Ann Stiles
Executive Director, Project GRAD Houston

Ann Stiles has been with Project GRAD since 1997, most recently as the Senior Academic Director for Project GRAD Houston.  Prior to joining the Project GRAD organization, Ann served as a classroom teacher in HISD for several years. Before becoming a teacher, Ann worked in the fields of accounting and finance. She received her degree from the University of St. Thomas.

Jim Ketelsen
Founder, Project GRAD

James L. Ketelsen is the retired chairman of the board of Tenneco Inc. He was born November 14, 1930, in Davenport, Iowa, and graduated from Northwestern University in 1952. He began his business career in 1955 as a CPA in Chicago with the firm of Price Waterhouse. In 1959 he joined J I Case Company and became president of Case in 1967.

He served as president of Case until moving to Tenneco Inc. at its Houston headquarters in 1972 as a member of the Board of Directors and as executive vice president. He served as chairman and chief executive officer of Tenneco Inc. from July 1, 1978, to January 1, 1992.

He is a former regent of the University of Houston System and a trustee of Northwestern University.

He is very active in K-16 education. He is a member of the Texas Business & Education Coalition and was chairman of the Texas 2000 State Coordinating Team.

In the fall of 1993, he founded Project GRAD (Graduation Really Achieves Dreams), a long-term program which will improve the quality of education in entire feeder systems of the Houston Independent School District. Project GRAD is currently impacting 74 schools and 51,000 Hispanic and African-American children in Houston. Nationally, the program is being replicated in Kenai Peninsula, Alaska; Los Angeles, California; Atlanta, Georgia; Newark, New Jersey; Roosevelt, New York; Akron, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Lorain, Ohio; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Brownsville, Texas.