Douglas Knecht

Doug Knecht is the Senior Director of Education Practice and Innovation following 11 years at Bank Street College of Education. Most recently, Doug was the Dean of Children’s Programs, leading Bank Street’s School for Children and supervising the Family Center early care program, and the Liberty LEADS after school and college prep program for 5th-12th grade low-income public school students. Doug previously served as the founding Vice President of the Bank Street Education Center, where he led school system improvement partnerships with district and school leaders across the country, leveraging Bank Street’s expertise in adult learning and child development to connect central offices, school communities and classrooms for more ambitious and equitable instruction at scale. Over six years building the Ed Center, Doug helped to raise over $70M in grants and contracts while impacting thousands of educators and hundreds of thousands of students through system-wide professional learning partnerships. Doug began his career as a high school science teacher in New Jersey after graduating from Princeton University. He then joined the staff of a new small New York City public transfer school for adolescents marginalized by the larger education system. Later, Doug earned a master’s degree from Harvard Graduate School of Education and returned to the New York City Department of Education, serving in various school support and academic policy roles that culminated in an opportunity to lead 10 school networks, where he was responsible for the quality and effectiveness of over 300 schools. Before graduate school, Doug worked for four years in a Bay Area-based educational non-profit, teaching and providing academic and social-emotional support and scholarships to low-income middle school students and families as they enrolled in Bay Area independent and parochial schools.