Michelle Boyers is the CEO of the Give Forward Foundation which works to improve education in low-income school districts in the Bay Area of California. She and a team have recently launched the Bay Ed Fund, a community investment fund designed to invest significant capacity building and financial resources in low-performing school systems in the region with the goal of significant and sustained improvement in student outcomes. Previously, Michelle worked for five years as a Director at the Schusterman Foundation, a national philanthropic foundation focused on developing and supporting high quality teachers and principals in urban schools.
Prior to her work in philanthropy, Michelle spent most of her career in leadership roles in the public schools in New York City and Boston. Michelle served as the Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources for the Boston Public Schools where she oversaw the recruitment, hiring, support and HR services for nearly 10,000 school leaders, teachers and other school and central office staff. She also helped to lead the turnaround of one of Boston’s lowest performing schools, Orchard Gardens K-8 School in Roxbury, as both the Chief Operating Officer and Chair of the Board. Orchard Gardens became one of the top schools in the state in terms of combined math and reading growth and was nationally recognized for its performance by the Obama administration. Michelle has consulted to education non-profits, school districts and state departments of education on improving human capital management and teacher effectiveness.
She also helped to launch Teach Plus, a national non-profit whose mission is to empower teachers to lead systemic change in urban schools. Early in her career, Michelle worked for the NYC public school system as Director of Strategic Partnerships and as a Partner at New Profit Inc., a nonprofit venture philanthropy fund. She also spent several years in private equity investing and investment banking out of college. Michelle has a BA from Ohio Wesleyan University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She serves on the boards of the Bay Ed Fund, NewSchools Venture Fund, Leading Educators, Ravenswood Education Foundation, Teach For America – Bay Area, and Tipping Point.