Paige Ponder, MBA

Paige Ponder comes to UEI with extensive experience as a nonprofit and public education leader, including years working at the Chicago Public Schools and a long history of collaboration with UEI’s Consortium on Chicago School Research and the To&Through Project. Most recently, she was Founder and CEO of Idea Jar, LLC, a consulting firm focused on helping education and social impact innovators design and execute high performing initiatives.

As CEO of One Million Degrees, Ponder developed and scaled a fledgling nonprofit organization with an innovative model to accelerate low-income community college students’ progress on career pathways to economic mobility. She led the organization through a period of dramatic growth and launched a rigorous evaluation to measure its impact.

At CPS, Ponder was Officer of Student Support and Engagement, and as Director of Graduation Pathways, she led initiatives to increase high school graduation rates, and closely collaborated with UEI to identify factors impacting student outcomes.

Ponder has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, and a BA from the Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs. 

Ponder will provide strategic leadership and operational oversight to UEI’s initiatives. She will be responsible for driving excellence in research, fostering collaboration, managing resources, engaging with policymakers and thought leaders on key challenges in public education, and building and maintaining strategic partnerships. Ponder will play a major role in representing UEI to external stakeholders, including industry partners, government agencies, philanthropic organizations, and the academic community.