America's Promise Alliance Welcomes Two New Board Members as It Looks Toward Its Next Chapter

America's Promise Alliance (APA) is proud to announce the appointment of two new members to its national board of directors: Elisa Villanueva Beard and LaVerne Evans Srinivasan. Their addition comes at a pivotal moment for APA, as it prepares to launch an ambitious new vision for the organization’s future over the next five years.

“Elisa and LaVerne bring decades of experience leading some of the most consequential organizations in our field, and they have done so with rigor, with vision, and with unwavering commitment to the communities they serve. Their understanding of field dynamics, other collective efforts, and what it takes to build and sustain impact at scale, will strengthen everything we are trying to do over these next five years. I am genuinely thrilled to partner with them in this work, as we launch our next strategic plan.”

— Mike O’Brien, CEO, America’s Promise Alliance

Elisa Villanueva Beard is President and CEO of Houston Endowment, one of the nation's leading regional philanthropies, a role she assumed in 2026. She works alongside a multidisciplinary team to shape the Foundation’s priorities and deploy its resources—including more than $100 million in annual grantmaking—to ensure the organization remains responsive to the needs of the community today and forward-looking in building for the future. Before joining Houston Endowment, Villanueva Beard spent 27 years at Teach For America, where she ultimately served as CEO for 12 years, leading an enterprise of approximately 1,500 staff and more than 70,000 alumni through periods of significant growth and transformation. Her tenure included stewardship of a $200 million endowment and oversight of a $300 million operating enterprise, the launch of innovative new initiatives, and extensive partnership-building across philanthropy, government, and civic organizations. Prior to becoming CEO, she served as Chief Operating Officer, overseeing the organization's field operations expansion from 22 to 48 sites over eight years, and before that as executive director in the Rio Grande Valley, where she more than tripled the size of the teaching corps and built new community partnerships. Her career began in the classroom as a TFA corps member teaching elementary students in Phoenix, an experience that shaped her enduring belief in the potential of every child and the supports they need to thrive. She serves on the boards of City Fund, GoGuardian, Leadership for Educational Equity, and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. She is an inaugural member of the Pahara Education Fellowship, Governance Chair and Champion for JOURNEY to Lead, and an emeritus board member at The Holdsworth Center. Recognized among LinkedIn's Top 20 Voices in Social Impact and among ALPFA’s 50 Most Powerful Latinas, Villanueva Beard has spent her career working to expand opportunity for young people and the communities that surround them.

“I deeply admire the mission of America’s Promise Alliance to strengthen the capacity and impact of nonprofits, which are an essential part of our civic infrastructure. Joining this board means getting to see up close the incredible work APA is doing to connect organizations across sectors and regions so they can harness their knowledge, think boldly, and act collectively to address the most pressing challenges facing our youth and communities today.

My experience has taught me that issues like education, civic engagement, and economic mobility are deeply interconnected, and no one organization can make meaningful progress alone. Real change only happens when organizations integrate their efforts around a shared vision, and that is the kind of collaboration APA is fostering. It is inspiring, ambitious work, and I am honored to be a part of it.” 

— Elisa Villanueva Beard

LaVerne Evans Srinivasan is a nationally recognized leader in education and social impact. She currently serves as Chairman of the ETS Board and recently concluded an 11-year tenure as Vice President of the National Program and Director of the Education Program at Carnegie Corporation of New York, where she oversaw the foundation's education grantmaking, directing up to $65 million annually, across K-12 systems, postsecondary pathways, civic participation, and economic mobility. During her tenure she spearheaded the creation of Profiles in Collective Leadership, recognizing local leaders who build cross-sector partnerships to improve educational and economic outcomes, and helped launch major initiatives including the MIT Systems Awareness Lab, Collective Change Lab, FutureEd at Georgetown University, and the EdPrep Lab, a collaboration between the Learning Policy Institute and Bank Street College of Education. Before joining Carnegie, she served as Deputy Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, President of New Leaders, and Senior Vice President and General Counsel at BMG Entertainment, bringing a cross-sector perspective shaped by decades of leadership across education, philanthropy, and the private sector. A long-standing champion of research and policy innovation, she has partnered with leading institutions including the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, the Stanford Educational Opportunity Project, and Opportunity Insights, and most recently helped launch the Carnegie Young Leaders for Civic Preparedness initiative through the Institute for Citizens and Scholars. An Aspen Global Leadership Fellow and Pahara Fellow and a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Srinivasan has dedicated her career to advancing educational equity, civic engagement, and the belief that every young person deserves a clear path to opportunity and economic mobility.

“America's Promise Alliance represents exactly the kind of bold, collective vision and decisive action our young people deserve — and this moment demands nothing less. After years of working at the intersection of education, philanthropy, and policy — collaborating with schools, communities, and the federal government, I know that sustainable change requires leaders and organizations that can convene, align, and move the youth-serving sector at scale.

America's Promise Alliance has spent nearly three decades proving that when we align our efforts around what young people truly need, we can change the trajectory of a generation. I'm honored to join a board committed to making that promise real for every child in this country.”

— LaVerne Evans Srinivasan

Villanueva Beard and Srinivasan join an Alliance that has built significant momentum over the past five years. Since 2022, APA’s Alliance community has grown to include 180 of the leading nonprofits in the US. Those organizations serve 34 million young people annually. The Alliance has also launched four large-scale collective action joint ventures, designed to improve outcomes for young people at scale. More than three in four member organizations report being more effective directly because of their participation in the Alliance. As APA now turns toward its next five-year strategic plan, Villanueva Beard and Srinivasan bring exactly the leadership this moment calls for: two leaders who have spent their careers running complex, mission-driven organizations accountable to young people, to communities, and to the partners who make this work possible. Their experience leading through complexity, and staying accountable to young people through it, positions this Alliance well as we collectively navigate a changing landscape and work to ensure more young people get on a path to opportunity and economic mobility.