Nina Rees
President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools
Nina Rees is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the charter school movement. Prior to joining the National Alliance, Nina spent 25 years shaping education policy in the public and private sectors. She served as the first Deputy Under Secretary for Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education. Before moving to the Education Department, Nina worked in the White House as Deputy Assistant for Domestic Policy to the Vice President of the United States.
As Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at Knowledge Universe, Nina guided the partnerships and expansion strategy for a leading global education company with investments in early childhood education, before- and after-school programs, and online instruction. In the 1990s, Nina was the Heritage Foundation’s senior education analyst and chief spokesperson on education. She began her career on Capitol Hill, where she worked for then-Congressman Porter Goss.
Nina has been a guest on Bloomberg, CNBC, C-SPAN, Fox News, and PBS’s NewsHour. Her articles and opinions have been published in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Washingtonian Magazine named her one of Washington's most influential people in 2021 and 2022.
Rees serves on the board of directors of the PIE Network and the advisory committee of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. She is a Pahara-Aspen Fellow and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
A native of Iran who immigrated to America at the age of 14, Nina earned her undergraduate degree at Virginia Tech and a master’s degree at George Mason University. She now lives in McLean, Virginia, with her husband and daughter.
