Independent Women’s Forum is delighted to announce that Nina Shokraii Rees, president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, is the latest in our popular series of Champion Women profiles.

Rees played a key role in the George W. Bush Education Department. She oversaw the implementation of the first federally funded school voucher program, which became Washington, D.C.’s enormously successful Opportunity Scholarship Program.

Last year was particularly challenging for the public charter school movement. Because of the 2018 elections, the movement faced a “fiercely hostile” climate in several states, including California, once a charter school pioneer but now moving towards restrictions on school choice.

But Rees is used to opposition. At the age of 14, the Iranian-born school choice advocate spent 48 hours in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison. She had not been sufficiently covered to meet the standards of the Islamic Republic. Her parents had no idea where she was. “It was scary for me. But it was probably scarier for my parents,” recalls Rees

We know you will enjoy meeting this dynamic woman and learning about how her own educational experiences in the United States prepared her for a career in the public charter movement.