Andrea Zayas is joining the Ballmer Group as its national director of K-12 education.
Zayas arrives at the Ballmer Group after more than three years with Boston Public Schools, where she most recently served as chief academic officer overseeing the progress of the district’s 55,000 students. Before that, she was in Louisiana working as founding executive director of the New Orleans Youth Alliance (NOYA).
A seasoned executive and entrepreneur at heart, Zayas’ career took off when she founded La Cima Elementary Charter School in Brooklyn, New York. She would go on to serve as principal and executive director for more than six years before taking a job as director of regional leader development at the KIPP Foundation.
After two years there, Zayas moved down South to New Orleans. She would soon found Upstream Education Consulting and serve for three years as CEO and principal consultant. It was after this that she moved on to NOYA.
Zayas holds a master’s degree in education administration from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in visual art and art history from Rutgers University. Still continuing her own learning, she is currently a doctor of education candidate in urban education leadership at Xavier University of Louisiana.
In a news release from the Ballmer Group the organization expressed its enthusiasm for Zayas’ joining: “We are excited to add Andrea’s expertise and skills to our team, and we look forward to her entrepreneurial, action-oriented leadership helping to shape our impact as we grow our commitment to educational equity.”
Andrea Zayas begins work crafting and leading the Ballmer Group’s national education strategies and grantmaking immediately, focusing on helping disadvantaged students progress in the face of persistent systemic inequities.
