Randi Weingarten & Russlynn Ali on StageX

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Two of education’s most ardent advocates for ensuring ALL people have equal access to the future, Randi Weingarten and Russlynn Ali will join us for a fireside chat on StageX at the 2025 ASU+GSV Summit!

A vocal champion of the educator and America’s middle class, Randi Weingarten is one of the most influential leaders at the intersection of education, labor, and policy. In conversation with Russlynn Ali — a leading proponent for reimagining high school through practice, policy, and new products — the two will bring their decades of experience and dedication to determine what it takes to build a future of education that works for everyone — from rooting ourselves in common purpose to equipping educators for a rapidly evolving future.

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Since 2008, Randi Weingarten has served as president of the AFT, a union of 1.8 million teachers; paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; higher education faculty and staff; nurses and other healthcare professionals; local, state and federal government employees; and early childhood educators. The first openly gay leader of a labor union in the world, she also served for 11 years as president of the United Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 2, representing approximately 200,000 educators in the New York City public school system, as well as home childcare providers and other workers in health, law, and education. She also taught history in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood from 1991 to 1997.

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Russlynn Ali has been a leading voice in education for more than two decades. In 2015, she co-founded the XQ Institute, the country’s foremost organization dedicated to rethinking high school, with Laurene Powell Jobs. She currently serves as XQ’s CEO and as Managing Director of the Education Fund at Emerson Collective.  Russlynn’s career started in corporate law at one of the country’s top firms, before she moved to leadership positions at the Advancement Project, the Broad Foundation, Los Angeles Unified School District and the Children’s Defense Fund. She was also the founder of Education Trust–West in California and VP of Education Trust in Washington, DC. Before joining Emerson, Russlynn served as Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights during Obama and Duncan’s first term and is widely credited with reinvigorating civil rights enforcement in US education.

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