STANFORD, CA – The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Carnegie) today announced that Diego Arambula is joining the organization as vice president for educational transformation. Arambula most recently served as managing partner for national education nonprofit Transcend — working with teachers, principals, and superintendents across the country to reimagine learning environments so all children can thrive. As vice president at Carnegie, Arambula will build upon this expertise to plan and execute ambitious, actionable strategies that advance Carnegie’s mission of catalyzing transformational change in education.

“Diego is fiercely committed to engaging, effective, equitable, and experiential learning for students, from Pre-K to postsecondary,” said Timothy F.C. Knowles, president of the Carnegie Foundation. “He is also entrepreneurial, collaborative, and sharply focused on results. I am thrilled he will be joining Carnegie for the next steps on our adventure.”

Arambula strengthens Carnegie’s growing executive leadership team and enhances the organization’s ability to advance its mission — ensuring every student has the opportunity to live a healthy, dignified, and fulfilling life. He will play an essential role in supporting the PK-12 and postsecondary systems to establish competency-based educational models designed to prepare millions more young people for success in higher education and their careers. Arumbula will also support Carnegie efforts to build and maintain essential partnerships with educators, policy makers, parents, employers and community based organizations.

“I’m incredibly excited to join the team at Carnegie,” Arambula said. “In this new role, I’ll get to continue the work I’ve been driving toward for nearly two decades — improving equitable outcomes for young people by radically rethinking systems that have been resistant to change. Joining with the entire team at Carnegie to develop a ‘post-Carnegie Unit’ ecosystem and engage in meaningful postsecondary innovation is an awesome responsibility and opportunity.”

Arambula joins Carnegie with more than 15 years of education experience, first starting at Summit Public Schools, a leading network of charter public schools headquartered in Redwood City, California. While at Summit, he served as classroom teacher, a founding principal, and the chief growth and innovation officer. Additionally, Arambula served as the founder and executive director of GO Public Schools Fresno, an education advocacy nonprofit focused on unlocking demand for radically re-envisioned school models.

Arambula has also exercised his passion for transformational change in education through his positions on multiple boards. In 2020 he was appointed to an 8-year term as trustee for the California State University System, the largest and most diverse postsecondary system in the nation. At CSU he serves as chair of the Education Policy Committee. He also serves as board chair of Summit Public Schools and the Central Valley Community Foundation. He received his A.B. in government from Harvard University and a Master’s in Education from Stanford University.

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About the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
The mission of the Carnegie Foundation is to catalyze transformational change in education so that every student has the opportunity to live a healthy, dignified, and fulfilling life. Enacted by an act of Congress in 1906, the Foundation has a rich history of driving transformational change in the education sector, including the establishment of TIAA-CREF and the creation of the Education Testing Service, the GRE, Pell Grants, and the Carnegie Classifications for Higher Education.

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Media Contact:
Kito Cetrulo
Executive Team, Managing Director, Communications and Engagement
kcetrulo@carnegiefoundation.org