Director of Engagement and Development, National Student Support Accelerator
Wendy Wallace is the Director of Engagement and Development for the National Student Support Accelerator at the Annenberg Institute. Prior to this role, she was a College and Career Strategist for the Rhode Island Department of Education, where she managed the states' largest college and career readiness initiative (PrepareRI). Wendy led the PrepareRI Core Team, an inter-agency task force with representatives from the Governor's Office, Governor's Workforce Board, Rhode Island Department of Education, Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner, and Rhode Island Commerce. She also recruited, hired and managed PrepareRI Ambassadors, a group of over 50 education and community leaders who implemented different aspects of the initiatives' priorities.
During the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Wendy managed Rhode Island's first-ever summer learning initiative (Summer Academy for Interactive Learning with PrepareRI), where 142 providers across the nation supported over 14,000 students who benefited from virtual and in-person educational opportunities. She also wrote Rhode Island's Perkins V Plan which secured $6 million annually for Career and Technical Education programs across the state. As the Project Director for the Charter School Program (CSP) Grant, she distributed over $4 million for new or expanding charter schools.
Wendy is also a former Associate Director (Project Management) at Year Up Rhode Island, where she built the project management curriculum and trained over 400 students for positions in top companies like Fidelity and Bank of America. Wendy has a deep passion for addressing educational inequities, while simultaneously supporting students in actualizing their potential.
