Clara Hess

As Vice President of Education, Clara oversees all facets of ADL’s education outreach, including its programs on antisemitism and Holocaust education, student-led school climate improvement, anti-bias education and bullying prevention. She joined ADL in October 2022.

Before joining ADL, Clara served as Teach for America’s managing director of advisory support and senior managing director of strategy and innovation, where she was responsible for leading project teams to drive strategy and change initiatives for a staff of 1,400 people. Among other responsibilities, Clara supervised the administration of a new $1 million award program to fund grassroots innovations in schooling in response to challenges posed by COVID-19, and launched a racial equity framework.

Prior to her tenure at Teach for America, Clara was the Chief Operating Officer at the DC Public Charter School Board. She holds a B.S. in psychology and a B.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Georgia, and earned a Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from North Carolina State University.