Ann Rubenstein Tisch

Ann Rubenstein Tisch is the Founder and President of Student Leadership Network (SLN), an organization that operates The Young Women's Leadership Schools (TYWLS), a network of all-girls public schools, and CollegeBound Initiative (CBI), a co-ed college access program.

Ann's vision was to provide students growing up in low-income communities with a high-quality college preparatory education modeled upon the finest private schools. In 1996, Ann partnered with the New York City Board of Education to open The Young Women's Leadership School of East Harlem, the first public all-girls school to open in the United States in 30 years. SLN now serves five high-performing Young Women's Leadership Schools in New York City, serving more than 2,400 students.

The success of =SLN has inspired the opening of countless single-sex schools nationwide, including 13 SLN affiliates nationwide, including Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, and Texas. Shortly after SLN of East Harlem was opened, CBI was created to provide comprehensive college guidance programming. CBI now serves more than 18,000 low-income students at 36 high-need public schools in New York City.

A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Ms. Rubenstein Tisch began a 19-year career in broadcast journalism at WIBW-TV in Topeka, Kansas. She then moved to WCOO-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota and later joined NBC Network News as a National Correspondent. As a National Correspondent, Ms. Rubenstein Tisch developed a strong interest in educational issues. After covering dozens of education stories for the network, as well as reading and studying data on single-sex education, she was inspired to create an all-girls inner city public school to serve disadvantaged families.

In 1996, with the unanimous approval of the New York City Board of Education, Ms. Rubenstein Tisch turned her idea into a reality and opened The Young Women’s Leadership School of East Harlem.

Ms. Rubenstein Tisch was educated at Washington University in St. Louis, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Psychology and Sociology. She currently serves as a Trustee on the Board of Washington University in St. Louis. She also serves on the Dean’s Council of The New York University Tisch School of the Arts and is a Trustee of the Center for Educational Innovation. She is currently consulting with many school districts and parent groups across the country about creating schools similar to The Young Women’s Leadership Schools.