 years living in a vast and expansive wilderness among the wildlife, during which time he and his wife Sara welcomed daughter Charley (15) and son Reed (12) into the family. Nevertheless, a return to civilization, academia, and northwest Arkansas would soon be in order as Rod was presented with a new opportunity and challenge.
In August of 2015, a new campus of a local, college preparatory charter school would open its doors in Bentonville with Rod serving as headmaster. During his 8-year tenure, he worked to promote a culture where students felt supported and inspired to pursue their interests and highest ambitions. Together with these students, their families, and a talented faculty, Rod helped build a school capable of competing with the finest secondary institutions in the country. In the 2023 U.S. News and World Report Ranking of public high schools, his students and teachers earned the top scores in the nation for Student Assessment Proficiency Rank and Student Assessment Performance Rank.
Rod joined the School for Advanced Studies during the summer of 2024. He has taught classes in the life sciences, managed facilities, served as the athletic director, and coordinated campus safety. Rod also serves on the Board of Directors for the Ozark Natural Science Center. In his new role at SAS, he will work to strengthen support for our students and faculty while growing our school within the larger NWA community.
