Alison Badgett

Alison Badgett is associate dean and director of the PKG Public Service Center, where she helps PKG, and the MIT community, pursue a vision for public service education informed by the Institute’s culture of innovation and commitment to social impact. She has over 20 years of experience leading public policy and nonprofit organizations, most recently serving as executive director of the Petey Greene Program, which recruits volunteers from 30 universities to tutor justice-impacted students in 50 prisons and reentry programs, while educating volunteers on the injustice of our prison system and encouraging volunteers and students to advocate for reforms.

Previously, she was executive director of Raise Your Hand Texas, an organization that identifies breakthrough ideas to improve education, piloting them in schools and supporting the conditions and public policies that allow them to scale. During her tenure, the organization launched a five-year, $10 million initiative to showcase and scale blended learning, and a 10-year, $50 million initiative to improve teacher preparation and the status of teaching. Before leading Raise Your Hand Texas, Alison was executive director of several organizations related to housing and homelessness in New York and New Jersey, during which time she developed a demonstration program to permanently house the chronically homeless that served as a model for replication. She was also senior policy advisor to the governor of New Jersey, providing counsel on land use, redevelopment, and housing.

Alison writes on civic education and social change, and is the founder of the consulting firm From Charity to Change, which helps educators, nonprofits, and philanthropists apply systems change strategies to address the root causes of complex social problems. She holds a global executive EdD from the University of Southern California, an MA from Columbia University Teachers College in philosophy and education, and an BA in politics from Princeton University.