Leslie Cornfeld

Background

About Leslie Cornfeld

Ms. Cornfeld has devoted her career to advancing equity and opportunity for our nation’s underserved communities — through their schools, justice systems, and unconventional partners. A former federal civil rights prosecutor, senior Obama administration official, advising two U.S. Secretaries of Education and the White House for the President’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative, and a two-term advisor for former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, she is currently the CEO and founder of the National Education Equity Lab, an education justice nonprofit committed to leveling the playing field for historically underserved students, at scale. She previously taught at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and started her career as an aide to former U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan in Washington DC. Ms. Cornfeld has a strong track record of designing and leading high-profile, cross-sector efforts to tackle pressing social and community challenges. A Washington Post editorial praised the effort she led in NYC schools to address truancy and chronic absenteeism as “an example of what’s possible,” and the U.S. Conference of Mayors called it a “model for other cities.” Ms. Cornfeld serves as a trustee for numerous non-profit boards, including the Children’s Defense Fund for over a decade (former trustee), the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Alliance for Excellent Education, the Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior, the Hospital for Special Surgery, and recently served on the Brookings Institute Task Force on Next Gen Community Schools. She founded a public speaking and advocacy program for East Harlem girls and has served for the past decade as an active coach and mentor to a large group of extraordinary young women who recently began college. Her articles and op-ed pieces have appeared in many publications, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, Newsweek, the NY Law Journal, and Huffington Post; she is a frequent speaker on education equity, civic engagement, and policing, and has been featured on numerous national news and media programs on these topics. A proud graduate of Broward County public schools, Ms. Cornfeld graduated from Harvard College, Phi Beta Kappa, and Harvard Law School. She attributes her career path to her high school English teacher who remains the most inspiring teacher she ever had. She has two children and lives in New York City.