Advisors

James Sparkman

James Sparkman (San Francisco) currently leads a national practice representing colleges and universities exploring long-term private sector partnership opportunities. Prior to founding Alpha Education, James spent a decade as an investor, advisor, and senior executive working with a range of postsecondary education companies. Previously, James was the co-founder of HigherMarkets, a venture-backed university SaaS company which was acquired by Jaggaer. James also held early executive roles at private equity firm New Mountain Capital and student lender Cognition Financial. James began his career as a public school teacher in Brooklyn, NY, where he was a member of the first class of Teach For America. James received his B.A., cum laude, from Middlebury College and M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Kim Lindstrom

Kim Lindstrom (Phoenix) has over 10 years of experience implementing operational solutions for online higher education institutions. Prior to joining Alpha Education, most recently, Kim served as the Senior Director of Operations for Online Program Management (OPM) provider Hotchalk (recently acquired by Noodle Partners). In that role, Kim was a member of the Executive Leadership Team and led a sales and operations team of 60 people supporting five university partnerships serving over 8,000 online students. Prior to her work at Hotchalk, Kim was the Associate Director of IT Service Delivery and Business Analysis for Northcentral University, offering fully online programs for over 10,000 graduate students. Kim began her career in higher education as a Business Analyst at Universal Technical Institute and Apollo Group (parent company of the University of Phoenix). Prior to moving into higher education, Kim was a Tax Compliance Agent and Business Analyst with the Washington State Department of Revenue. Kim received her B.A., in Business, from Western Washington University.