The Wallace Foundation Names Robin V. Harris Vice President, Communications

​​​​​PRESS CONTACTS

​Melissa Connerton,
mconnerton@wallacefoundation.org
(212) 251-9750

Lauren Pescatore,
lpescatore@thehatchergroup.com
(240) 328-5968

New York, New York, September 12, 2023 – Robin V. Harris has been selected as The Wallace Foundation’s vice president, communications following a national search, the foundation announced today. Currently the vice president of strategic communications at The Education Trust, Harris brings over 15 years’ experience in leading talented and diverse creative teams to turn research and data into accessible and compelling content across traditional and digital media channels. She will begin her position at Wallace on Oct. 23, 2023.

“We’re delighted to welcome Robin Harris to Wallace as our new communications leader,” said Will Miller, president of The Wallace Foundation. “Effective communication plays an essential role at our foundation through the sharing of insights and lessons from the work we fund. Toward that end, Robin’s career has long focused on incorporating diverse points of view to convey research and data through stories and other forms of content in ways that promote positive change – drawing on her experience at advocacy organizations, think tanks, magazines and newspapers.”

As vice president, communications, Harris will lead the communications unit at the foundation, be a member of interdisciplinary strategy teams in education leadership, youth development and the arts, and serve as a member of Wallace’s senior management team. She will oversee the foundation’s overall communications strategy, including its digital and social media presence.

“Through the communications partnership between The Education Trust and The Wallace Foundation, I have come to know and appreciate the foundation’s evidence-based approach to fostering improvements in practice and policy in its focus areas of education leadership, youth development, and the arts,” said Harris. “I look forward to collaborating with my colleagues at The Wallace Foundation to continue the legacy of partnering with grantees to learn how to foster more equitable approaches in their communities and encourage broad use of those insights in the field.”

Harris succeeds Lucas Bernays Held, who stepped down at the end of August after 21 years of communications leadership at Wallace.

In her current role as vice president of strategic communications at The Education Trust, which she joined in 2013, Harris leads a team of communications experts that ensure the organization’s public-facing materials and products are high quality, mission aligned, and designed to further the organization’s advocacy agenda while maintaining its reputation as a trusted voice. As part of Ed Trust’s senior leadership team, she also contributed to the development of strategic plans and major decisions that shape the future of the organization.

In prior roles, Harris was a managing editor at Education Sector, an interdisciplinary think tank, the associate editor at Diverse Issues in Higher Education, a magazine focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion in postsecondary education, deputy editor at Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, and a journalist and copy editor at several other media outlets.

She holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Maryland, and a B.A. in English and Journalism from Howard University.

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About The Wallace Foundation

Based in New York City, The Wallace Foundation is an independent national philanthropy whose mission is to foster equity and improvements in learning and enrichment for young people, and in the arts for everyone. Current areas of interest include school leadership, expanding and diversifying audiences for the arts, social and emotional learning, summer learning, arts education, and afterschool. Wallace aims to help solve problems facing the fields in which it works, benefiting both the organizations it funds directly and the broader field by developing credible, useful knowledge to inform policy and practice nationwide. Research commissioned by and produced by the foundation is available without charge from the Knowledge Center at www.wallacefoundation.org.