Stephanie Banchero

Stephanie Banchero is the Director of the Education and Economic Mobility program, which aims to ensure young people in the Great Lakes region have access to high-quality education and jobs. Stephanie leads our investments to ensure students, especially students of color and those from low-income families, have high-quality teachers and principals. She has a particular focus on making sure teachers are prepared for the complex classrooms they enter, and on ensuring principals and teachers work together to create strong learning environments for students. Stephanie co-chairs the Chicago Forefront Human Capital funders group.

Before coming to Joyce, Stephanie was national education reporter for the Wall Street Journal and, before that, spent 13 years covering K-12 education for the Chicago Tribune. Her nationally recognized reporting has received first-place awards from the National Education Writers Association and the Missouri School of Journalism. She also received the Harry Chapin Media Award and an honorable mention from the Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families. She was awarded a prestigious one-year Knight Fellowship in journalism at Stanford University.

Stephanie holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Utah and a master’s degree in Journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. She is a past president of the National Education Writers Association and is a member of the Spencer Education Journalism Fellowship Board. Stephanie is a Top Chef aspirant and die-hard Utah Jazz fan.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” –Nelson Mandela