Students & Alumni | Stanford Graduate School of Education

POLS students are ambitious and action-oriented. They come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, including teaching, school systems leadership, business, education technology, and government. What they share is a desire to develop the skills and knowledge they need to be effective leaders.

POLS cohorts bring together small, diverse groups of students to widen each other’s view of leadership in various domains of education. Peer learning and support form a key component of the program, modeling the connectivity and collaboration crucial to education leadership. Moreover, POLS students graduate with a network of connections that extends beyond the program year.

Our students

Ev Gilbert

Class: 2025

Areas of interest: K-12 Education; Education Policy, Educational Equity, Youth Empowerment, Student Leadership, Community Engagement, Mentorship, Systems Change, Diversity and Inclusion, Qualitative Research Methods

Illana Zauderer

Class: 2025

Areas of interest: Purpose, Connection, Neuroscience in Education, Student Emotional Health, Mindfulness, Wellbeing, Teacher Compensation and Mentorship, Transformational Leadership in Higher Education, Play and Artful Thinking in Schools, Education Policy

Willie Thompson

Class: 2025

Areas of interest: People and Culture, Org design, Alternative Schooling, Intercultural Education

Victor Eliot Hua Hong Chan

Class: 2025

Areas of interest: Education Policy Implementation

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Field project

Nurturing Creativity Through the Serve & Return Approach in Early Childhood Education

By Ryan Duncan

The Filming Interactions to Nurture Development (FIND) initiative within the Stanford Center on Early Childhood is inspired by the Serve and Return framework from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. FIND focuses on enhancing the caregiving skills of early childhood educators by ...

Policy for Impact: A Project in Collaboration with NCTR

By Rachel Loe

This project contains two separate research projects in collaboration with the National Center For Teacher Residencies (NCTR). The first includes several briefs outlining anti-Critical Race Theory (CRT) policies on the national and state level that may create barriers for the successful ...

Bridging Insights for Equity: Enhancing Knowledge Integration at EdTrust-West

By Isabelle Saillard

EdTrust—West (ETW) aims to eliminate educational disparities in California by collaborating with schools, conducting research, and advocating for equitable policies. The Educator Engagement (EE) Team conducts Systemic Equity Reviews (SERs) in districts and higher education institutions, serving as a ...

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Life after POLS

POLS graduates are well prepared to lead in a wide range of roles and contexts. Alumni work in school and district settings, higher education, education philanthropies, corporate and educational recruiting, and government. Below are a few examples of positions held by POLS alumni.

Higher education

Assistant Dean of Students, Oberlin College
Native American Liaison, Stanford Undergraduate Admissions Office
Instructor, Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth

K–12 leadership

Assistant Principal, Noble Network of Charter Schools
Literacy Coordinator, Harlem Children’s Zone
Academic Program Manager, Summit Public Schools

School networks, districts, government

Data Analyst, Boston Public Schools
Assistant Budget and Policy Analyst, State of Oregon
Legislative Assistant, United States Senate

Educational intermediaries and ed tech

Instructional Design Specialist, Coursera
Program Manager, Reading Partners
Education Analyst, Emerson Collective

The Graduate School of Education’s EdCareers office provides career education and counseling, job listings, career fairs and other resources to GSE students and alumni.

Visit EdCareers