Kathleen deLaski

Kathleen deLaski is the founder and board chair of the Education Design Lab, which works with colleges, states, and employers to design shorter, more targeted forms of higher education. She is the author of the new book, "Who Needs College Anymore?" by Harvard Education Press. Kathleen serves as a senior advisor for Harvard's Project on the Workforce and teaches higher ed redesign at George Mason University. She serves on several boards, including Credential Engine and the advisory board of the Taubman Center for Cities and States at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She also manages the deLaski Family Foundation, a national grant-maker in education reform and education mobility. Kathleen has been named to Washingtonian Magazine’s list of top policy influencers in 2022, 2023, and 2024. Earlier in her career, as an executive at Fortune 500 company Sallie Mae, Kathleen founded their award-winning corporate foundation. She was a television correspondent for ABC News, covering the White House and foreign affairs, a consumer product developer in the early days of AOL, and, in the Clinton administration, the first woman to serve as chief Pentagon spokesperson.