Carina Wong

Carina Wong is a senior advisor for innovation at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Wong has managed a variety of education portfolios, including efforts to develop and scale a set of teacher-developed literacy and math tools; investments focused on redesigning professional development systems in districts; and efforts to scale effective practices through teacher leaders and their networks. Her current portfolio is focused on launching new initiatives and building cross-cutting teams focused on innovation and scale. She’s intentional about gathering insights from those most proximate to the problem and using those insights to inform the strategies she leads and improve the impact and sustainability of the investments she makes.

Wong has worked in education policy and workforce development for over two decades at the national, state, and local levels. She is passionate about the arts and feeding children local and organic foods. She led the Chez Panisse Foundation, started by chef and author Alice Waters, where she launched the School Lunch Initiative and managed The Edible Schoolyard Project. She is a former trustee of the Oakland Museum of California and was on the school boards of the Lighthouse Community Schools and Yu Ming Charter School. She has a bachelor of science in foreign service from Georgetown University, a master in education policy and administration from Stanford University, and a master of business administration in design from California College of the Arts.