Dr. Michael McAfee, President and CEO of PolicyLink, to join Transcend’s Board of Directors

New York, NY, May 4, 2021— Transcend, a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to support communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments, announced the addition of Dr. Michael McAfee to their Board of Directors. Dr. McAfee becomes the eleventh board member for the organization, joining leaders from New Profit, the New Schools Venture Fund, and Digital Promise, among others.

“Dr. McAfee’s results-driven leadership, vision around equity and race, and experience supporting transformational change will be invaluable to Transcend as we grow and partner with communities across the country,” shared Jeff Wetzler, co-founder of Transcend. “We appreciate Dr. McAfee’s willingness to offer his guidance and expertise to our organization as we expand our impact to include policy influence and other forms of systems change.”

Dr. McAfee is the president and CEO of PolicyLink, a national research and action institute advancing racial and economic equity by Lifting Up What Works. He is well known for his results-driven leadership, depth of knowledge about building and sustaining organizations, and devotion to partnering with the nation’s most underserved populations. Before joining PolicyLink, Dr. McAfee served as senior community planning and development representative in the Chicago Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  He has also served in the United States Army and as Dean’s Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dr. McAfee earned his doctorate of education from George Washington University  in human and organizational learning and completed Harvard University’s Executive Program in Public Management.

Transcend’s Board of Directors as of May 5, 2021 includes:

• Jean-Claude Brizard (Board Chair); CEO of Digital Promise
• Trevor Brown; Managing Partner, Portfolio Investing for New Profit
• Stacey Childress; CEO of the New Schools Venture Fund
• Angel L. Morales; Founder and CEO of Morales Capital
• Gerard Robinson; Vice President for Education Advanced Studies in Culture Foundation
• Vanessa Rodriguez; Chief Program Officer of Citizens of the World Charter Schools
• Bror Saxberg; Vice President of Learning Science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
• Diane Tavenner; Co-founder and CEO of Summit Public Schools
• Aylon Samouha; Co-founder of Transcend
• Jeff Wetzler; Co-founder of Transcend

About Transcend

Transcend is a non profit organization that works in partnership with over 200 schools and 50 systems which collectively serve nearly 500,000 students in 30 states across the country. Founded in 2015, Transcend’s mission is to support communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments. As an R&D hub for the field, Transcend provides schools and systems with research-backed, community-driven models and capacity so they can make significant leaps to reimagine the future of education.

For more information, visit the  website or follow Transcend on  LinkedIn or Twitter.