Venessa Keesler is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Launch Michigan.
Before leading Launch Michigan, Keesler was a senior project director and subject matter expert for AEM Corporation. This national education firm supports the U.S. Department of Education and numerous states on education reform priorities. She was also deputy superintendent for the Division of Educator, Student, and School Support at the Michigan Department of Education, where she supervised assessment, accountability, the educator pipeline, standards, curriculum and instruction, federal title programs, educational technology, and charter schools.
Keesler provided leadership and oversight for creating, developing, and implementing Michigan’s strategic research approach, including the current Michigan Education Research Initiative. She began her career in education as a seventh-grade social studies teacher in Brockton, Massachusetts.
Keesler earned a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Harvard University and a doctorate in Measurement and Quantitative Methods from Michigan State University.