Senior Management

Ms. Marcie Baetcke joined the organization in April 2014 and currently serves as vice president, marketing. In her role, she leads development and execution of client-focused strategies and initiatives designed to meet or exceed stated growth objectives and position their brand for long-term sustainability.

Utilizing a low-cost model, targeted channels for performance marketing and brand awareness include paid search, display, landing page development and optimization, email, social media, blogs, online advertising, SEO, and content marketing and promotions. She also oversees media buying for all advertising channels including online, TV, radio, print, and out-of-home.

During her tenure, Ms. Baetcke has cultivated a data-driven marketing approach that is now embraced at all levels of the prospect funnel – from utilizing predictive technology in upper-funnel ad buying to precise targeting using available first and third-party data. She is passionate about maximizing value from emerging marketing tools and platforms and about delivering a personalized experience for target audiences.

Ms. Baetcke has over 20 years marketing experience with organizations including Gannett, AOL, and XM Satellite Radio. She is a former president of the DC Chapter of the American Marketing Association, and she is actively involved in her local community. She serves in leadership roles for her local Cub Scout Pack, Little League, and Girls on the Run Strong Girls Celebration. She earned a Master of Public Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Shippensburg University.

Mr. Scott Benham leads APEI’s software engineering organization and is responsible for design, development, integration, and support of the organization’s enterprise application platforms. Mr. Benham joined the APEI in 2012 as associate vice president for data warehouse, business intelligence and reporting, leading the transformation of the organization’s data warehouse and reporting capabilities to a modern self-service model. He later took over additional responsibility for the application development organization, supporting student information system development and integrated applications.

Prior to joining APEI, Mr. Benham founded and ran Datacated Technology Partners, an information technology consulting and staffing startup supporting organizations, including Freddie Mac, American Express, and Starwood Hotels. His earlier consulting experience included various lead and management roles at BearingPoint, GSK, KPMG, and Dell.

Mr. Benham has over 20 years of information technology experience including large-scale enterprise architecture and systems implementation, strategy development, software engineering, organizational transformation, data management and governance, platform migration, technology operations, and consulting. Prior to his career in information technology, Mr. Benham held various advisory and trading roles in the financial services industry.

Mr. Benham holds an MBA from the University of Nebraska, Omaha and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Veteran's Next Mission, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping our nation's veterans transition into civilian life by hiring and training them for trades in the construction industry.

Jason Dom currently serves as VP, Classroom and Campus Technical Support with American Public University System. Jason has 20 years’ experience in the field of education with a focus on technology in online higher education. His passion for education and love of technology led him to his first position with APUS in 2005 as Academic IT Coordinator. His first accomplishment was the establishment of Faculty and Classroom support organizations that help enable faculty and students to achieve their goals through the use of sound instructional technology. During Jason’s tenure with APUS he served as the functional lead for several notable university initiatives such as LMS Migration, LMS Upgrade, Mobile App Development, Carnegie Hour Calculator and the eSyllabus Tool. Jason also leads the initiative to develop the Business Relationship Management capability within the university and is the IT steward for the universities’ Business Capability Model.

Jason earned his BA in Elementary Education from Shepherd University and later earned his M.Ed. in Instructional Design from University of Massachusetts, Boston. He serves as the university representative for the IMS Global Consortium as well as Educause. Jason also holds several ITIL certifications.

Prior to working for APUS Jason was a middle school math and English teacher and part time county IT coordinator. He is passionate about his family, photography and the outdoors. On the weekends you will find him hiking, camping or traveling with his family and shooting landscape photography, preferably during sunrise or sunset.

Ms. Amy Panzarella is the Vice President of Human Resources at American Public University System (APUS). She joined the University in 2008 and is responsible for all aspects of human resources including budget, healthcare benefits, professional training and development, and compliance. Since her arrival, Ms. Panzarella has developed and increased the HR Department staffing levels to accommodate the growing needs of APUS employees. Under her leadership, the HR Department completely streamlined and automated the employee benefits, performance management, and recruiting processes. Ms. Panzarella’ s goal is to position the HR Department as a strategic partner within the organization, aligning its efforts and objectives with the mission and vision of APUS.

Ms. Panzarella has worked in human resources for over 16 years in a variety of industries to include finance, gaming, manufacturing and now higher education. She holds a Master’s degree in Management with a concentration in human resources. Ms. Panzarella earned her Senior Professional Human Resource Certification (SPHR) in 2009 and was named “HR Professional of the Year” in 2011 by the West Virginia Society of Human Resources State Council. She recently graduated from the “Leadership West Virginia” program in Charleston and continues to be a contributing writer for the “Around the Panhandle” magazine offering human resources, management and professional advice to its readers.

As an active member in her local community, Ms. Panzarella is the 2012 President of the Board of Directors for the Eastern Panhandle Society of Human Resources Management (EPSHRM) and serves on the Board of Directors for the West Virginia State Council of SHRM. She is a board member of the Charles Town Rotary Club, the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, the West Virginia University Hospitals – East Foundation, the United Way of the Eastern Panhandle and the Charles Town Old Opera House. In addition, she volunteers for the Personnel Committee of the Eastern Panhandle Free Clinic, the Local School Improvement Council (LSIC), the Career and Technical Education Council in Jefferson County, and the Marketing and Technology Advisory Council for Washington High School.

Ms. Panzarella lives in Charles Town, WV with her family. She enjoys spending any free time that she has with her husband Chris, their three sons Anthony, Andrew, and Tyler, and their two dogs Bella and MJ.

Ms. Jessica Jackson joined American Public Education, Inc., in 2008 and held a variety of human resources positions prior to her current role of vice president, human resources.

During her tenure with APEI, Ms. Jackson has helped to build and structure the human resources department, assisting with the implementation of automation throughout all functional areas of HR. Ms. Jackson currently manages the organization’s HR systems and employee relations functions. In addition, she collaborates with organizational leadership on budget, compensation, health and welfare benefits, recruitment, training and development, and policy design and implementation.

Ms. Jackson received her master’s degree in Management with a concentration in Human Resources from American Public University and a B.A. in Psychology from Shepherd University. She holds the Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) certification from the Human Resources Certification Institute and the Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) designation from the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM).

Ms. Jackson has previously served as an instructor for the SHRM Learning System at Blue Ridge Community and Technical College and held various board positions including president and past president for the Eastern Panhandle Society for Human Resource Management. Ms. Jackson is a 2009 graduate of the Leadership Jefferson program and a 2014 graduate of Leadership West Virginia.

Mr. Nathan Linnell joined the organization in February 2014 and currently serves as vice president, marketing intelligence. In his role, he oversees the marketing analytics and intelligence functions for the organization and its subsidiaries. This includes oversight over machine learning and AI, data management platforms (DMPs), data visualization, and forecasting for Marketing. In addition, he is responsible for ensuring the marketing organization has a solid measurement and analytics strategy in place that allows for the democratization of data and insights. At the core of his strategy is the desire to enable each marketing team member to have access to the precise data and insights required, at the exact time it is needed, in order to make informed data-driven decisions at the tactical and strategic level.

During his tenure, Mr. Linnell has led various initiatives that successfully incorporated machine learning and other advanced analytical capabilities directly into workflows. This has helped the organization effectively compete as a low-cost provider in a competitive marketplace. He has also played an instrumental role in helping the marketing organization evolve into a data-centric team where data is at the core of all levels of decision-making.

Prior to joining APEI, Mr. Linnell worked as a consultant helping B2B, B2C, and nonprofit organizations develop and execute digital marketing strategies. He was also a founding member of a team that launched one of the first social analytics products.

Mr. Linnell earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration with a minor in Economics from the University of New Hampshire an MBA from the University of Maryland.

Mr. Dan Lochner is responsible for business planning and project management for IT projects for the organization, where he manages a team of project managers and business analysts tasked with delivering service enhancements, as well as managing business expectations based on staffing and prioritization.

Mr. Lochner joined American Public Education, Inc., in 2006 as a senior business analyst. He quickly became a leader in the Information Technology department taking on more responsibility as a manager of software engineering, then director of financial systems, and, most recently, as associate vice president of financial management and HR systems.

He earned an MBA from the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business where he was inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems from Blackburn College.

Mr. Sean O'Driscoll joined American Public Education, Inc., in 2002 and currently leads the IT Service Management group with overall responsibility for systems and network administration and engineering, database administration, information security, user support, application production support and configuration management.

Prior to his current role, Ms. O’Driscoll served as director, systems engineering, and previously served as systems engineer responsible for the configuration and performance of American Public Education, Inc.'s data center applications and infrastructure.

Mr. O’Driscoll holds an A.A.S. in Information Systems Technology with an emphasis in Networking from Northern Virginia Community College.

Ms. Elizabeth Wallace oversees institutional research and analytics for American Public Education, Inc. In her current role, she leads the team that provides data analysis, dashboards, text analytics, and statistical analysis to constituents at all levels throughout the organization. The department provides relevant data and metrics for internal and external reporting and serves as the clearinghouse for most statistical information about American Public University System (APUS). Ms. Wallace has been with APEI since 2007. She joined the Office of the Provost in 2009 and helped to transform a data team into the Office of Institutional Research (IR) as director and then associate vice president of institutional research. Previously, Ms. Wallace worked in the APEI Information Technology department, managing the decision support team and helping to implement and support the first APEI Data Warehouse. Prior to joining APEI, Ms. Wallace was employed by Mobil Oil (now ExxonMobil) for over 10 years as a systems analyst and project manager, where she helped to develop and support service station automation and accounting systems.

Ms. Wallace has over 20 years of information technology, reporting, and analytics experience. In her current role, she collaborates with nearly every department at APUS and APEI. Ms. Wallace has presented on a variety of topics at Educause, the Tableau annual conference, the Higher Education Data Warehouse conference, the Sloan-C Emerging Technologies for Online Learning conference, the National University Technology Network conference, and the Association for Institutional Research Forum. She has represented APEI on projects such as the Predictive Analytics Reporting Framework, the Foundations of Excellence initiative (Gardner Institute), the Higher Learning Commission Persistence and Completion Academy, and the Excellence in Academic Advising initiative (Gardner Institute/NACADA).

Ms. Wallace graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Science in Commerce with a dual concentration in Finance and Management Information Systems and earned a Master of Arts in Management from American Military University. In 2016, she completed a Predictive Analytics certificate program from the University of California-Irvine.

As the vice president of corporate communications for American Public Education, Inc. (NASDAQ: APEI), Mr. Symanoskie leads the company’s highly visible and proactive investor relations (IR) program, which is frequently ranked among the top IR programs by Investor Relations magazine. After joining the company in 2007, Mr. Symanoskie shaped the communications strategy for APEI’s initial public offering, which was the NASDAQ’s second most successful domestic IPO of 2007. Since then, he has guided APEI’s financial communications during a period of rapid industry change.

Prior to joining APEI, Mr. Symanoskie led the investor relations and corporate communications program for Laureate Education, Inc. (NASDAQ: LAUR), a higher education company with operations in over 16 countries and annual revenues of nearly $2 billion. During his seven-year tenure there, he successfully guided Laureate’s corporate and investor communications through a major corporate strategy shift and several complex acquisitions and divestitures. In addition, he was instrumental in the research, development, and launch of the Laureate International Universities brand. From 1998 to 2000, Mr. Symanoskie was the manager of investor relations for Strayer Education (NASDAQ: STRA), a postsecondary company with campus-based and online operations.

As member of the National Investor Relations Institute, Mr. Symanoskie was the founding president of its Baltimore chapter from 2000 to 2006, where he took an active role in providing professional development to the Baltimore-area IR community. He currently serves as a volunteer at the Virginia Tech/APEX Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Mr. Symanoskie holds an MBA from Strayer University and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Virginia Tech.

Ms. Amy Weber, CPA, joined American Public Education, Inc., as director of internal audit in May 2009 after several years of consulting with the organization on finance automation projects. Her current responsibilities as vice president of internal audit include performing compliance and operational audits and supervising the organization’s Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

Ms. Weber has spent her career in the for-profit education industry. After getting her start in public accounting performing audits of education institutions, she joined Strayer University in 2002 as the controller. In that role, Ms. Weber worked with the IT department to design, develop, and implement accounting, financial aid, and payroll systems. In addition, she was part of the team that converted the company from a privately owned business to a publicly traded company in 1996. After leaving Strayer University, Ms. Weber started a consulting firm to work specifically with for-profit education institutions. In 2004, Ms. Weber began consulting with APEI on various finance automation projects, Sarbanes Oxley compliance, and the conversion of APEI from a private to a public company in 2007.

Ms. Weber earned her B.A. in Accounting from Loyola University in 1989 and her MBA from Strayer University in 1994.

Mr. Michael White is the vice president of tax, budgeting, and facilities management. He joined American Public Education, Inc., in 2008 after working as a consultant in the finance tax department. He oversees all corporate income tax activities, including federal and state tax returns, audits, quarterly tax estimates, and state tax issues. He is responsible for developing and overseeing operating and capital budgets for all departments. He supervises the payroll department, which is responsible for more than 2,700 employees.  Mr. White is responsible for the commercial property insurance program.

In addition to the finance responsibilities, Mr. White is responsible for the management and maintenance of over 360,000 sq. ft. of office space in Charles Town and Manassas and overseeing the construction or renovation of acquired properties, most recently the new Finance Center in Charles Town.

Mr. White has more than 30 years’ experience in the accounting, audit and tax fields. During his career, he has served as CFO and general manager for small private businesses in Baltimore, MD. He was the owner and president of MAC Management Consultants LLC, a small financial and real estate consulting firm in MD.

Mr. White received his B.A. degree in Accounting from Loyola College in 1978. He is member of the MD Association of CPAs and the American Institute of CPAs.

Mr. Thomas Zoldos serves as vice president, brand and creative strategy. In his role, Mr. Zoldos is responsible for leading brand strategy and creative direction. He works with clients, partners, and internal stakeholders to bring their business initiatives to life in a creative way that is in line with the project’s goals and the brand strategy of the organization. He directs the work of the video production, creative services, website experience and design, and brand communications and insights teams.

Prior to joining APEI, Mr. Zoldos led other creative and user experience (UX) groups within the education space. At Hobsons, he spearheaded the global brand redesign and launch and oversaw the brand architecture and design for three different K-12 and higher education student and career success platforms.

Mr. Zoldos earned a bachelor of arts from the University of Alabama in 1996.