Judy Wurtzel is co-director of the Aspen Institute Program on Education and Society. The program provides a forum for education practitioners, researchers, and policy leaders to reflect on efforts to improve student achievement and to consider how public policy changes can affect progress. Current program initiatives include the Aspen Senior Congressional Staff Network, the Aspen Urban Superintendents’ Network, and the Aspen Urban Literacy Leadership Network, as well as policy development on rethinking human capital in urban school districts.

Before joining the Aspen Institute, Wurtzel served for six years as executive director of the Learning First Alliance, a partnership of twelve national education associations working together to improve public elementary and secondary schools. As executive director, she worked with the leaders of the Learning First Alliance member organizations to identify and address key national education issues. During her tenure, the Learning First Alliance issued research-based reports on issues such as early reading, elementary and middle school mathematics, safe and supportive learning communities, districtwide improvement strategies, and communications strategies to support public education.

From 1993 to 1999, Wurtzel was a senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Education, In this capacity, she worked on reauthorizations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Act, represented the Department of Education in interagency efforts such as school-linked health services and youth development, and, from 1997 to 1999, led the mathematics initiative America Counts.

Wurtzel earned her BA from Yale University and her law degree from the New York University School of Law. After college, she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco, where she taught English as a second language to high school students. Following law school, she was a law clerk for two federal judges and an attorney for several years with a major New York law firm.

Wurtzel has served on numerous boards and advisory groups, including the board of directors of TeachFirst and the advisory board of the College Summit for the National Capital Region. She also chaired the U.S. Department of Education Taskforce on Improving Mathematics Teaching and Learning in Title I Schools.

Wurtzel lives in Maryland where her daughter attends a Montgomery County public middle school.