Jonah Edelman

Jonah Edelman is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Stand for Children. Under his leadership, Stand for Children has become a significant political voice for students in the United States, with nine state affiliates that implement effective dropout prevention strategies, expanded career technical education, and improved college preparation. The organization also focuses on increasing access to quality early childhood education, improving literacy instruction and interventions, increasing funding equity and adequacy, and improving school quality in communities with a concentration of chronically low-performing schools.

Stand for Children achieves scaled impact through championing evidence-based policies and targeted investments; ensuring the policies and investments championed reach the classroom and help children, and are sustained over time; empowering families to effectively support and advocate for their children’s education; and electing candidates to school boards, state legislature, and other key offices who will support priority solutions. Under Edelman's guidance, the organization has been instrumental in the passage of key laws to improve public schools in six states: Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Washington. Moreover, Stand for Children has a notable 85% success rate in electing state legislative candidates, with campaign volunteers reaching 55,000 targeted voters in four states during the 2010 elections.

Edelman’s commitment to children began during his college years, when he taught a six-year-old bilingual child to read and went on to found a mentorship program for middle school students. He also served as an administrator of Leadership Education and Athletics in Partnership (LEAP), an enrichment program for children living in public housing. He graduated from Yale University and attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, earning master's and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in politics. Recognized on Time.com as one of the nation’s top eleven education activists in 2011, Edelman continues to be a prominent voice in discussions about the future of public education in the United States and education reform and innovation.