American Public Education APEI

Ms. Selden has served as President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board since September 2019. Ms. Selden previously served as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of DIGARC, LLC, an education technology provider to higher education institutions, from October 2016 to August 2019, continuing as a member of the board of directors until June 2021. From September 2005 until June 2013, Ms. Selden served as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Co-Chairman of Arise Virtual Solutions, Inc., a virtual workforce solutions outsourcer. Ms. Selden has also served as Chief Executive Officer of two private companies and served on a variety of private company boards. Earlier in her career, Ms. Selden spent 18 years at Accenture, including serving as the Managing Partner, leading Accenture's North American Consumer and Industrial Products group to significant growth. In addition, Ms. Selden served on the University of St. Thomas, Opus College of Business' Strategic Board of Governors from April 2012 to September 2019.

Nuno S. Fernandes joined us in August 2022 as President of APUS. Prior to joining APUS, Mr. Fernandes served at Ilumno, a company that partners with universities in Latin America to expand access to higher education throughout the region, as President and Chief Executive Officer from May 2019 to August 2022, Executive Vice President, Global Operations and Strategic Alliances from April 2018 to May 2019, Executive Vice President, Strategic Alliances from May 2017 to April 2018, Senior Vice President, Global Operations from September 2016 to May 2017, Chief Marketing and Operations Officer from September 2015 to September 2016, Senior Vice President Marketing, Enrollment and Student Services from January 2014 to September 2015, and Senior Vice President Marketing, Enrollment from January 2013 to January 2014. Mr. Fernandes has also held various leadership roles at Overseas Leisure Group and Bosch.

Mark L. Arnold joined us in January 2025 as President of RU. Prior to joining RU, Mr. Arnold served as the Chief Executive Officer of Nystrom & Associates, an outpatient mental health provider, from 2020 to 2023. Prior to this, Mr. Arnold was Chief Operating Officer at Rayus Radiology (formerly, Center for Diagnostic Imaging) from 2017 to 2020 and held other various roles, including Chief Development & Strategy Officer, Senior Vice President & General Manager, Regional Vice President, Minnesota, and Vice President, Strategy and Business Development from 2011 to 2017. Mr. Arnold previously served as a senior healthcare research analyst at Piper Sandler from 2005 to 2011, held leadership roles at 3M Company, and was a healthcare management consultant.

Thomas A. Beckett joined us in April 2011 as Director, Legal Affairs for APUS, in January 2012 became Vice President, Legal Affairs, and since January 2016, has served as our Senior Vice President and General Counsel, and Secretary since June 2016. Prior to joining APUS, Mr. Beckett was the General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer of HealthSport, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiary, InnoZen, Inc. (now CURE Pharmaceutical) from 2007 to 2010. In addition, from 2004 to 2010, Mr. Beckett held various leadership positions at HealthSport and InnoZen. Prior to this, Mr. Beckett was an associate at King & Spalding LLP and Holland & Knight LLP. Mr. Beckett began his career as a banking officer with First Union National Bank. Mr. Beckett is on the board of directors of Shenandoah Telecommunications Company, a wireless telephone and cable services company.

Edward H. Codispoti, CPA joined us in October 2025 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Codispoti had previously served as the Chief Financial Officer of NV5 Global, Inc. from June 2019 until October 2025. Prior to NV5 Global, Mr. Codispoti was the Chief Financial Officer of Ilumno Holdings, Ltd. from May 2017 until June 2019 and Chief Financial Officer of JetSmarter, Inc. from October 2016 to March 2017. He served in various capacities for TradeStation Group, Inc., including Chief Financial Officer from June 2011 to August 2016, Chief Accounting Officer from February 2010 to June 2011 and Corporate Controller and Vice President of Accounting from September 2007 to May 2011. Mr. Codispoti began his career at Arthur Andersen, LLP.

Mr. Pianko has served as Board Chair since March 2025. Mr. Pianko is the founder of and currently serves as an investor and Managing Director for Achieve Partners, since January 2019. Since April 2011, he has served as an investor and Managing Director for University Ventures, which he also founded. He also serves on the boards of directors of Education Excellence Corporation, Tiber Health, Yellowbrick Learning, and Ro Health Inc. Mr. Pianko is a frequent commentator on higher education and his insights have been featured in national media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, TechCrunch, Inside Higher Ed, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Prior to founding University Ventures, Mr. Pianko established a student loan fund, served as chief of staff for the public/private investments in the Philadelphia School District, and worked as a hedge fund analyst. Mr. Pianko began his career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Harlem Village Academies.

Ms. Blevins has worked as an independent consultant/contractor since January 2000, working in a variety of capacities for non-profit and for-profit start-ups to mid-size businesses in multiple industries. From October 2018 to September 2019, Ms. Blevins served as Chief of Staff, LRNG at Southern New Hampshire University, where she was responsible for managing strategy, budget and resources for the LRNG learning platform. She also served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief of Staff of the non-profit social enterprise Collective Shift, which created the LRNG platform, from January 2015 until its acquisition by Southern New Hampshire University in October 2018. In addition, she served as Chief Financial Officer of Education Design Studio, a fund investor and business incubator for education technology start-up companies, from December 2012 until December 2019, and Chief Financial Officer of GlassLab, Inc., a non-profit that creates digital games for learning and assessment, from May 2014 to December 2016. Prior to 2000, Ms. Blevins held senior level finance and corporate planning positions with both public and privately held companies. Ms. Blevins currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky, Chairs the Finance Committee and is a member of the Executive Committee. Ms. Blevins is also on the Kentucky Board of Community Advisors for Saint Joseph Health System, a member of CommonSpirit Health. She serves on its Executive Committee and is slated to become Chair of the Board of Community Advisors in July 2026. Ms. Blevins has previously served on and chaired boards of other non-profits and been a board member of a for-profit privately held company.

Mr. Statuto served as Chairman of the board of directors of Premier, Inc. since 2023 and was a member of the Compensation Committee and Nominating and Governance Committee until Premier was acquired in December 2025. He previously served as Chairman of the Board of Premier from May 2013, when the company went public, until August 2019. Mr. Statuto is currently an Executive Advisor for LRVHealth, a Boston-based venture capital firm, and for CoVest Partners, a Charlotte-based private equity firm. He previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Bon Secours Health System from 2005 until its merger with Mercy Health in 2018. Earlier in his career, he served as Chief Executive Officer of St. Joseph Health System in California from 1995 to 2004. In addition to his executive leadership roles, Mr. Statuto has served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Catholic Health Association, Vice Chairman of Christus Health in Dallas, Vice Chairman of Incarnate Word Health System, Vice Chairman of CMMB, and Chairman of the American Red Cross Orange County California. He has also held board positions at Kmart, the Innovation Institute, Covenant Health System in Massachusetts, Mercy Housing, and the finance committee of the American Heart Association.

On August 4, 2025, the Board of Directors of APEI, or the Board, appointed James Kenigsberg as Interim Chief Innovation and Technology Officer of APEI, and Mr. Kenigsberg resigned from service on the Board in connection with and effective as of his appointment. James Kenigsberg joined us in August 2025 as the Interim Chief Innovation and Technology Officer of APEI and had previously served as a director of APEI from June 2022 until his appointment as Interim Chief Innovation and Technology Officer. Prior to joining APEI, Mr. Kenigsberg was the founding Chief Technology Officer at 2U, Inc., from August 2008 until January 2022. He continued to support 2U's strategic initiatives as a Senior Strategic Advisor through January 2024. Prior to 2U, Mr. Kenigsberg served as Vice President of Application Development at The Princeton Review from October 2000 to August 2008. He also held senior technology roles at Thomson Reuters and Ogilvy & Mather from January 1998 to October 2000.

Ms. Fabrega served as Chief Executive Officer of Local Bounti Corp. from June 2023 to December 2023. In addition, from October 2021 to November 2022, Ms. Fabrega served as Chief Executive Officer of fresh prepared food subscription service company Freshly, LLC, after joining Freshly as Chief Commercialization Officer in January 2021. Prior to Freshly, Ms. Fabrega spent nine years in roles of increasing seniority with Amazon, most recently as Managing Director, Amazon Convenience Stores, which includes Amazon Go, Amazon's cashless convenience and grocery stores, from January 2020 through January 2021, and previously as Director, Amazon Go, from 2014 through January 2020. During her Amazon Go tenure, Ms. Fabrega helped launch Amazon Go Grocery, the first Just Walk Out grocery store, and scale the business to 28 stores across four cities. She earlier served as Senior Manager, Marketing and Third Party Marketplace, Sporting Goods, and General Manager, Sports and Outdoors, Amazon's $4 billion sports and outdoors business, after joining Amazon in 2011. Before Amazon, Ms. Fabrega served as a Senior Product Manager, Brand Management and Relationship Marketing, and then Senior Manager, Global Brand Strategy, at Microsoft from 2008 through 2011, Director, Brand Management and Financial Services, for Stripes Convenience Stores, a convenience store chain then owned by Susser Holdings Corporation, from 2004 through 2008, and Inventory Control Manager at J&L Industrial, an industrial distribution and supply company then owned by Kennemetal, from 2002 to 2003. Ms. Fabrega began her career in distribution and operations at McMaster-Carr Supply Company, a hardware, tools, and materials supplier, in 1999. She has served on the boards of directors of Bank OZK, a banking services provider, since May 2025, and Hippo Harvest, an agriculture company, since February 2025.

Mr. Braner has served as a founding Managing Member and as Chief Compliance Officer at 325 Capital LLC, a long-term, significant, minority owner of small public companies, since March 2019, where he is involved in investment research and overseeing compliance. Previously, Mr. Braner served as a Partner at Sagard Capital Partners LP, pursuing a similar investment strategy to 325 Capital, from 2005 to May 2016. Prior to that, Mr. Braner served as a Partner in JB Investment Partners, an investment company he founded in 2003, from 2003 to 2004. Earlier in his career, Mr. Braner served for more than 10 years at Bain & Company Inc., a management consulting company, where he consulted large corporations and private equity investors.

Karmela Gaffney joined us in July 2023 as Acting Chief Marketing Officer before being hired for the role full-time in December 2023. Prior to joining APEI, Ms. Gaffney served as the Chief Marketing Officer of Academic Partnerships from 2020 to 2022 and Senior Vice President of Digital and Integrated Marketing at the same company from 2018 until 2020. Prior to this, Ms. Gaffney was Vice President, eCommerce and Phoenix.edu at University of Phoenix from 2015 to 2018 and was Vice President, Digital Commerce at Choice Hotels International from 2013 to 2015. Ms. Gaffney also previously held various leadership roles at Best Western Hotels & Resorts.

Tanya J. Axenson joined us in July 2022 as Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. Prior to joining APEI, Ms. Axenson served as Senior Vice President of HR and Chief Diversity Officer of Erickson Senior Living, which develops, operates, and manages continuing care retirement communities, from January 2021 to July 2022. Previously, Ms. Axenson also served as Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of Aerotek, Inc., a leading talent solutions provider, from September 2012 to January 2021. Ms. Axenson also previously held various other human capital and legal roles at Exelon/Constellation Energy, an energy provider, and served as an associate attorney at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.