Our Leadership Team
Experienced leaders dedicated to transforming education R&D
Dr. Melina Uncapher
Dr. Melina Uncapher is the founder and CEO of SETA-ED, and a former university professor of educational neuroscience, most recently with labs at Stanford and UC San Francisco. She was a co-founder and Chief of R&D of AERDF, one of the premier education R&D nonprofits in the US. Uncapher has over two decades of experience in scientific research, technology development and engineering, data science, and data privacy and security. She brings together educators, researchers, and developers to co-create transformative solutions to problems of practice using rigorous science-of-learning insights and the wisdom of educators. Her academic publications have been cited over 4000 times, and are highlighted in outlets including the New York Times, PBS, and Frontline; her science outreach work includes a Script Supervisor role on PBS's ‘The Brain’, and an award-winning short film about the brain. She founded a multi-university network funded by the National Science Foundation to study how executive function skills develop in real-world classrooms and co-founded a science-for-good nonprofit that equips educators and students with practical tools based on learning science. She was also funded by the National Institutes for Health to study how technology use is associated with developmental changes in student cognition. She earned her PhD in Neurobiology from the University of California, Irvine and completed postdoctoral fellowships at Stanford University.
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Ivy Sandberg
Ivy Sandberg is SETA-ED’s Chief Operating Officer and Engineering Program Manager. With a background in data science and dual degrees in Statistics and Economics, she has supported AI/ML program evaluation efforts for DARPA and other R&D initiatives across the Department of Defense and education sectors. She leads Engineering Program Management for complex research programs, aligning technical development, evaluation design, compliance requirements, and operational risk management to ensure disciplined execution from concept through implementation. Recognizing the growing complexity of data governance in research settings and need for Privacy Engineering, Ivy focuses on integrating privacy, security, and ethical frameworks directly into technical systems. Her work bridges policy and engineering—translating regulatory and ethical requirements into automated, scalable infrastructure that supports responsible data science. She is particularly committed to advancing secure and ethical R&D practices in domains that work with sensitive data, including education, healthcare, and defense. As COO, she oversees SETA-ED’s operational strategy and internal infrastructure, building the systems that support sustainable, ethically grounded research and engineering.
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