Background
Carrie Chimerine Irvin is an executive adviser at Bellwether.
Carrie’s career has focused on improving quality and equity in public education, and she is an expert in Bellwether’s work on district and charter systems and governance.
In 2010, she co-founded Charter Board Partners (later known as Education Board Partners, or EBP), the only national nonprofit focused on strengthening the boards of public charter schools and education nonprofits. The organization recruited, trained, and supported hundreds of board members and school leaders across the country before becoming a part of Bellwether in 2023. At Bellwether, Carrie works with staff and clients to continue to raise awareness of the importance of effective boards and provide support to education boards nationwide.Â
Carrie’s work has been featured in Education Week, The Washington Post, and Education Next. She also delivered a TEDx talk about her innovative work to improve the quality of public education through improving governance. Earlier in her career, she analyzed federal education policy, shaped innovative school design programs, and taught 8th-grade social studies.Â
Carrie chaired the Board of Trustees of the National Child Research Center, and served on the founding boards of School Board Partners and the Georgetown University Child and Adolescent Mental Health Advisory Council.
Carrie holds a master’s degree in education policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a bachelor’s degree from Brown University. She is a Pahara-Aspen Institute Education Fellow and member of the inaugural cohort of the Joyful Impact Accelerator. An avid runner, enthusiastic baker, and proud mom of two grown daughters and one high-strung dog, Carrie lives in the Washington, D.C. area.
Why I Do This Work
Education is our most powerful tool against poverty, ignorance, apathy, violence, despair, and hate. Access to education completely changed my father’s life, and thus my life and my daughters’ lives. Opening access to excellent schools is the civil, civic, and human rights issue of our time.
Focus Areas
District and Charter Systems and Governance
Organizational Sustainability
Place-Based Approaches
Contact Information
carrie.irvin@bellwether.org
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