Sara Allan

Deputy Director, K-12 Education, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Bio

Sara Allan is Deputy Director of US Education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where she leads the program strategies targeted at supporting Black, Latino and students experiencing poverty to graduate on time from high school fully prepared to pursue a post-secondary program aligned to their interests and passions, and to attain the skills and credentials needed to stay on a path to thrive as adults in an upwardly mobile career. Her team focuses on catalyzing innovative models in education that have the potential to dramatically accelerate student learning and expanding access to high impact educational and career readying experiences. Previously, Sara was a district level leader at Portland Public Schools where she led a wide range of system change initiatives focused on supporting schools to improve. Prior to working in education, Sara was a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, working with private and public sector clients on issues of strategy, organizational development and growth in North and South America. She lives in Seattle with her husband and three children