Rachel Leifer

Rachel Leifer is a senior program officer in the K12 Education Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Her portfolios aim to increase the availability, discerning selection, and effective enactment of high-quality instructional materials, in service of African-American, Latino, and ELL students. Previously, Ms. Leifer spent six years at the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, where she developed and oversaw the execution of a national K12 Education Program that aimed to increase access to rigorous instruction, with a particular emphasis on ELLs. Before that, Ms. Leifer was a program director of the grant-making program at The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. She began her career as an eighth-grade ELA teacher in the District of Columbia Public Schools.