Kelly James provides strategic and capacity-building support to philanthropists, advocates, and education leaders at the state and district levels. An expert in education advocacy and grantmaking effectiveness, she helps partners build coherent, equity-centered strategies that drive systemic improvement and advance opportunity for students.
At Education First, Kelly leads major philanthropic learning networks and collaboratives that strengthen the field’s capacity to invest with impact. She supports a group of California funders focused on improving outcomes for emerging bilingual learners; facilitates the Place-Based Funders Learning Network and Literacy Funder Collaborative to align strategies and investments; and designs the firm’s Funder Dialogue Series which connects funders for peer learning on timely issues such as chronic absenteeism, artificial intelligence, and responsive grantmaking. She also co-founded and helps lead the Peer Learning Collective, a national cohort model that supports nonprofit leaders in navigating policy shifts through scenario planning, strategic analysis, and collaborative learning.
Kelly’s commitment to educational equity began early and continues to guide her work. As an undergraduate at the College of Wooster and later at the University of Chicago Law School, she focused on how systems can better serve Black students with learning differences and examined The No Child Left Behind Act in the context of the constitutional right to an adequate education. Her career has spanned philanthropy, law, and community leadership—including roles at the Raikes and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations, Karr Tuttle Campbell, Chicago SCORES, and the Steans Family Foundation.
