Meet the Founders

Don Soifer

Don Soifer is Chief Executive Officer of the National Microschooling Center, America’s comprehensive resource center, movement-builder and authority for the most exciting new education movement in a generation. He co-created and co-directed the Southern Nevada Urban Micro Academy, the nation’s first public–private partnership microschool with the City of North Las Vegas, delivering unprecedented academic growth with a previously underserved population of families under pandemic operating conditions.

Prior to opening the Center, Soifer has been President of Nevada Action for School Options, an award-winning nonpartisan “action tank” he founded in 2017 to support the growth of diverse choices of rich, high-quality and personalized educational opportunities for all students. He previously served as Executive Vice President of the Lexington Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Arlington, VA that he cofounded in 1998.

Soifer directed the institute’s education and other domestic-policy research programs, and his research has been published and discussed in many of the nation’s most influential news publications and policy journals, and cited by policy decisionmakers at all levels of government, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

Soifer earned a record as one of the nation’s most accomplished charter school authorizers, serving an unprecedented three mayor-appointed, Council-confirmed terms on the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board beginning in 2008. He was widely regarded as a driving force transforming one of the nation’s most successful charter authorizers as it instituted systems for prioritizing quality for the 120+ schools oversee. He subsequently served as a board member on the Nevada State Public Charter School Authority, appointed by the State Board of Education, from 2019-2021.

Soifer has been an Aspen/Pahara Institute education fellow since 2018.

Ashley Soifer

Ashley Soifer is the Chief Innovation Officer of the National Microschooling Center, where she leads strategic growth, the development of new programs and outreach. Ashley guides the Center’s movement-building work.

Prior to her role at the Center, Ashley served as the Chief of Staff at Nevada Action for School Options. In this role, Ashley played a critical role in designing, building and operating the Southern Nevada Urban Micro Academy, the first of its kind public-private partnership with the City of North Las Vegas. The microschool, created to combat pandemic learning loss, has received substantial national and local attention for its powerful track record of academic growth and innovation.

Born and raised in Southern Nevada, Ashley is incredibly proud of, and grateful for, the diverse microschooling ecosystem in the greater Las Vegas valley.

Before working in education, Ashley worked in the Las Vegas independent film community as an actor, casting director and producer.

Ashley is the proud mother of three talented children, all currently microschooling. Ashley, her husband Don, and their three children enjoy traveling, playing games and learning together.