Stanford Board of Trustees elects Laurene Powell Jobs to five-year term

Laurene Powell Jobs will join the Board of Trustees on Oct. 1. (Photo: Courtesy of Laurene Powell Jobs)

Laurene Powell Jobs, a leader in the education reform movement and vocal advocate for the federal Dream Act, has been elected to the Stanford University Board of Trustees to a five-year term that begins Oct. 1.

Powell Jobs is the founder and chair of Emerson Collective, which supports social entrepreneurs and organizations working in the areas of education, social justice and conservation. The organization, based in Palo Alto, also advocates for fair and just policies on behalf of underserved students.

Emerson Collective is currently working to help pass the Dream Act, federal legislation that would create a path for undocumented students to earn their citizenship.

Powell Jobs also serves as president of the board of College Track, an after-school program she co-founded in 1997 to prepare underserved high school students for success in college. The program, which began in East Palo Alto, Calif., now serves students in Oakland, Calif.; San Francisco; New Orleans; Los Angeles; and Aurora, Colo.

College Track's intensive academic and extracurricular program is designed to ensure admittance to and graduation from college. All of the students who have completed the program have finished high school and gone on to college.

Steven A. Denning, who became chair of the Board of Trustees in July, said he was very pleased that Powell Jobs is joining the board.

"Her familiarity with Stanford, combined with extensive experience with and powerful commitment to supporting social entrepreneurs and organizations working on behalf of underserved students, will greatly strengthen the board," Denning said. "Her work to improve and augment K-12 education and work with disadvantaged students in East Palo Alto, Oakland and other communities around the nation is an inspiration to us all, as is her active role in conservation and environmental issues globally."

Powell Jobs serves on the board of directors of NewSchools Venture Fund, a nonprofit venture philanthropy firm dedicated to transforming public education for low-income students.

In addition, she serves on the board of directors of Conservation International, which uses science, policy and fieldwork to help communities, countries and societies create sustainable development paths that protect natural resources – forests, grasslands, rivers, wetlands, lakes and oceans.

Powell Jobs is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank and publisher.

Earlier in her career, Powell Jobs spent several years working in investment banking and later founded a natural foods company in California.

Powell Jobs earned bachelor's degrees in political science and in economics at the University of Pennsylvania in 1985, and earned an MBA in 1991 at Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

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