Retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral and a PayPal Executive latest to Join Alliance for Decision Education Board

PHILADELPHIA, November 10, 2021 – The Alliance for Decision Education has added a retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral and a PayPal Executive to its list of distinguished Board members calling for decision-making skills to be incorporated into school curriculums.

Retired Navy Vice Admiral Jan Elizabeth Tighe joined the Alliance Board along with Michelle Ton, Head of Sales Decision Science at PayPal and an expert in quantitative analytics.

“Developing better decision-making skills in our students is a matter of national security. We have too much at stake to not give our students the critical thinking and decision skills they need to step into leadership tomorrow – whether that is as parents or as presidents,” Tighe said.

“If we make Decision Education available today, we will reshape the trajectory of tomorrow.”

Tighe is a groundbreaking, highly decorated U.S. Naval commander who retired from active duty in 2018 after 34 years of service. Her rank of Vice Admiral is one of the two highest ranks offered by the Navy. Tighe served as Director of Naval Intelligence, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Information Warfare and as the Commander of Fleet Cyber Command and the U.S. Tenth Fleet.

Ton comes to the Alliance with a background deep in analytics and decision-making. Prior to her current role at PayPal, Ton served as Case Team leader at Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm and as a Quantitative Analytics Manager at Capital One Bank. She earned her MBA from MIT, Sloan School of Management and her Bachelor of Science in Applied and Computational Mathematics from California Institute of Technology.

“Applying decision-making skills has had a tremendous impact on my life personally, and has been a key focus of my life professionally. I firmly believe that if every student had the chance to learn Decision Education skills, we would see that everything in society – business, government, social issues – would improve for the vast benefit of all of us,” Ton said.

Tighe and Ton join a list of global experts and leaders lending their names and expertise to elevate the growing call to have schools across the country teach Decision Education – which builds in students the critical skills to frame a decision, clarify values, evaluate and collect data, weigh options, consider likelihood of outcomes and manage personal biases as they make decisions.

In August, the Alliance welcomed to its Board: Andrew Berry, Executive Vice President of Football Operations and General Manager for the Cleveland Browns professional football team, formerly of the Indianapolis Colts and the Philadelphia Eagles, and cum laude graduate of Harvard University.

Joining as Honorary Board Member was John E. Pepper, retired President, CEO and Chairman of the Procter & Gamble Company; former Chairman of the Board of the Walt Disney Company; and former Yale University Vice President of Finance and Administration.

The Alliance also includes among its list of advocates and advisors, Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman, international chess champion and political strategist Garry Kasparov, and ground-breaking researcher and Stanford University Professor Barbara Tversky.

“If there is one thing that we can do to help ensure the long-term well-being of our students – and our society – it is to teach our children the skills of good decision-making. Having leaders of this caliber join our work speaks to the critical importance of having Decision Education included in our schools,” said Alliance Executive Director Joseph E. Sweeney, Ed.D.