Dear John,

I am thrilled to announce the appointment of Liz Cohen as 50CAN’s new Vice President of Policy. Liz joins us from FutureEd at Georgetown University, our partner in the AdvocacyLabs series, where she has been instrumental in creating and driving insightful analysis and innovative ideas within the education sector.

With nearly two decades of experience as a policy director, analyst and advisor, Liz has a distinguished track record of working to uncover and understand the policies that will expand opportunities for students and enhance K-12 education overall. As FutureEd’s Director of Policy, she provided expert analysis that helped shape the post-Covid educational landscape. In particular, Liz’s research and writing on tutoring as a response to learning loss was essential to many of the state-based programs we’ve seen, and which she details in her upcoming book, The Future of Tutoring: Lessons from 10,000 School District Tutoring Initiatives, available in September from Harvard Education Press.

Born and raised in Portland, OR, Liz graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and holds a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy. As our state campaigns tackle their next round of challenges, and we work to expand our coalition for change, Liz's commitment to educational opportunity and strategic approach to policy development make her an ideal fit to lead our policy efforts.

Liz has worked as an analyst and advisor for foundations, districts and nonprofit organizations in the K-12 education space, first at the District of Columbia Public Schools’ Office of Data and Accountability and then at the Office of the State Superintendent in the District of Columbia. She has also worked at Whiteboard Advisors; the Urban Institute; the Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness and was a strategic data fellow at Harvard University’s Center for Education Policy Research. She currently serves on the Strategic Data Project Alumni Advisory Board and the Maryland READS Expert Advisory Delegation; she also previously served on the board of Sela Public Charter School in Washington, D.C.

Please join me in warmly welcoming Liz Cohen to the 50CAN family. We want to help the education system of the future emerge, and we believe Liz will play an essential role for us in making that happen.