Melissa Wu came to Princeton from a rural corner of a suburban town in Massachusetts where her extended family included 20 first cousins. Having observed disparities in opportunities in her own family, Wu realized at an early age how much of her own path to Princeton was influenced by luck and access. This knowledge influenced both her decision to major in sociology and her career.
When Wu was a sophomore considering summer job opportunities, she learned about Project 55 (now AlumniCorps) and considers that “one of the most influential experiences” she had at Princeton. Her summer internship at Oxfam America not only inspired her to start an Oxfam chapter on campus, she shares, “but it was the first time I became aware that I could earn a living while working on issues of social justice.”
As a result, after graduation she took a Project 55 Fellowship at the TEAK Fellowship. Founded in 1998, this non-profit prepares talented New York City students from low-income families for admission to and success at top high schools and colleges.
When Wu started at TEAK as executive assistant, she was its first full-time employee. She stayed on and quickly rose to become deputy director in 2002. By 2005, she had helped to scale the organization from 22 to 150 students annually.
Interested in a new challenge and new perspectives, she applied for a Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs in Los Angeles, a selective, national program that prepares emerging leaders to work and lead across different sectors by equipping them with knowledge, skills and networks to accelerate positive change. While there, she was encouraged to consider an MBA by mentors citing a shortage of leadership and management talent in the nonprofit world. Wu applied to Harvard Business School. Finding that HBS “opened a whole new slice of the world and an opportunity to deepen new skills,” Wu decided to make a career switch. She joined Boston Consulting Group and for two years was a strategy consultant on issues such as growth strategy and human capital management.
She ultimately “missed mission-driven work — and education specifically.” She returned to education via The New Teacher Project, a nationally recognized nonprofit centered on improving educational opportunities for high-need students. Founded in 1997, TNTP now has a staff of 400 and works with public school systems across the country to create engaging classrooms, focused schools, and strategic school systems. As a partner on the client team, Wu spent seven years at TNTP. She set and executed sales and service strategy for a new data service, including developing internal sales channels, leading direct sales, and re-engineering roles and operations. She also led a two-year research effort to better understand and address the retention crisis in America’s urban schools. Six different research sites reached nearly 100,000 teachers. Within a year of publication, multiple districts had undertaken reforms in line with the findings.
In 2017, Wu had the opportunity to join Education Pioneers in the role of chief program officer and was named Chief Executive Officer in 2018. A preeminent talent pipeline for management and leadership roles in education, EP has supported 4,500 fellows at key inflection points in their career. Wu continues to believe that “education can and must be a lever for equity. EP is fueling the leaders outside of the classroom who help make sure that teachers and students can be successful in the classroom. Our alums, 50% of whom are people of color, go on to lead HR, finance, and operations areas in education as well as to found and lead education nonprofits themselves.”
While pursuing her mission, Wu still returns to Princeton regularly. She served on the PP55 board from 2001 to 2007, and she participated on the 2018 “She Roars” conference panel “Tigresses in Nonprofits: Amplifying our Impact.”