Alumni Profile

 

 

“The Residency got me in the game at the right level. You reach a stage in your career where it is difficult to imagine taking an entry-level job in a new industry,” says Wharton M.B.A. Ken Zeff.

 

Zeff worked for six years in management consulting at Deloitte before learning about The Broad Residency. He credits the Residency and its professional network with allowing him to successfully transition into K-12 education reform. “The Residency is the foundation for a great career in education— it matches you with senior education leaders and puts you in a position to succeed.”

 

Zeff’s management career in education began as a Broad Resident in the San Diego Unified School District before he went on to become a White House Fellow and then a senior consultant for policy development for the U.S. secretary of education. “I was fortunate enough to be one of the individuals working directly with Secretary Margaret Spellings to develop the administration’s blueprint for the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act.”

 

Missing the satisfaction of working closer to students, Zeff returned to the trenches as chief operating officer of ICEF Public Schools and most recently as chief operating officer for Green Dot Public Schools, the leading charter school operator in Los Angeles. Green Dot operates 18 charter high schools in the highest-need areas of the city, including eight as part of the dramatic turnaround of Locke High School in Watts.

 

Although he is now an alumnus, Zeff plans to continue to leverage The Broad Residency network when he needs assistance.

 

“Say there is something interesting going on in Chicago or New York that I want to apply to my work here in L.A. I can be on the phone in an hour with someone who can get me the materials I need,” says Zeff. “The Residency is a portal into every major reform effort in the country. We are building a critical mass. No one else is doing this.”