About

About

Mission

The mission of Discovery Institute’s American Center for Transforming Education is to work with state government policymakers, parents, educators, business leaders, and other education stakeholders to transform our nation’s education system. We advocate for policies that empower parents, allow for innovation, and equip students with the skills, knowledge, and character necessary to thrive as citizens in their communities and as contributors to our increasingly competitive economy.

What We Do

  • Promote public education reform through targeted legislative action at the state level to revitalize traditional public schools.
  • Advocate for parental choice of the school they believe will best serve their child, whether traditional public school, public charter school, private school, microschool, virtual school, or homeschool.
  • Inform education policy and practices through outreach to state government policymakers, parents, educators, business leaders, and other education stakeholders.
  • Conduct research and provide innovative solutions to advance the field of education, with a particular focus on teaching, leadership, and governance.
  • Deliver thoughtful analysis of education-related policies, practices, priorities, and current news events through articles, reports, speeches, panel discussion participation, and media interviews.

Our Team

Donald Nielsen

Senior Fellow and Chairman, American Center for Transforming Education
Donald P. Nielsen is a Senior Fellow of Discovery Institute and Chairman of the Institute's program on public education reform. For nearly 30 years, he has devoted his life work to transforming public education. For two years, he traveled the country studying America's public education system and authored, Every School: One Citizen’s Guide to Transforming Education. Mr. Nielsen was awarded the Harvard Business School's 2004 Alumni Achievement Award. In 2009, he received the Leadership Award from the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington.

Keri D. Ingraham

Senior Fellow and Director, American Center for Transforming Education
Dr. Keri D. Ingraham is a Senior Fellow of Discovery Institute and Director of the Institute’s American Center for Transforming Education. She is also a Senior Fellow at Independent Women’s Forum. Dr. Ingraham has been a guest on Fox News multiple times. Her articles have been published by The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, The Federalist, Real Clear Education, The Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, Washington Examiner, The Epoch Times, The Seattle Times, Puget Sound Business Journal, The Daily Signal, and a host of other media outlets. Fox News has featured her work. Prior to joining Discovery Institute, she spent nearly two decades leading within the field of education as a national consultant, requested conference speaker, head of school, virtual and hybrid academy director, administrator, classroom teacher, and athletic coach. She authored multiple chapters for the book, Sketching a New Conservative Education Agenda, published in 2022. In 2019, she was invited as a contributing author for the book, MindShift: Catalyzing Change in Christian Education and co-authored “From Gutenberg to 5G.” Dr. Ingraham was awarded the George W. Selig Doctoral Fellowship in 2013. The following year she received the “World Changer in the Field of Education” award from Regent University.