United States

Jeannie Oakes

Director New York

Jeannie Oakes is Ford's director of the Educational Opportunity and Scholarship programs. Her U.S. and global portfolio focuses on transforming the quality of secondary schools and helping students from poor and marginalized communities gain access to quality higher education. The foundation's education grant making also supports the next generation of researchers and public intellectuals whose scholarship will help inform public policy on issues of social justice.

Jeannie joined the Ford Foundation in 2008. Previously, she was Presidential Professor in Educational Equity at UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, where she directed UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access and the University of California's All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity. Jeannie's scholarship examines the impact of social policies on the educational opportunities and outcomes of low-income students of color. She is a member of the National Academy of Education.

She is the author of 20 scholarly books and monographs and more than 125 journal articles, book chapters and research reports. Her book, "Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality" (Yale University Press, 2005) has been honored as one of the 20th century's most influential books on education. She has also received many prestigious awards recognizing her academic distinction.

Jeannie has a Ph.D. in education from UCLA and holds a California certification as a secondary school English teacher.