Director, Quest Scholars Network

Nancy has a strong connection to the Northeast. She grew up in Massachusetts, attended Amherst College, and went to Brown University for graduate school in cultural anthropology. Her academic training enabled her do fieldwork and research on women’s health networks in Egypt as a Rotary Ambassador at the American University in Cairo, and in Pakistan as a Fulbright Scholar. While at Brown she worked at the Harriet Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, the Northeast and Islands Education Laboratory, and the Royce Fellowship Program at the Swearer Center for Public Service. Nancy’s desire to stay close to anthropology was possible through pursuing work in education, public service, and non-profit management. An unexpected move to Minnesota brought her to Carleton College, where she trained academic tutors and taught writers, mostly from first-generation and low-income backgrounds. Many of their experiences adjusting to college mimicked her own experience as a first-generation college student. When she moved to Silicon Valley, she was eager to work with QuestBridge to develop what is now the Quest Scholars Network. Beyond Quest, Nancy enjoys being outdoors, growing as many vegetables as she can fit into a tight space, and exploring the California coast with her husband and son. She is a keen observer of architecture and fulfills her creative instincts by dabbling in graphic design and coaching local kids in Destination ImagiNation for the California Creativity Association.

Web Content Manager, Quest Scholars Network

Originally from Long Island, New York, Taylor was selected for the QuestLeadership program at Stanford University in the summer of 2001. She went on to earn her BA in English at Stanford and her MFA in Creative Writing from Boston University. During her year in Boston, she interned at a Huntington's disease laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital as a continuation of her undergraduate work with HOPES (Huntington's Outreach Project for Education, at Stanford). After graduating from BU, she taught English composition at the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas and published her first book of poetry, Swimming Back. While teaching at the community college, Taylor discovered a passion for advising her students on university admissions and financial aid. She is excited to be back in the Bay Area, working to build the Quest Scholars Network.

Program Associate, Quest Scholars Network

Ziyan was born in China and grew up in the US, where she has lived in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, and New York City. She received a B.S. in Biology from MIT and, upon graduation, worked as a Microbiologist/Virologist at a consumer products company. A few years into the job, she found education to be her passion and has since then worked in Americorps as a Mentor/Tutor and in an EdTech start-up as a Sales Consultant. As a Program Associate in the Quest Scholars Network, she develops the social media content and builds relationships with the talented students of this program. In her free time, she enjoys long distance running, international travel, reading, photography, rock climbing, and being a "foodie" (she loves swapping restaurant recommendations - especially hole-in-the-wall taquerias and ramen spots!).

CEO

David Hunter joined QuestBridge after a lengthy career in medicine as a Senior Partner and Regional Director in California Emergency Physicians Medical Group (CEP). David worked with QuestBridge Co-Founder, Dr. Michael McCullough, at CEP while overseeing the largest partnership of emergency physicians in the country. When David became CEO in the beginning of 2009, he was no stranger to QuestBridge, as his daughter, Allison Marie, worked with Co-Founder Ana Rowena McCullough as a summer intern at QuestBridge in 2003. Since then his two sons, John and Scott, have also been active volunteers in Quest programs. David's efforts to expand educational opportunity have been inspired, in part, by the many residents with limited financial resources he served as an emergency physician, and by his mother, a teacher who overcame many financial obstacles to attend college during the Depression. David graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School, did post-graduate medical training in the Stanford University Hospital system, and holds a JD degree from Harvard Law School.