Jim Shelton is the Chief Impact and Investment Officer at Blue Meridian Partners a philanthropic vehicle to identify and scale solutions to the problems trapping youth and their families in poverty. He also serves as a Senior Advisor to KKR and is a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institute. Jim is the co-founder of Amandla Enterprises, impact investment and advisory firm, and former Deputy Secretary of Education and founding Executive Director of My Brother’s Keeper under President Barack Obama.
Previously, he was the founding head of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s education work and served as the President and Chief Impact Officer at 2U, Inc., partnering with top colleges and universities to provide engaging and rigorous degree programs online. Jim began his career as a software developer and has since worked in business, government, and the non-profit sectors as an operator, investor, and entrepreneur. In these roles, he has utilized management, policy, and programmatic innovations to increase access to opportunity. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Morehouse College and Master’s degrees in both business administration and education from Stanford University.