New Profit is proud to announce the addition of Kerwin Charles and Deborah Quazzo to its Board of Directors, along with Tulaine Montgomery who was recently named Co-CEO with Vanessa Kirsch. Dean Charles and Ms. Quazzo join a group of dedicated changemakers helping to guide the national venture philanthropy organization and add to the diverse experience of a board that includes social entrepreneurs, management consultants, investment professionals, academics, foundation executives, and government leaders. 

Founded in 1998, New Profit invests in and supports proximate entrepreneurs—visionary leaders with lived experience in the communities they aim to serve. Building on a successful track record that includes investing over $325 million in 165 early- and later-stage social enterprises, New Profit is planning and poised for significant portfolio growth over the next three years, with a commitment to investing in organizations that are tackling a broad set of challenges, and in the largest group of Black, Latine/x, and Indigenous leaders in the organization’s history. The nonprofit is also investing in diverse organizational models—organizations focused on direct growth, those who focus on building knowledge and providing technical assistance, and those focused on holistic systems change. 

The addition of Kerwin Charles, Dean of the Yale School of Management—Deborah Quazzo—Managing Partner of GSV Ventures—will help enable New Profit to chart an effective strategy toward realizing these goals 

“Kerwin and Deborah both possess deep and substantial knowledge about the steps that are necessary to transform inequitable economic and educational systems. Additionally, each brings unique, personal experience building communities of changemakers,” said New Profit Board Chair Jeffrey C. Walker. “Our Board and the New Profit community as a whole will benefit from their wisdom and involvement. We are grateful to have them at the table as we advance critical systems-change work with proximate leaders.”

Kerwin Charles is currently the Indra K. Nooyi Dean & Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Economics, Policy, and Management at the Yale School of Management. His scholarly expertise spans topics including wealth inequality, race and gender labor market discrimination, and the intergenerational transmission of economic status. “Kerwin’s input and experience will be invaluable as we deepen our efforts to advance economic mobility,” said New Profit Co-CEO Tulaine Montgomery. “The definition of economic mobility continues to evolve and we believe Kerwin will add both clarity and context on this and other key New Profit priorities.”  

Deborah Quazzo is the Managing Partner of GSV Ventures, and the co-founder of the ASU+GSV Summit, a global gathering of innovators across the “preK to gray” landscape of education and workforce skills. She is a deeply experienced investor in education and workforce skills technologies. “Deb has been a great friend and key collaborator with New Profit for many years through the ASU+GSV summit,” said New Profit Co-CEO Vanessa Kirsch. “We’re thrilled to formalize her position as a member of our Board as we grow to serve more social entrepreneurs in the coming years.” 

Tulaine Montgomery, who was announced as New Profit’s Co-CEO in 2021, was also officially added to the organization’s Board of Directors. 

Kerwin Charles

Kerwin K. Charles is the Indra K. Nooyi Dean & Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Economics, Policy, and Management at the Yale School of Management.

During his scholarly career, Charles has studied and published on topics including earnings and wealth inequality, conspicuous consumption, race and gender labor market discrimination, the intergenerational transmission of economic status, worker and family adjustment to job loss and health shocks, non-work among prime-aged persons, and the labor market consequences of housing bubbles and sectoral change. He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and an elected Fellow of the Society of Labor Economics. He is a member of the Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee and sits on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Labor Economics, Economics, as well as on the International Editorial Board of the Industrial and Labor Relations Review.

Charles was the Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergmann Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy before being named Yale SOM dean in 2019. He received his doctorate from Cornell University and taught economics and public policy at the University of Michigan before moving to the University of Chicago in 2005. He has received multiple teaching awards and his many academic leadership roles have included running centers and programs within the Harris School and serving as the school’s deputy dean and later its interim dean.

Deborah Quazzo 

Deborah is the Managing Partner of GSV Ventures, a venture fund investing in education and workforce skills technologies that are disrupting the $7 Trillion sector and named to Insider’s inaugural list of top 100 seed investors. In addition, she is Co-founder of the ASU+GSV Summit. Now in its 13th year, the ASU+GSV Summit celebrates innovations and innovators across the global “preK to gray” learning and talent landscape and attracts over 5,500 live and 10,000 virtual attendees.

Deborah currently serves on the boards of, Ascend Learning, BrightChamps, Classplus, Class Technologies, CoLearn, Degreed, The Educational Testing Service (ETS), Intellispark, New Profit, PhotoMath, Remind, Simplilearn, Turnitin (an Advance Communications company) and Valenture Institute. She is a board observer at CLI Studios, Fairygodboss and Outlier.org. She is a member of the boards of The Common Ground Foundation, The Khan Academy Thought Leadership Council, Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Unity Advisory Board. She previously served on the board of a number of education organizations including The Chicago Board of Education (CPS) and KIPP: Chicago.

Deborah graduated cum laude with a BA in history from Princeton University in 1982 and an MBA from Harvard University in 1987.

View the complete New Profit Board of Directors here.