Linda Darling-Hammond stands as a preeminent leader in education policy and equity research with a career spanning over four decades of transformative work. She currently serves as Chief Knowledge Officer at the Learning Policy Institute, which she founded in 2015 and led as President and CEO until 2025, and holds the position of Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University. Her distinguished career began in the classroom as a public school teacher, during which she co-founded both a preschool and a public high school, establishing her commitment to practical, community-based educational solutions. Prior to her tenure at Stanford, she served as Director of the RAND Corporation's education program and as an endowed professor at Columbia University's Teachers College, bringing extensive research and policy experience to her academic roles.
Dr. Darling-Hammond's groundbreaking research has fundamentally reshaped understanding of teacher quality, educational equity, and school reform, with her influential 1996 report What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future identified as one of the most significant educational policy documents of its decade. She has authored or edited more than 25 books and over 500 articles, including The Flat World and Education, which received the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in 2012 for its transformative analysis of how educational equity determines national prosperity. Her pioneering work developing performance assessments for teachers, including contributions to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and co-founding the Performance Assessment for California Teachers, has established new standards for evaluating teaching effectiveness in authentic classroom settings. These evidence-based frameworks have been instrumental in shaping teacher preparation and certification policies across multiple states, directly impacting millions of students through improved instructional quality.
As a trusted advisor to policymakers at the highest levels, Dr. Darling-Hammond led President Obama's education policy transition team in 2008 and President Biden's transition team in 2020, demonstrating her unparalleled influence on national education strategy. Her exceptional contributions have been recognized with numerous honors including the 2022 Yidan Prize for Education Research, membership in both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Education, and fourteen honorary degrees from institutions worldwide. Currently, she continues to advance educational equity through initiatives like EdPrepLab, which connects teacher preparation programs with research and policy to strengthen educator development. Through her ongoing leadership at the Learning Policy Institute, Dr. Darling-Hammond remains at the forefront of efforts to translate rigorous research into actionable policies that ensure equitable, high-quality education for all students.
