The royal edition

Alyssa Schwenk is the director of external relations at the Fordham Institute, where she leads Fordham’s outreach and messaging to outside audiences, including the media, policymakers, others in the education-policy sphere, and the funding community. Alyssa started her education career at a Ward 5 D.C. charter school via Teach For America, where she learned that everything important in life can be learned in…

Robert Pondiscio is a senior visiting fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI)

He writes and speaks extensively on education and education-reform issues, with an emphasis on literacy, curriculum, civic education, and classroom practice. His 2019 book, How the Other Half Learns, based on a year of observations at New York City’s Success Academy…

Amber Northern is senior vice president for research at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, where she supervises the Institute’s robust research portfolio and…

Clara Allen is the Development and Staff Assistant at the Fordham Institute, where she assists with grant-writing initiatives, contributes to the operations team and manages Fordham's events. Prior to joining Fordham, she graduated cum laude from Davidson College with a bachelor of science in psychology and a minor in educational studies. She has experience working in various development capacities with the American…