Shape academic models, curricula, programs, and assessment, grounded in learning science and the student experience.
- Academic models and curricula
- Programs and assessment
- Faculty development
PK–12 · Higher education · Mission-driven organizations
Strategic partners to schools and universities.
ElevateED’s team has led ambitious learning institutions worldwide for decades. We help you build, strengthen, and reimagine yours.
35+
schools built from the ground up
Dozens
more led and transformed
300,000+
students educated
4
continents
$1B+
in educational development delivered
$100M+
raised in philanthropic support
Start where you are
Who we’re for.
We partner with leaders, boards, philanthropists, and sponsors working to strengthen education. You may be guiding a school, university, or nonprofit through growth and change, renewing an institution’s promise for a new generation, or pursuing an idea that could expand what learning makes possible for your community.
Establish a shared direction, and the capacity to sustain it.
We work with boards and executive teams to establish a shared direction, navigate difficult tradeoffs, and strengthen the organization’s capacity to put its priorities into practice and sustain progress.
How we typically help
- Focused strategic engagements
- Organizational transformation
- Leadership, talent, and governance
Projects
Built, building, and next.
What we do
A whole institution or a single initiative.
We work alongside the people who start, lead, and steward schools, universities, and other learning organizations. Whether you are addressing a specific challenge, undertaking a major transformation, or creating something new, we bring experienced teams to help you move from decisions to action.
Learn about our services →
Set direction, evaluate opportunities, and define the priorities and capabilities needed for long-term success.
- Where to play and how to win
- Market insight and economics
- Priorities and capabilities
Align leadership, talent, systems, and resources, with support ranging from targeted improvements to full school operations.
- Leadership and talent
- Culture and governance
- Operating structures, up to full operations
Reach prospective students, families, and partners through strategies that strengthen enrollment, relationships, and participation.
- Positioning and recruitment
- Admissions
- Experiences that keep learners connected
Advance donor campaigns, structure capital, and develop financial models that sustain the mission and support growth.
- Financial models
- Philanthropic planning and campaigns
- Capital options
Deliver turnkey campuses from first drawing to opening day, and guide institutional launches and major expansions.
- Site and facilities planning
- Design and construction oversight
- Budgets and owner representation
What we believe
Strong learning institutions grow from a healthy organizational foundation.
When educators have the support to do their best work, and learners have the conditions to thrive, great learning can take hold. Great learning, in turn, is what makes an institution last, financially and otherwise. We work in that order.
How we decide · The strategy cascade
Five questions, in order, each forcing the next.
- 01What do we aspire to?Learning, full seats, a balance sheet that carries the mission
- 02Where will we play?Which families, which programs, at what price, on what campus
- 03How will we win there?Why a family, a student, or a donor chooses you
- 04What must we be great at?The capabilities those choices demand
- 05What systems make it stick?The routines and measures that keep the choices honest
How we build · From the inside out
Organization first, then learning, then campus and community.
- BUILT FIRSTOrganizationThe board that owns the school, the leader who runs it and the money that sustains it. Get this right and everything outside it has something to stand on.
- BUILT NEXTLearningThe academic model and the experience every student has, designed with learning science at the center, before anyone draws a classroom.
- BUILT LASTCampus & communityThe buildings, the families and the funding that bring a school to life, shaped around the learning rather than the other way round.
The cascade sets the choices. The inside-out sequence delivers them.
Explore the full method →Our insights
Ideas from research and practice.
Essay · AcademicsSolving the Right ProblemsAI’s greatest opportunity in education is not to automate teaching, but to strengthen how students learn. By focusing on durable learning, productive struggle, feedback, and critical thinking, AI can help educators apply proven learning science at scale. The challenge is not how powerful the technology becomes, but whether it is aimed at the right problem.Coming soonWhere to beginA short set of questions to help your board or leadership team see where to start, and what to talk through with us.Contact us →
Essay · StrategyStrategy for learning institutions
ElementsED · AI in schoolsPDFSchool Rewired: How AI Is Transforming Education
ElementsED · AcademicsPDFMaking Kids Smarter: Are We Up to the Task?Team
The visionaries who built the schools that set the standard.
ElevateED is the next chapter for a team that has spent their careers building and running exceptional schools at the institutions that set the standard. Their work includes designing and leading Avenues: The World School in New York, Green School in Bali, Dulwich College International across Asia, and Da Vinci Schools in Los Angeles, as well as teaching at High Tech High and the University of Cambridge.
Members of the team have led major philanthropic campaigns at the University of Michigan and developed the data and systems behind a nine-figure campaign at the University of Utah. They have built athletics programs at the University of Delaware and Oakland University; overseen capital projects at The Dalton School and Horace Mann; helped scale Teach For America; and developed talent systems across five Avenues campuses worldwide.
Karen Yung
Founder
Jeff Clark
Chair & CEO
Min Kim
Chief Financial and Operating Officer
Dr. Nicole Assisi
Senior Advisor
Edward Huang
Chief Innovation Officer
Chrissi Rawak
Managing Director, Advancement & Organizational Excellence
Jason Zubatkin
Managing Director, Design & Construction
Amanda Hoskins
Director, Data Strategy & Operations
Our partners
Contact us
Where to begin.
Every partnership begins with understanding what you are working toward and what stands in the way. We’ll explore the possibilities, examine what success will require, and determine where ElevateED’s experience can make the greatest contribution.
Insights by email
A short monthly email when we publish new essays, research and ElementsED issues.