Nina Rees – Bio

Nina Rees is an education reform advocate and former senior administration official during the presidency of George W. Bush. She currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the George Bush Institute and advises several education innovators, investors, and advocates. Most recently, she was the president and CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, a leading national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the charter school movement. Before joining the National Alliance, Nina spent 20 years shaping education policy in both the public and private sectors.

She served as the first Deputy Under Secretary for Innovation and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education and previously worked in the White House as Deputy Assistant for Domestic Policy to the Vice President. Nina also served as Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at Knowledge Universe, a global education company with investments in early childhood education, before- and after-school programs, and online instruction. In the 1990s, she was the Heritage Foundation’s senior education analyst and chief spokesperson on education. She began her career on Capitol Hill, working for then-Congressman Porter Goss.

Nina has appeared on Bloomberg, CNBC, C-SPAN, Fox News, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and PBS’s NewsHour. Her articles and opinions have been published in The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Washingtonian named her one of Washington DC’s Most Influential People in 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Nina currently serves on the board of directors of Building Hope and Oakmont as well as 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 is the proud mom of a Davidson Wildcat.