Stefan Lallinger is the executive director of Next100, a think tank that centers the voices of those closest to and most impacted by policy. Next100 recruits exceptional candidates with a diverse array of experiences in education, immigration, criminal justice, climate change, and other issue areas for two-year, full-time fellowships as policy entrepreneurs in New York City, where they conduct original research and pursue a policy agenda.

Dr. Lallinger is also a senior fellow on The Century Foundation’s K-12 Education team, where he is a strategic advisor to the Bridges Collaborative. He researches and writes on issues of racial and socioeconomic integration, equity, affirmative action, selective public schools, school governance, and district–charter relations. As the first director of the Bridges Collaborative, he recruited more than fifty school districts and housing organizations that collectively serve more than 3 million students and families to join the inaugural Bridges cohort of leaders combating segregation in schools and neighborhoods.  Dr. Lallinger also teaches courses on policy and desegregation at American University.

Dr. Lallinger previously worked as a special assistant to Chancellor Richard Carranza in the New York City Department of Education working on agency policy and strategy. He earned his doctorate from Harvard University, where he studied integration and school district leadership. At Harvard, he received a fellowship with the Reimagining Integration: Diverse and Equitable Schools (RIDES) Project, coordinated the Education Redesign Lab’s By All Means Initiative in the Mayor’s Office in Providence, Rhode Island, and facilitated professional learning for some of the nation’s largest districts with the Public Education Leadership Project (PELP) held at Harvard Business School.

Prior to graduate school, Dr. Lallinger led Langston Hughes Academy, a Pre-K through eighth grade open-enrollment school in the Recovery School District in post-Katrina New Orleans, where he served as principal, assistant principal and teacher for nine years. Before moving to New Orleans, he coordinated a boys mentoring program in Providence, Rhode Island. Inspired by his grandfather Louis Redding, a civil rights lawyer, Stefan has been a fierce advocate for integration and equity throughout his career. He also serves on the board of Partners in Opportunity, an innovative housing mobility program.

He holds BAs in political science and development studies from Brown University, an MA in history from the University of New Orleans, and a doctorate in education leadership from Harvard University.