Joshua Wyner

Joshua Wyner is the Executive Director of the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program, which aims to strengthen practice and develop leadership that substantially improves college student success. Started in early 2011, the Program’s first two initiatives are the New College Leadership Project, which works to create and strengthen programs that recruit and train college leaders who are driven by – and capable of – substantially improving student success, and the Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, which strives to reward and shine a spotlight on community colleges that deliver exceptional student results and stimulate replication of successful campus practices. Josh has spent 16 years as a nonprofit leader, initiating organizations aimed at improving educational outcomes and urban policy. From 2001-2009, Josh led the design and implementation of programs as Executive Vice President of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. There, he established national scholarship and grant-making programs for – and conducted original research about – high-achieving low-income students from elementary through graduate school. From 1995 to 2001, Josh was founding Executive Director of the DC Appleseed Center, which analyzes and actively seeks to resolve problems affecting the daily lives of those who live and work in the Washington, DC area. During his tenure, DC Appleseed led successful efforts to resolve Washington DC’s $5 billion unfunded pension liability and alter the structure of the DC Board of Education. Josh spent his early career as an organizer and policy analyst with Citizen Action, a program evaluator at the US Government Accountability Office, and an attorney with Beveridge & Diamond. He is a graduate of Vassar College, holds a Master’s in Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University, and is a cum laude graduate of New York University School of Law.