Senior Director for Educational Issues, American Federation of Teachers

Marla Ucelli-Kashyap is senior director for educational issues at the 1.8 million member American Federation of Teachers (AFT), where she serves as strategic advisor to AFT President Randi Weingarten and leads a 30-person team supporting local unions across the country to improve education quality and their profession. Focus areas include expanding community schools, spreading evidence-based reading instruction, professional learning across the curriculum and teacher leadership programs. Her leadership portfolio includes AFT’s signature professional conferences and training programs, its award-winning Share My Lesson professional learning platform and the AFT Innovation Fund.

Previously, Marla was director of district redesign and leadership at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University and served as a senior program officer at the Rockefeller Foundation, where she was responsible for the Foundation’s efforts to improve education and development for school children in urban communities. She has also been an education policy consultant, a governor’s education advisor, a reporter and a trusted advisor to leaders at all levels of government and philanthropy. She holds degrees from New York University and Rutgers.

Marla served multiple terms on the board of Editorial Projects in Education, Inc. (Education Week) and was founding co-chair of Grantmakers for Education. She currently serves on the boards of the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, The Learning First Alliance and the Literacy Design Collaborative, and in several other advisory roles. Marla has received awards and honors for her work in philanthropy, in supporting the next generation of educators and for her long-time service as a community college trustee.