Our Leadership Team
We’re a multidisciplinary, results-oriented team with dynamic backgrounds from the academic, business, and tech worlds. We’re committed to creating a diverse environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer.
Ashish Patel
A seasoned technology executive, Ashish brings more than 20 years of experience in IT services, consulting, and e-commerce operations to AccelerEd. As Portfolio President & CIO, he leads the IT strategy and oversees the teams that modernize global enterprise applications and provide IT managed services for the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) and other prominent partner institutions. Building on AccelerEd’s history of innovation, his current knowledge and future vision of information technology advances the company’s mission of improving the student experience around the globe.
Before joining AccelerEd, Ashish served as a managing director of digital acceleration for MorganFranklin Consulting with a focus on the firm’s CIO and CFO advisory practices and developing solutions in IT strategy, business transformation, and technology modernization. Throughout his career, he has helped organizations worldwide improve their technology readiness and efficiency, with a focus on aligning business processes and IT capabilities to realize cost savings, accelerate performance, and sustain strategic flexibility.
Prior to MorganFranklin, Ashish was Senior Vice President of Technology for Bank of America, leading mobile and online retail banking technology projects, as well as CIO of Creative Marketing Solutions, where he played a key role in IT operations, fulfillment technology reengineering, and data management to drive business value. He holds an MBA and a Master of Science degree from University of South Carolina and is both a six-sigma green belt and a certified scrum master.
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Barry Sugarman, Ph.D.
Dr. Barry Sugarman oversees AccelerEd’s Learning & Innovation and Product Design teams, which work to create new pathways, partnerships, investments, and workforce solutions that enable new revenue opportunities and competitive advantage for partner institutions. His team is continually enriching and expanding upon solution and service offerings that drive the delivery of distinctive digital learning experiences at scale.
Barry has more than 25 years of experience in the higher education, electronic publishing, and technology sectors. Before joining AccelerEd, Barry served as Vice Provost and Dean of the School of Lifelong Learning at Walden University where he oversaw the Office Teaching & Learning Excellence, the University Library, and the Office of Degree Acceleration, as well as initiatives aimed at improving doctoral student success. Prior to Walden, Barry founded and led Laureate Education’s Center for Global Faculty Excellence and served as Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs/Chief Academic Officer at Divine Mercy University (DMU).
Barry holds a doctorate in Education from Columbia University and an MBA from Pace University.
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Brent Inscoe
Brent is responsible for reinforcing AccelerEd’s value and client impact through key messaging and market positioning of the company’s service offerings. He provides strategic vision and leadership for AccelerEd’s marketing and corporate communications across all content channels, working with his team to uphold strong product and IT channel communications that meet and exceed the expectations of partner institutions and internal stakeholders.
Brent brings more than 25 years’ experience in communications, marketing, and sales leadership. Prior to joining AccelerEd, Brent was the AVP, Brand Engagement Marketing at American Public University System (APUS). For more than a decade, he provided strategic direction for broad-reaching initiatives that supported growth and long-term brand development for the university system and managed $10 million in channel resources across advertising and social media platforms.
Before APUS, Brent served in a variety of sales and marketing roles at the United States Chamber of Commerce—leaving his mark as Director of Small Business Marketing Communications through the establishment of the National Small Business of the Year awards program. He holds a BA in Public Policy Analysis & Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Jay Cohen
Jay leads the strategic development and implementation of enterprise architecture, data management, technology, and multi-platform environments for AccelerEd’s partner institutions. He works closely with the digital platform, IT support, and technology teams to bridge the gap between business and technology. He has more than 30 years of experience, ranging from work on microprocessor-based control circuitry to multiple leadership roles running large scale IT projects and programs.
Prior to AccelerEd, Jay served as the Enterprise Architect at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), where he drove positive technological change for more than a decade. In his time at SNHU, Jay was responsible for architectural oversight, design, and implementation of many of the university’s online environments. He led efforts to improve the student portal, scale core systems for rapid growth, support cloud adoption, and create the university’s enterprise service bus.
Jay holds a degree in Computer Engineering Technology from the CHI Institute in Pennsylvania.
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Patrick Turner, Ed.D.
Dr. Patrick Turner works directly with AccelerEd’s IT operations leaders to manage the company’s IT infrastructure, telephony, help desk, cloud and server engineering, as well as security operations and risk compliance groups. He has more than 40 years of experience in education and technology, with a focus on IT management, software development, enterprise application architecture, IT infrastructure design, and security operations.
Prior to joining AccelerEd, Pat served as Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, MI, where he led IT vision and strategy while supporting the institution’s pivot to online course delivery. Throughout his career, Pat has served in a variety of senior positions at Mechanical Dynamics, Liberty Center One, Web Elite, Schlumberger, and General Motors.
Pat received his doctorate in Education from Ferris State University and holds a master’s degree from MIT as well as a bachelor’s degree from Michigan Technological University.
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Tulio Lagos
Tulio is responsible for establishing a strategic roadmap across AccelerEd’s IT portfolio, partnering closely with the company’s product owners and business leaders. In this role, he provides the necessary connections between university operations and technical system application and performance. His team is accountable for evaluating new initiatives that improve the student experience and digital transformation for higher education overall.
Prior to joining AccelerEd, Tulio served as Director of Market & Business Insights for Laureate Education—defining the strategy, product vision, and roadmap for the entire analytics and market intelligence portfolio across a group of universities. During his tenure, he effectively stewarded cross-functional teams to develop and implement product and service features to provide stakeholders with greater flexibility and improved outcomes. Prior to Laureate, Tulio spent seven years at Confecciones Internacionales, where he led the day-to-day operations of a manufacturing plant across all levels of the supply chain.
Tulio holds a bachelor’s degree from Universidad Tecnologica Centroamericana (UNITEC), and an MBA from Instituto de Estudios Bursatiles. He also completed a certificate in business analytics from the University of Pennsylvania.
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