Elisa Villanueva Beard

Elisa Villanueva-Beard is Chief Operating Officer of Teach for America.  Prior to becoming chief operating officer, Villanueva-Beard served as senior vice president of regional operations at Teach For America. She joined the staff as executive director of the organization’s Rio Grande Valley site. During her four years as executive director, she grew the region’s funding base 17 times over, created a functioning community advisory board, and oversaw a corps of teachers that more than doubled. Villanueva-Beard was a 1998 Teach For America corps member who taught bilingual first and second grades in Phoenix for three years. She also served as her school’s basketball coach and grade-level chair, and was a member of the school site-based committee. Villanueva-Beard received a B.A. in sociology from DePauw University.