Melissa Moritz serves as the Director of Policy for the STEM Next Opportunity Fund, a Policy Entrepreneur in Residence for the Federation of American Scientists, and a senior advisor to organizations focused on expanding access to and success in high-quality STEM learning experiences. Moritz previously served as the deputy director for STEM at the U.S. Department of Education during the Obama-Biden Administration and recently finished a fellowship where she served as the Afterschool and Summer Learning Fellow at the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. Previously, Moritz served as the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI). She also previously served as the Vice President of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and Education Initiatives at Teach For America (TFA). In that capacity, she oversaw TFA’s national STEM Initiative and managed the team that led TFA’s Early Childhood Education Initiative, Diverse Learners Initiative, Military Veterans Initiative and Native Alliance Initiative. Moritz graduated from MIT with a degree in biology prior to joining Teach for America and serving as a middle-school science teacher in Washington Heights, NYC. She resides in DC with her husband and two daughters.
