Bellwether Education Partners Announces New Partners And Team Members, New Leadership
For media inquiries please contact:
Kelsey Hawkins – Kelsey@bellwethereducation.org
Washington, D.C.
August 2, 2012
For Immediate Release
Bellwether Education Partners, a national nonprofit education organization, announced today that co-founder and partner Kim Smith will leave Bellwether later this year to become CEO of the newly formed Pahara Institute. Smith led Bellwether’s leadership work, including the Aspen–New Schools Entrepreneurial Leaders for Education Fellowship, which will now operate from the Pahara Institute as the Pahara – Aspen Education Fellows Program. Smith will remain with Bellwether as a member of its board of directors.
“As our founding CEO Kim was instrumental in helping Bellwether launch,” said Bellwether’s Managing Partner Mary Wells. “It’s bittersweet to see her go but Pahara is an enormous opportunity to continue to develop leaders in the education sector.”
Mary Wells will assume the new role of Managing Partner in addition to her work leading Bellwether’s strategy team. Andrew Rotherham will continue to lead the thought leadership team and Bellwether’s policy work, and Monisha Lozier will continue to lead Bellwether’s talent and executive search work.
“Mary’s work and leadership at Bellwether are a big part of the momentum we have today and the impact we’re having as an organization” said Bellwether co-founder and Partner Andrew Rotherham. “The entire team is excited to see Mary in this new role as we continue to grow.”
Bellwether also announced the hiring of two new partners: Becky Crowe in Bellwether’s strategy practice and Andy Smarick on the thought leadership team. Becky has spent the past several years as a strategy consultant to philanthropic clients and state departments of education. Becky brings her ongoing work for the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the 100Kin10 STEM initiative to Bellwether. Among other previous leadership roles, Becky led Partners in School Innovation in San Francisco. Andy most recently served as Deputy Commissioner of Education in New Jersey, where he played an instrumental role in the state’s recent education reforms including improvements to the state’s charter sector and teacher evaluation system. He has also worked at the Department of Education and The White House, as well as with several D.C.-based think tanks and education organizations.
Bellwether is also adding other team members and making key promotions. Lina Bankert from Bain & Company is joining Bellwether as a Principal on the strategy team. As recognition of her substantial and growing contributions to Bellwether’s success, Bellwether has promoted Sara Mead to the role of Principal on the thought leadership team. Chad Aldeman from the U.S. Department of Education will join that team as Senior Policy Analyst, and Sarah Srivastava and Dhivya Venkataraman have joined as Consultants on the strategy team.
Bellwether Education Partners is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the achievement of low-income students by cultivating, advising, and placing a robust community of innovative, effective, and sustainable change agents in public education reform and improving the policy climate for their work. Bellwether’s team of more than 20 professionals operates from Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. To learn more about Bellwether’s work and team please visit http://bellwethereducation.org.