Putting parents in the driver's seat of their children's education.
John Jay Institute Alumna
John Jay Fellow
Graduated
2007
underGRADUATE degree
B.A. in Political Science, Grove City College
current position and location
Senior Research Analyst at Project Lead the Way, Indianapolis, Indiana
Prior to the John Jay Fellows Program, Stephanie Linn had a notion of going to law school. The program changed that. “The Institute not only helped shape my policy goals but it also helped me to develop a more holistic vision of the good life and its connection with things like culture and politics.” Stephanie headed to the U.K. for a policy research assignment, completed the Koch Associate Program in D.C., and launched a promising career in education reform. She started at the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), where over three years she served as a legislative assistant and then as policy manager, overseeing research on myriad policy issues in 50 different states—from education to tax to energy to healthcare. Then a move to Indiana netted her a bigger assignment.
As state programs and government relations director for the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, Stephanie Linn oversaw the foundation’s educational outreach efforts for roughly a third of the nation. She regularly worked with lawmakers, nonprofits, schools, community organizations, parents and concerned citizens to provide general education, outreach, and advocacy on school choice issues. She worked with Gov. Bobby Jindal and other leaders in numerous states to build successful school-choice programs, including groundbreaking efforts on behalf of low-income families. “Parents in humble circumstances are not in the driver’s seat of their children’s education. But our vision is to put them there—to give parents the ability to choose the education that best fits their child’s needs.”
In early 2015, Stephanie took a senior research associate position at Project Lead The Way in Indianapolis, the nation's leading provider of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) programs. (She was succeeded at the Friedman Foundation by fellow alumna Brittany Corona ‘12.)
““Parents in humble circumstances are not in the driver’s seat of their children’s education...our vision is to put them there—to give parents the ability to choose the education that best fits their child’s needs.””
Stephanie participates in a school choice panel at the Charles Koch Institute.