Dave Levin

After graduating from Yale University in 1992, Dave Levin joined Teach For America and taught fifth grade in Houston, Texas. In 1994, he co-founded KIPP — the Knowledge Is Power Program — as a single college-prep classroom of 47 fifth graders. KIPP has since grown into a national network of 283 PreK–12 public charter schools serving more than 210,000 students and alumni.

Dave currently splits his time between KIPP and Array Education, an education innovation studio he co-founded and where he serves as a partner. He has also co-founded four additional organizations: Relay Graduate School of Education, Zearn, Character Lab, and nXu. He serves on the boards of KIPP Foundation, KIPP NYC, Relay + Teaching Lab, Playlab AI, Zearn, the Calhoun School, and the Robin Hood Foundation.
Dave’s honors include the Presidential Citizens Medal — the nation’s second-highest presidential honor for a private citizen — the Charles Bronfman Prize, the National Jefferson Award for Distinguished Public Service, the McGraw Prize in Education, an Ashoka Fellowship, multiple Teacher of the Year awards, and the National Community Service Award from Spelman College. He holds an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from both Yale University and Duke University.

Dave lives in New York City with his wife, two sons, and two dogs.