Our Board

Luis von Ahn | Chair

Luis is the co-founder and CEO of Duolingo, a language-learning platform bringing free language education to the world. He co-created CAPTCHA, was named a MacArthur Fellow, and sold two companies to Google in his 20s. Luis is a board member of the U.S. Foundation of the University of the Valley of Guatemala. He is a former computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University and has received numerous accolades, including inclusion on the list of 10 Most Brilliant Scientists by Popular Science magazine and Top Young Innovators Under 35 by MIT Technology Review.


Angela Duckworth | Co-Founder and Board Member

In her late twenties, Angela left a demanding job as a management consultant to teach math to seventh graders in the New York City public schools. Several years in the classroom taught her that effort was tremendously important to success. To begin to solve the mystery of why some people work so much harder and longer than others, Angela entered the PhD program in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is now a professor. She is also a 2013 MacArthur Fellow. With Dave Levin and Dominic Randolph, she founded Character Lab with the aim of advancing scientific insights that help kids thrive.

Read more at angeladuckworth.com.


Chris North | Board Member

Chris is a London-based technology investor. He serves as a managing partner at L Catterton, the world’s leading consumer growth investor. Previously, Chris was the CEO of Shutterfly, Amazon UK, and Phaidon Press


Piyush TantiaBoard Member

Piyush is the chief innovation officer and a board member at ideas42, a nonprofit organization that uses behavioral economics to address complex social issues. He has been a visiting lecturer at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and frequently lectures at Harvard, Wharton, and Columbia. Previously, he was a partner at the strategy consulting firm Oliver Wyman.


Bridget Terry LongBoard Member

Bridget is the dean and Saris Professor of Education and Economics at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Passionate about addressing educational inequity, Bridget focuses her research on the transition from high school to higher education and beyond. She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a member of the National Academy of Education, and a fellow at the International Academy of Education. She is also board chair of MDRC.

Board Members Emeritus

Dominic A.A. RandolphCo-Founder and Emeritus Board Member

Dominic is the former head of school at Riverdale Country School, a pre-K–12 independent school in New York City. He is the founder of Plussed+, a learning-experience design studio based at Riverdale. Dominic is a steering committee member of the International Positive Education Network and a member of the leadership team of nXu. Previously, Dominic worked in a variety of teaching and administrative roles in schools in Europe and the Middle East. His work has focused on curriculum development, character development, and positive psychology.


Dave LevinCo-Founder and Emeritus Board Member

Dave co-founded the Knowledge is Power Program, which led to the successful network of KIPP Schools. In addition to KIPP, Dave co-founded Relay Graduate School of Education, Character Lab, Zearn, nXu, and Array Education. He currently splits his work between the KIPP Foundation and Array Education, where he focuses on improving outcomes and opportunities for young people from early literacy through early career. Dave’s work is the subject of Jay Mathews’s best-selling book, Work Hard. Be Nice.: How Two Inspired Teachers Created the Most Promising Schools in America, and he has also been awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal, among other honors.


Jackie Bezos | Emeritus Board Member

Jackie is the president and co-founder of the Bezos Family Foundation. Through investments in research, public awareness, and programs, the foundation aims to elevate the field of education and improve life outcomes for children. Jackie serves on the boards for the American Museum of Natural History, the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, Robin Hood, and Thrive by Five Washington. She is also an adviser to TED-Ed and the Global Nomads Group.


Erica DewanEmeritus Board Member

Erica runs a private foundation focused on education reform and health care. She serves on the boards of KIPP NYC and  Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Previously, Erica founded a family-owned real estate investment company and worked at Teach For America and McKinsey & Company. She is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and holds a master’s degree from the NYU Wagner School of Public Service.


Feroz DewanFounding Board Chair, Emeritus Board Member

Feroz is CEO of Arena Holdings Management, an investment holding company. He previously ran the Public Equity funds at Tiger Global Management. Prior to Tiger Global, Feroz was a private equity investor at Silver Lake Partners and a consultant at McKinsey & Company. He studied engineering and mathematics at Princeton University. Additionally, he serves on the boards of the Arena Foundation and the Tiger Foundation.

Advisory Council

Steven Arnold | Chair of the Advisory Council

Steve Arnold is the co-founder and partner emeritus of Polaris Partners, a venture capital firm investing in technology and health care companies. Prior to starting Polaris, he served as a special advisor to Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. and spent more than a decade in executive positions in the software and digital media industry. He is actively working to improve K-12 education for the benefit of all students and serves on the boards of a variety of nonprofit organizations focused on innovation in education.


Samantha Boardman | Adviser

Dr. Samantha Boardman is a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. She received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, her MD from Cornell University Medical College, and a master’s in applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Through her organization Positive Prescription, she shares science-backed and actionable insights for a healthy and fulfilling life.


Tim Brown | Adviser

Tim Brown is executive chair of IDEO, a global design company that creates positive impact through design. He guides the work of IDEO in applying design thinking to topics such as service design, system design and strategy, and across sectors such as education, health, government, technology, the social sector, and business. He is also the vice chair of kyu Collective.


Pete Carroll | Adviser

Pete Carroll is the head coach and executive vice president of the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League. He also founded A Better LA and A Better Seattle, initiatives that support community-based solutions to reduce youth and gang violence. He is the co-founder and co-host of the Amplify Voices podcast.


Ulrik Christensen | Adviser

Dr. Ulrik Christensen is recognized worldwide as an expert in learning technology. In 2006, Dr. Christensen co-founded Area9 Group, which is at the forefront of adaptive and personalized learning. He serves as the organization’s CEO and executive chairman. He pioneered adaptive learning, data-driven content development, simulation, and debriefing technologies. Dr. Christensen sits on the boards of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and LEAP Innovations. He is also on the advisory board for Mastery Transcript Consortium, Transcend Education, Center for Curriculum Redesign, and Moonshots.org.


John. B. King Jr. | Adviser

John B. King Jr. is the chancellor of the State University of New York. He was president and CEO of The Education Trust, a national nonprofit that seeks to identify and close opportunity and achievement gaps. He also served as the U.S. Secretary of Education from 2016 to 2017 in the Obama administration. Previously, he served as a high school teacher and middle school principal, and he was the first Black and Puerto Rican New York State Education Commissioner.


Julie Mikuta | Adviser

Julie Mikuta is co-president of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation and leads their K12 Education portfolio. In this capacity, she oversees strategy and investments in increasing the number of low-income students, especially students of color, who graduate from high school ready for college and the workplace.


Martin E. P. Seligman | Adviser

Martin E. P. Seligman is the director of the Penn Positive Psychology Center and Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology in the Penn Department of Psychology. He is also director of the Penn Master of Applied Positive Psychology program (MAPP). He was president of the American Psychological Association in 1998, during which one of his presidential initiatives was the promotion of positive psychology as a field of scientific study. He has written more than 300 scholarly publications and 25 books.


Ryan Smith | Adviser

Ryan Smith is the founder and executive chairman of Qualtrics, an experience management company that offers a cloud-based subscription software platform. Its XM Platform™ is a single system of record for all experience data, also called X-data™, allowing organizations to manage the four core experiences of business—customer, product, employee, and brand experiences—on one platform. Smith is a co-founder and board member of 5 for the Fight Foundation. He is a co-owner of the NBA’s Utah Jazz. In 2016, he was included in Fortune’s 40 Under 40.


Marc Vetri | Adviser

Marc Vetri is the chef and founder of the critically acclaimed Vetri family of restaurants. Marc was named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs in 1999 and received the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic in 2005. He is the author of several award-winning cookbooks: Il Viaggio di Vetri (2008), Rustic Italian Food (2011), Mastering Pasta (2015), and Mastering Pizza (2018). Additionally, he co-founded the Vetri Community Partnership, a nonprofit that provides nutrition education through hands-on experiences.

Our Donors

Foundations & Organizations

Individuals

Angela and Jason Duckworth

Feroz and Erica Dewan