Allison Serafin

Allison Serafin's commitment to educational equity began in 2001 as a Teach For America corps member at Attucks Middle School in Houston. That experience in the classroom changed everything, igniting a passion for expanding opportunity alongside communities historically underserved by existing systems and setting the course for a career spent building the infrastructure that great schools need to thrive. Today, as Chief Strategy and Development Officer, Allison supports the design and growth of the Building Hope Impact Fund, a platform deploying capital, technology, and fellowships to expand students' access to high-quality PreK-12 education. She led a first-of-its-kind microschool loan program supporting eleven schools across eight states, and she is co-founder of SchoolStack.ai, a fintech SaaS platform designed to simplify financial management, student enrollment, and forecasting for small and emerging schools. It's work that sits at the intersection of philanthropy, school finance, and technology, and it's deeply informed by her understanding of what educators and families want and need. Before Building Hope, Allison was the Founding Executive Director of IDEA Greater Houston, helping fuel one of the most ambitious school network expansions in the country, opening three K-12 campuses in two years. She went on to serve as VP of Development, securing $40M and leading real estate strategy for two additional K-12 campuses. She later joined the Dovetail Impact Foundation as its first Domestic Giving Program Officer, reporting to David Weekley, where she developed a philanthropic lens that continues to shape how she deploys resources for impact. Allison also founded Opportunity180 in Las Vegas, building Nevada's first talent and school-quality pipeline for high-performing public charter schools. From 2012 to 2015, she served as an elected member and Vice President of the Nevada State Board of Education. A graduate of TCU and UT-Arlington, Allison lives in Summerville, South Carolina, as the primary caregiver for her parents and three doodles.