Ambika Kapur is a program director within the Corporation’s Education program where she manages the Public Understanding portfolio. Kapur oversees grantmaking aimed at engaging parents, communities, teachers, and policymakers in understanding and demanding changes in education that ensure that all students develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions they need for future success.
Previously, Kapur served as officer of Special Projects in the National Program, overseeing the budget, coordinating program strategies and grantmaking, and providing critical support to the vice president on strategic priorities. Kapur also managed grantmaking and communications activities for Next Generation Science Standards development and mobilization. She led the Corporation’s commitment to the Common Core Communications Collaborative, with the goal of enabling strategic communications efforts across states and nationally in support of the implementation of the Common Core Standards.
Kapur also served as program manager in the Dissemination Program, a catalytic fund to amplify and reinforce major Corporation-wide program and institutional goals. Her work at the Corporation included key contributions to the Journalism Initiative, which aimed to revitalize journalism education in the United States.
Prior to joining the Corporation, Kapur worked at the Women’s Educational Equity Act Resource Center at the Education Development Center in Boston where she did quantitative and qualitative research on educational equity issues within the U.S. and internationally.
Kapur was born in Calcutta. She has a BA in international relations from Wellesley College and an MA in international education development from Teachers College at Columbia University. She sits on the advisory Board of Youth Truth, a national survey project operated by the Center for Effective Philanthropy, and is cochair of the advisory board of the Collaborative for Student Success.
