The essential question animating Jeff’s career — whether in working with children, educators, or executives — has always been: how can we create learning experiences that are deep, powerful, and enduring?
In 2015, Jeff co-founded Transcend, together with Aylon Samouha. Transcend supports communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments. Prior to Transcend, Jeff spent a decade in senior leadership roles at Teach For America, a national nonprofit dedicated to educational opportunities for all children. For the majority of that time, Jeff served as Chief Learning Officer and EVP of Teacher Preparation, Support, and Development, where his teams focused on optimizing the training and ongoing support of TFA’s thousands of corps members nationally. Before that, Jeff worked at Monitor Group, an international consulting firm, where he advised executives, focusing on strategy, adult learning, and organizational development. Jeff recently authored the book Ask: Tap Into the Hidden Wisdom of People Around You for Unexpected Breakthroughs in Leadership and Life.
Jeff was a founding board member of Leadership Prep Charter Schools and has served on the boards of Uncommon Schools NYC and the National Academy of Advanced Teacher Education. Most recently, he served as board chair of New Classrooms Innovation Partners.
Jeff is a Fellow in the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellowship and is a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network as well as an Edmund Hillary Fellow. He earned a doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University, where his dissertation research examined how to apply design thinking to advance innovation in education systems. Jeff earned a bachelor’s in psychology from Brown University, where he co-founded and taught extensively through Providence Science Outreach, equipping university students to do hands-on STEM learning with teachers and children in local schools. During his time at Brown, Jeff also studied under Ted Sizer, whose beliefs about learning and school design profoundly shaped his worldview. Jeff lives in New York with his wife and two kids, who constantly fuel his inspiration and urgency in this work. More about Jeff’s background, values, and beliefs about education can be found in this interview, this podcast, and this talk he gave at Google.
Continue Your Journey
Leaps for Equitable, 21st-Century Learning
Transcend’s Leaps for Equitable, 21st-Century Learning describes the key ways we believe the student experience must change so that schools can prepare all young people to thrive in and transform the world.
Transform Learning with Community-Based Design
Community-based design is a collaborative and local process that brings together young people, educators, administrators, caregivers, and experts to redesign learning. It goes beyond traditional school improvement initiatives by involving the entire community in reshaping...
