Compliance tools for the OBBBA era
Free tools for college financial aid offices navigating the regulatory changes in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
About
Desata was created as a direct response to the new challenges schools and students face in the wake of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Alex Holt, one of the co-founders, was deeply involved in drafting many of the higher education provisions of OBBBA and served as a primary negotiator in the RISE negotiated rulemaking that produced the new loan regulations. During those negotiations, Alex pushed to expand the graduate and professional loan limits available to more students — an effort he ultimately lost. Desata is, in part, an attempt to help those students better navigate the private loan market. Chance Russell, another cofounder who drafted sections of OBBBA while working in the House of Representatives and then helped implement the law at the Department of Education, was noticing similar issues. Alex realized that the scope and speed of these changes left a gap in existing platforms. Nick, an experienced developer, convinced Alex that together they could solve these issues with new software. Alex in turn convinced Chance to leave the Department to help build new tools for schools and students. Desata is built from the ground up to help schools and students navigate the new regulatory landscape.
Team
Alex Holt
Alex has spent 15 years in DC higher ed policy, most recently as Director of Higher Education Policy at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. He provided technical assistance on many of OBBBA's higher ed provisions and served as a negotiator on the RISE committee tasked with writing the new loan regulations.
Chance Russell
Chance has spent nearly a decade in federal higher education policy, most recently as Deputy Chief Economist and Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of Education, where he led OBBBA implementation. Previously, he ran the higher education team for the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
Nick Clarke
Nick is a full-stack engineer with 15 years of experience building software for large, highly regulated industries: utilities, auto manufacturers, and energy. An early engineer at WeaveGrid and most recently head of the energy practice at DataCRT, he has built production data pipelines and analytics platforms from the ground up.