Cheryl Keenan, Director of Adult Education and Literacy
U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education

Cheryl Keenan is the Director of Adult Education and Literacy in the Office of Vocational and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Keenan oversees the office that funds nearly $600 million in state and local grant programs to enable adults to become literate and to complete high school so they can succeed as workers, parents, and citizens.

Prior to her appointment to the U.S. Department of Education in 2002, Keenan served as Pennsylvania's State Director of Adult Education and Literacy where she developed the state's first state-funded family literacy program supporting literacy of parents and their young children. During her tenure in Pennsylvania she also held positions in the Bureau of Special Education.

Keenan holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in education, has performed fieldwork in the area of early childhood special education, and has served on numerous committees to advance the education of children and adults.

Barbara Endel, Program DirectorBarbara Endel
Jobs for the Future

Barbara Endel co-leads the Jobs for the Future Breaking Through initiative that enables low-skilled adults to complete technical and occupational degrees across more than 30 community colleges nationwide.

Most recently, Endel served as a policy consultant to JFF on the Developmental Education Initiative, a six-state subproject of Achieving the Dream focused on mining and using data to improve student success in community colleges. Previously, she helped the Greater Cincinnati Workforce Network to create career pathways for more than 3,000 participants through a project funded by the National Fund for Workforce Solutions.

Barbara Endel has also developed career pathways and managed policy initiatives for the KnowledgeWorks Foundation and has designed and implemented community college assessments and research solutions for ACT.

Endel holds a master's degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. She earned her bachelor's degree from The College of Wooster in Ohio.