Nina Kao

I love being surrounded by people who bring deep thinking, curiosity, and urgency to improving student outcomes. I leave each day with new questions—and the motivation to turn ideas into action.

Nina Kao, Program Operations Manager, is responsible for ensuring efficient and strategic collaboration across our core portfolios, developing and executing cross-portfolio grantmaking strategies, and managing key grantmaking projects.

Previously, Nina was a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group, where she supported clients across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to develop strategic plans and enact organizational change. Prior to that, she worked as a Director at Compass Education Group, building test prep partnerships with local schools and leading tutor training and development.

Nina began her career as a high school music teacher with Teach for America’s Mississippi corps, where she developed a curriculum of world music lessons. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and earned her M.B.A. at Columbia Business School. Nina is an avid fan of science fiction and women’s soccer and is an aspiring rock drummer.