Better Outcomes is devoted to boosting the achievement of traditionally underperforming demographic groups. Executive Director Dr. Manya C. Bouteneff's greatest passion is in beating the odds: creating high-performing environments so that students in traditionally under-performing demographic groups can succeed. This passion has brought her to this work as a researcher and consultant. Manya earned her doctorate from Columbia University’s Teachers College in Educational Administrative Practice. Her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction is from the University of Vermont. Manya’s experience includes public-school building, district, and regional leadership for 18 years. She has held elementary, middle, high-school, and district leadership positions, turning around 2 schools that remain highly effective. Additionally, she was Executive Director of the Hudson Valley RBE-RN, serving a region of 144 districts. Prior to this, Manya taught French in grades 2, 4-12 and Russian in grades 9-12 for 14 years, and spent 2 years teaching English as a new language to adults in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa.