Plenary Speaker
Carina Wong is currently the Deputy Director of Education for the College Ready Work Team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Her portfolio is focused on dramatically improving student achievement by investing in teachers—helping them improve their practice, scaling those practices through virtual and viral networks, and helping districts redesign their professional development systems so that they are more responsive, real-time and relevant to teacher’s needs. Her team has made it a priority to find serious teacher time during the school day to allow for more collaborative, teacher-led professional development. Five years ago, she launched the Literacy and Math Design Collaboratives for the Foundation and these teacher-designed tools continue to scale broadly across a variety of teacher networks, districts and states. Prior to the Gates Foundation, she was the Executive Director of the Chez Panisse Foundation in Berkeley, CA. She has worked in education for over 20 years and held leadership positions at the national, state and district levels. Carina served as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in South Africa and is a mother of three young children.
