Heather Graham Senior Consultant
Heather Graham has more than 15 years of experience providing strategic planning, policy analysis, advocacy, research and project management support to foundations, state and federal policymakers and non-profit organizations. Her recent projects include developing a grantmaking strategy for the Lumina Foundation’s College Prep team and working with Project LIFT(a newly-formed, non-profit focused on closing the achievement gap in West Charlotte) to develop a five-year strategic plan and year one implementation plan. In 2011, Heather provided research, planning and strategic support to North Carolina's Education Cabinet to align its goals and operations with the implementation of its Race to the Top award and to develop a statewide STEM plan.
Previously, Heather served as a Program Officer with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she managed a $30 million portfolio that included education advocacy grantees in California, Texas and North Carolina. In that capacity she provided strategic and business planning, operations and governance advice and support to grantees, and developed major funding coalitions with national, regional and local foundations to support college and career readiness. Prior to joining the Gates Foundation, Heather served as a Vice President with Teach For America, a White House Fellow with the Domestic Policy Council, and a Program Associate with the Annie E. Casey Foundation where she managed a portfolio of investments in the areas of education and family economic success.
Heather spent a year in Chengdu, China as a Henry Luce Scholar, working with the Minister of Education, and she also worked for CARE Peru supporting the organization's micro-enterprise programs. She began her career as a middle school teacher in the South Bronx with Teach For America.
Heather earned her master's degree in Public Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and her bachelor's degree with honors from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She speaks Spanish and French, and conversational Mandarin Chinese. Heather sits on the boards of the Maureen Joy Public Charter School, Habitat For Humanity-Durham, the Center for International Understanding, and the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research. She lives in Durham, North Carolina with her husband and two children.