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in change

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Heidi Black

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blackh@strivetogether.org
Senior Director of Innovation, Collaborative Improvement

As senior director of innovation, collaborative improvement, Heidi builds capacities for place-based partnerships across the country.

Heidi has developed a unique approach combining tools and techniques from continuous improvement, design thinking, Results Count™ and equity. She supports communities to apply StriveTogether’s improvement strategies toward key outcomes, including kindergarten readiness, high school graduation and postsecondary enrollment.

Heidi has spent her career in education. For six years, she taught fourth- and fifth-grade students in a public school district outside of Boston, Mass. After leaving the classroom, Heidi moved to Washington, D.C., to work in the U.S. House of Representatives as a policy aide and scheduler. While working for multiple members of Congress, she analyzed legislation and developed policy recommendations for health and education issues. Most recently, Heidi was the Ohio education policy advocacy projects coordinator at KnowledgeWorks, responsible for education policy research, grant writing and project management, as well as managing a strategic alliance of superintendents and union presidents from Ohio’s eight urban school districts.

Heidi has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Skidmore College and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction with focus on literacy from Lesley University’s School of Education. She lives in Cincinnati with her husband and twin daughters.

hear from heidi

Communities in the cradle to career network are working to improve systems that impact youth and families. Share why one adjacent sector is important to you.

Public transit! Similar to education, every person should have access to high quality transportation — be it public or personal. The ability to get to work, home, school or anywhere else should not be limited by income or zip code. Serving on the board of the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority allows me to play a role in supporting that vision in Cincinnati.

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