Meet Our New Staff Members

We are thrilled to introduce the two new members of our GEAR UP staff!

Richard Ceder has spent the last nine years as a counselor at Gaston Junior/Senior High School which prepares him well for his new role as School Liaison, working primarily with the cohort schools in the northern half of the state and priority schools. An Oregon native, he graduated from Rogue River High School and received his B.S. in Psychology and M.S. in Counselor Education from Oregon State University (go Beavs!). Committed to service, Richard sat on just about every school committee during his tenure at Gaston and served as an assistant basketball and football coach. He is passionate about helping youth be successful in life and is most excited for the opportunity to provide districts with support to make college a reality for their students. An avid outdoorsman, Richard enjoys fishing, hunting, hiking, and camping.

Richard will start full-time in mid-February.

Jennica Vincent is our Data and Evaluation Specialist, and will be helping schools (and the GEAR UP staff!) with interpreting and using data, in addition to supporting our external evaluator. Her educational journey includes a B.S. in Psychology and a Masters of Education in Counseling from Washington State University (WSU), and most recently, a Masters in Public Policy from Oregon State University (OSU). Jennica has worked in a variety of educational settings, including teaching at a high school in France, supporting students at the Disability Resource Center at WSU, and helping programs with assessment, research, evaluation and planning at OSU. In addition to her affinity for data, she loves fuzzy animals (see photo for proof!), is an amateur cyclist, and makes a killer cheesecake.