Background:
Carrie Chimerine Irvin is a senior adviser and Governance leader with Bellwether in the Strategic Advising practice area.
Carrie’s career has focused on improving quality and equity in public education. 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. In 2023, EBP became part of Bellwether; Carrie leads Bellwether’s Governance practice, working 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.
