Joanne Weiss
President
Weiss Associates
Joanne Weiss is an independent consultant working with state education agencies, nonprofit organizations, foundations, and investors to design policies, practices, products, and services that promote equity and excellence in education. She focuses largely on issues related to pK-12 teaching and learning, including standards, curriculum, professional learning, and assessment. Joanne has held top leadership roles in federal government, venture philanthropy, and edtech. From 2009-2013, Joanne served in the Obama Administration as chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and director of the federal Race to the Top program. Prior to that, Joanne was the Chief Operating Officer and Managing Partner at NewSchools Venture Fund. She began her career in ed tech – first leading curriculum R&D, then leading companies that pioneered technology-based approaches to solving teaching and learning challenges in K-12 and higher education. Joanne is an Expert-in-Residence at the Harvard Innovation Lab; a Fellow for Georgetown University’s FutureEd; a Trustee for the National Council on Education and the Economy; a Director of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools; a former visiting professor in education policy at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs; and a fellow in the inaugural cohort of the Aspen/Pahara Education Leadership Fellowship. She holds a degree in biochemistry from Princeton University and lives with her husband in Washington, D.C. For more information, see www.weissassociates.net.Joanne Weiss is President of Weiss Associates, which consults with organizations on education programs, technologies, and policy. She focuses on driving systems-level education change through high-impact policymaking, grantmaking, and implementation. She works primarily with state policymakers, national nonprofit service providers, curriculum developers, school systems, and foundations. From 2009-2013, she served in the U.S. Department of Education, first as director of the Race to the Top Program, then as chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Joanne was a partner and chief operating officer at NewSchools Venture Fund, where she focused on investing in and supporting a variety of charter management organizations, human capital solutions providers, and academic tools and systems designers. Prior to NewSchools, Joanne spent twenty years pioneering ways to increase the effectiveness of teaching and learning—as VP of curriculum R&D, then as CEO—for companies providing technology-based products and services to underserved students in K-12 and higher education. She has a degree in biochemistry from Princeton University and lives in Washington, D.C. Weiss serves on the Board of Directors of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
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