Elliot Weinbaum

Elliot leads the Foundation’s core grantmaking activities, working with the Creative Communities, Great Learning, and Watershed Protection programs to identify innovative new streams of work, advance cross-programmatic opportunities, and ensure impactful grantmaking.

Previously, Elliot served as the Director of our Great Learning program for almost nine years, leading our efforts to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for students in Philadelphia.

Prior to joining the Foundation in 2013, Elliot was an Associate Commissioner at the U.S. Department of Education, where he oversaw the federally funded Regional Educational Laboratories and the What Works Clearinghouse. He also spent more than a decade at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, where he was a researcher and member of the faculty. While at Penn, he studied the impacts of federal and state policies on the work of teachers and administrators.

A product of Philadelphia’s public schools, Elliot received his Ph.D. in education policy from the University of Pennsylvania and his B.A. from Yale University. Elliot recently served as an Eisenhower Fellow, studying education policy and improvement efforts in cities across China.