Andrea Zayas is Chief of Collaboration & Partnerships of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the charter school movement.

Andrea advised philanthropy, nonprofits, and schools through her consulting firm, Upstream Education for several years, designing novel strategies and leading change. Prior to consulting, Andrea worked for the Ballmer Group as National Director for K12 where she developed and executed the organization’s education portfolio strategy. In 2018, Andrea joined the Boston Public Schools and led the district through the pandemic as Chief Academic Officer and solidified the district’s commitment to the science of reading and the passage of college and career aligned graduation policy. Andrea previously worked at the KIPP Foundation where she led professional learning for the network’s C-suite leaders. Earlier in her career, she founded La Cima Charter School, a dual-language and social justice focused charter in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. She served as a charter authorizer in the Klein-Bloomberg administration in NYC writing the city’s first charter accountability handbook and taught in arts and literacy classrooms in the South Bronx.

She began her work with charter schools managing start-ups for an Education Management Organization, partnering with BIPOC led nonprofits to support them in opening the school of their dreams. Entrepreneurship, community, and justice are core values that drive Andrea’s work. She was appointed by President Biden as Commissioner of the White House Initiative for Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics, and currently serves on the board of Propeller, a nonprofit that helps entrepreneurs grow their nonprofits and small businesses to tackle social and environmental disparities in New Orleans.

She earned her bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University, her master’s from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and is a Doctoral Candidate in Urban Education Leadership at Xavier University of Louisiana.