Wendy Kopp

Wendy Kopp
Kopp at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in 2012
Born	Wendy Sue Kopp (1967-06-29) June 29, 1967 (age 49) Austin, TX
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Princeton University
Occupation	Founder, Teach For America CEO and Co-Founder, Teach For All

Founder, Teach For America

Wendy Sue Kopp (born June 29, 1967) is the CEO and Co-Founder of Teach For All, a global network of independent nonprofit organizations working to expand educational opportunity in their own countries and the Founder of Teach For America (TFA), a national teaching corps.

Wendy Kopp attended Highland Park High School in Dallas, Texas and later was an undergraduate in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton in 1989 and was a member of Princeton's Business Today and the University Press Club.

In 1989, Kopp proposed the creation of Teach For America in her undergraduate thesis at Princeton University. She was advised in her thesis by senior sociology professor Marvin Bressler. She was convinced that many in her generation were searching for a way to assume a significant responsibility that would make a real difference in the world and that top college students would choose teaching over more lucrative opportunities if a prominent teacher corps existed.

Shortly after graduating from Princeton, Kopp founded Teach For America. In 1990, 500 recent college graduates joined Teach For America’s charter corps.

In 2007, Kopp founded Teach For All, a global network of independent nonprofit organizations that apply the same model as Teach For America in other countries.

In 2013, Kopp transitioned out of the role of CEO of Teach For America and named Elisa Villanueva Beard and Matt Kramer as co-CEOs of the organization. Villanueva Beard assumed full leadership in September 2015. Today, Kopp remains an active member of Teach For America's board.

Kopp chronicled her experiences at Teach For America in two books, One Day, All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach For America and What I Learned Along the Way and A Chance To Make History: What Works and What Doesn't in Providing an Excellent Education For All.