Lea Crusey

Lea Crusey is the founder of Allies for Educational Equity, a non-partisan, grassroots-funded political action committee, with a mission to unite the political voices of education reformers so that zipcodes don't determine destinies. Lea's career to date has spanned the country and has crossed sectors. She started her career in the classroom as a Teach For America Corps Member in the Bay Area, later worked on state level advocacy for StudentsFirst, then led nationally at Democrats for Education Reform. Before launching Allies, Lea served as an Obama appointee at the US Department of Education's Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development where she advised on a P-12 education policy, with a portfolio that included teacher preparation, charter schools, Promise Neighborhoods, and literacy. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Claremont McKenna College and a master's degree in public policy from the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. Lea serves on the Board of Directors for the Washington Leadership Academy Public Charter High School, the Center for Supportive Schools, and Silver Bay YMCA of the Adirondacks. She and her husband are proud (and sometimes exasperated) parents of one toddler, and live in Washington, D.C. You can find Allies for Educational Equity on Twitter and Facebook.