Robin Willner Email & Phone Number

Greater New York City Area

New York

P-TECH, a new grades 9-14 model of early college high school started in Brooklyn, NY, offers graduates a high school diploma, AAS degree and the opportunity to be first in line for a job at IBM. P-TECH, and the strong model of partnership and collaboration among K12, higher ed and business, have proven highly effective in the early returns and garnered a great deal of interest. President Obama highlighted the school in his 2013 State of the Union address, visiting Brooklyn on October 25, 2013 to underscore the effectiveness of this innovative approach to give disadvantaged students a "key to the middle class". NY Governor Cuomo announced a public-private partnership to prepare thousands of New York students for high-skills jobs, with funding for schools across the state. Ms. Willner, coordinates this impressive scale initiative that now includes more than 30 schools wit the capacity to serve more than 12,000 students annually in a wide range of communities, industries and careers, focusing on those students who but for P-TECH would have no aspirations or opportunity for post-secondary education and career success. New schools continue to be planned each year, further extending the NY network while four other states embark on this new model. The Leadership Council made up of the Executive Chamber, the State University of New York (SUNY), the State Education Department (NYSED), The Business Council of New York State, Inc.and the IBM International Foundation, assures that this initiative will adhere to the critical design principles that will generate success for our students while encouraging further innovation and leveraging local expertise and resources.

New Yok City

Social Impact Exchange is a growing and innovative membership network focusing on identifying and nurturing effective solutions for disadvantaged communities and bringing them to significant scale. I will be mobilizing Working Groups of funders focused on education, health and poverty alleviation to identify opportunities and aggregate funding for high impact.

As an executive in corporate citizenship, Ms Willner is responsible for bringing IBM’s cutting edge technology and talent to bear on social and educational problems to improve the quality of life in communities towards a Smarter Planet. She oversees a range of global philanthropic and volunteer programs, including Corporate Service Corps, Transition to Teaching and online mentoring initiatives. Technology innovations include World Community Grid, now supporting a dozen humanitarian research projects in biomedical and basic science. Local economic development and jobs programs under her guidance include the Small Business Toolkit, a partnership with the World Bank’s International Finance Corp, literacy and work force development projects, and school-to-career programs. She also manages IBM’s humanitarian response to disasters,

Designed and implemented Reinventing Education, a $75 million global program, including 25 grant partnerships with school districts and states throughout the United States plus twelve countries around the globe, each focusing on a collaborative effort to develop new applications of technology to overcome common barriers to school improvement and increase student achievement. Managed research and development for education solutions and other CSR initiatives.

Primary policy and planning advisor to the Chancellor and Deputy Chancellor for Operations and liaison to City and State administrations on budget and legislative issues. Responsible for design and operation of system wide student data collection, citywide testing, all research and evaluation activities. Supervised full-time staff of 150 and budget of $17 million

Responsible for day-to-day operations, research, media relations and staff supervision at this not-for-profit public policy and research organization specializing in education and youth services. Raised $300,000 to $500,000 annually.