Natalie Mitchell

Natalie Mitchell is a Program Officer in Education at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Her portfolio is comprised of grantmaking in the K-12 teaching and learning strategy which centers educational justice and equity, systems transformation, and student voice and agency.

Prior to arriving at the foundation, Natalie served as the Director of Title I Programs and School Improvement for Alexandria City Public Schools in Alexandria, VA. In this role, she led a team in the implementation of cross-cutting instructional and improvement initiatives such as a complete overhaul of the system’s school and department improvement, monitoring, and accountability processes and tools, and the implementation of a comprehensive, district-wide diagnostic assessment system. Amongst the work most meaningful to her was that which centered and elevated students whose identities typically rendered them most marginalized and thereby underserved. Prior to this, Natalie worked in federal grants reform at Washington, D.C.’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education. In this role, she was a statewide policy lead for Title I, Part A allowability, allocations, carryover and reallocation; new and expanding charter schools; schoolwide programs; the entire Title I, Part B, Subpart 1 Reading First program; and federal time and effort. She also oversaw applications for funding, programmatic monitoring, and accountability, and provided technical assistance for a cohort of 13 LEAs in Title I, Part A and School Improvement Grants programs [1003(a) and (g)] and was the administrator of the state’s Reading First (Title I, Part B) program.

Natalie holds a bachelor’s degree in jazz studies from Howard University and a master’s degree in education policy and management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is originally from the U.K. but considers Washington, D.C. her home in the U.S. Natalie is on the Board of Directors for Aya Inc., a dual mentorship organization that prepares young women of color in both high school and college to pursue professional endeavors through leadership development and mentorship. She finds abundant joy in music and dance, cultivating gardens, being with those she loves, and wearing bright colors.