ConnectED: The National Center for College and Career, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students’ economic and educational mobility through college preparatory curricula integrated with career-connected learning experiences, is thrilled to announce Dr. Ash Vasudeva as its next President and CEO, starting January 1, 2025.

Ash brings to ConnectED a deep commitment to growing the number of underserved students that make it to and through college prepared for success in work, family, and life. With a long history of organizational leadership in the non-profit and philanthropic sectors, Ash combines expertise as a science teacher, researcher, policy analyst, network builder, and published author. He is a skilled communicator, collaborator, and consensus builder— ready to lead ConnectED and our dedicated staff to the next stage of service to educators, students, parents, employers and key community stakeholders building systems of high-quality college and career pathways.

Ash comes to ConnectED from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, where he has served as Senior Vice President since 2022 and Vice President from 2016-2022. While there, in collaboration with the Carnegie President and Board of Directors, he developed two strategic priorities to guide the Foundation’s work over the next decade: (1) improve educational outcomes for marginalized students and (2) address educational inequities that impede economic mobility and exacerbate racial inequality. To address these priorities, Ash developed and launched multi-year national district leadership networks to support systems transformation for scaling engaging and effective instructional designs. He also developed and launched a national improvement-leadership development initiative with eleven higher education institutions and LEA partners designed to strengthen capabilities for solving enduring problems of practice within school systems.

Gary Hoachlander, Founder and outgoing President of ConnectED says: “I met and had the pleasure of working with Ash in 2008 when he was at the Stanford Redesign Network. Was so impressed then with his understanding of school transformation, especially the importance of bringing rigor and relevance to both academic and career and technical classrooms with much greater emphasis on real world application, experiential learning, and performance assessment. Since then, he has only deepened this understanding and commitment to preparing all young people for lasting success in college, career, and life. Am honored that he will be leading ConnectED forward!”

Ash Vasudeva says: “I am delighted to succeed founding President and CEO, Gary Hoachlander, who has long recognized that high-quality college & career pathways are essential to organizing high schools for student engagement, motivation, and relevance. I am excited to build on and extend ConnectEd’s expertise and evidence in building Linked Learning pathways between high schools, post-secondary institutions, and employers. Leveraging policies such as the Golden State Pathways program, I am committed to expanding social, economic, and educational opportunity for students, families and communities in California and across the country.”

From 2009 to 2016, Ash served as Lead Senior Program Officer at The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he led a staff team responsible for over $75 million in grants focused on strengthening teacher supports for instructional improvement; strengthening the research base on college & career readiness; and examining the utility of performance-tasks and competency-based assessment systems vis-à-vis standardized testing. He has also served as Co-Executive Director of the Stanford University School Redesign Network. There, in collaboration with ConnectED and the James Irvine Foundation, he co-created the District Leadership Initiative for Linked Learning. Previous positions also include Senior Research Associate at WestEd and Director of Research at the Galef Institute.

Ash holds a Ph.D. in Educational Policy from the University of California, Los Angeles, and B.S. in History from Carnegie Mellon University.”