Andy Rotherham is co-founder and senior partner at Bellwether, a national nonprofit working to transform education so young people achieve outcomes that lead to fulfilling lives and thriving communities. He is known for heterodoxy, empiricism, and student-focused pragmatism, working at the intersection of research, policy, media, and practice. In addition to Bellwether, he founded or co-founded two other education organizations, served as special assistant to the president for domestic policy in the Clinton White House, and twice served on the Virginia Board of Education under governors from both parties. A longtime independent voice in national education debates, Rotherham writes the blog and newsletter Eduwonk.com and has authored more than 450 articles, papers, and book chapters, as well as authored or edited four books on education policy. His research and media work have earned national awards, and his media experience includes TIME, where he was a national education columnist, and U.S. News & World Report, where he was a contributing editor.
In addition to his writing and policy work, Rotherham serves on the boards of The 74, an education media outlet, and Classroom Champions, a nonprofit leveraging Olympic, Paralympic, and professional athletes to mentor students in Canada and the United States. He was also a founding board member of several influential education organizations including PIE-NET, NAPCS, The Mind Trust, and 74. Rotherham currently advises education nonprofits, as well as technology firms and security and threat-prevention companies. He also serves as a commissioner on the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Commission on the American Workforce and holds senior fellowships at the Progressive Policy Institute and George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development. He is on advisory boards for organizations including The Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, RAND, and the National Association of State Boards of Education’s EdTech AI Advisory Group.
Outside of his professional work, he raises tens of thousands of dollars annually for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, is an EMT, and—along with his wife, a public high school English teacher—hosts a concert series in a restored one-room schoolhouse. A father of two daughters, he lives in Virginia.