Jon Schroeder is a Senior Fellow with Education|Evolving, having been associated with E|E and previous joint ventures of the non-profit Center for Policy Design and Hamline University from 1996 until his retirement from Hamline in 2014. Along with Ted Kolderie, he co-founded and was director of Charter Friends National Network (CFNN) — which served as a de-facto national charter school organization from 1996 to 1994. His interest in EE’s work stems from his long-standing support for expanding public school choices and improving learner outcomes for all students.

Prior to his work with Hamline and Education|Evolving, Jon played a major role in creating the Federal Charter School Program and the Corporation for National and Community Service (Americorps) during his ten years in senior communications and policy positions on the staff of former U.S. Senator Dave Durenberger. He was then Vice President for Public Affairs and Communications for Scholarship America, best known for its ‘Dollars for Scholars’ program and as the nation’s largest non-profit college scholarship management organization. He subsequently served as a founding board member of Minnesota Dollars for Scholars.

Earlier in his career, Jon was Communications Director for the Minnesota Constitutional Study Commission, a Research Associate for the Citizens League, which helped conceive the chartering idea, was Publisher and Editor of the Grant County Herald and part-owner of Quinco Press, a central printing plant in West Central Minnesota. While still in college, Jon had a Congressional internship, played a leadership role in successful state and national initiatives to lower the voting age and expand civic engagement by young people and served as Consultant on Youth for what is now the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce.

Jon has held volunteer leadership positions in a number of non-profit organizations, including service as board chair of EdVisions Schools and the National Youth Leadership Council and as board vice chair of the Jefferson Center. In the mid-1990s, He served as chair of a Citizens League Committee that advised Governor Arne Carlson’s ‘Brandl-Weber Project’ on K-12 policy and other issues then confronting a deficit-threatened state government.

In 1994, Jon was a founding director, executive committee member and policy committee co-chair for what is now the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. At that time, he also served on the policy advisory committee for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. He’s currently on the boards of the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools, EdVisions Schools and People for PSEO. And he remains involved in state and national initiatives to link service learning and education reform, including his current work as a member of the National Service Learning Coalition.

Jon was appointed to state commissions on education policy and service learning by Governors Al Quie, Rudy Perpich and Arne Carlson. In 2012, his national leadership on charter schools and education reform was recognized through his induction into the National Charter School Hall of Fame. Jon has a BA degree in Political Science from Macalester College, where he was elected to Pi Sigma Alpha, the national Political Science honorary fraternity. He and his wife, Dana, live in Minneapolis and have three adult children and two grandchildren.