Kristin Ehrgood is Flamboyan Foundation’s CEO and Board Chair. Since launching Flamboyan in 2008, Kristin has led the Foundation’s work to ensure a day where every child, particularly those most impacted by inequity, will have the opportunity to live a fulfilling life. An education advocate, Kristin oversees the Foundation’s efforts to ensure students are prepared to succeed in school and beyond, tailoring programs to meet the unique contexts in which the Foundation operates.
In D.C., Flamboyan is accelerating student learning by helping educators and school systems transform their relationships with families. In Puerto Rico, Flamboyan is ensuring students are reading in Spanish on grade level by third grade while building a thriving philanthropic and nonprofit sector. Flamboyan also created the Flamboyan Arts Fund in partnership with Lin-Manuel Miranda, his family, and the Hamilton musical to preserve, amplify, and sustain the arts in Puerto Rico post-Hurricane María. Flamboyan also works on a range of collaborative initiatives that allow the Foundation to flexibly meet the changing needs of communities as they arise.
Kristin’s commitment to championing educational equity began early in her career, from her time teaching in Baton Rouge and Trenton as a Teach for America (TFA) corps member to her promotion to Executive Director of the New Jersey region and on to other locations around the country as the Director of New Site Development. After earning her Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School, she began leveraging the adaptive leadership model to make strategic investments in public education. In 2002, she co-founded Sapientis, an organization that connected and engaged change agents in all sectors of Puerto Rico to improve public education. She went on to start Flamboyan in Puerto Rico in 2008 and opened the Washington, DC office in 2009.
Kristin is the founding board chair at DC School Reform Now and serves as a director at the United States Olympic and Paralympic Foundation. She also sits on the investment committee at Education Forward DC and the neurosurgery advisory board at Johns Hopkins Medicine. She is a Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow and a member of the International Women’s Foundation-DC. She previously sat on the Board of Directors at Venture Philanthropy Partners, Teach for America-DC and Stand for Children.
Kristin also holds a B.A. in International Relations from Bucknell University.