Brooke Stafford-Brizard is Senior Vice President for Innovation & Impact at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. As an educator, researcher, and philanthropic leader, Stafford-Brizard has spent the past three decades focused on bringing a more holistic approach, grounded in the science of learning and development, to schools and classrooms. Most recently, she served as Vice President for Research to Practice at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. There, she led the organization’s grantmaking in education to support researchers, educators, and policymakers in their efforts to transform our education system toward one grounded in whole child development. Throughout Stafford-Brizard’s career, she has served in a range of scholarly and practice-focused roles, including serving as Director of Data Strategy and Evaluation at the New York City Department of Education’s District 79. While in Rochester, NY, she co-founded an all-girls public charter school. She began her career as a middle school teacher in the Bronx.

As a well-respected expert in the learning sciences field, Stafford-Brizard regularly contributes opinion pieces, talks, and papers focused on holistic student development. She is a Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow and a member of the Aspen Institute’s Global Leadership Network. She holds a PhD in cognitive science in education from Columbia University.