Christopher Gabrieli

Chris Gabrieli has chaired the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education since 2015, making him the longest-serving state board chair in the U.S. and the only one appointed by both a Democratic and Republican Governor. He has led key policy initiatives, including the Massachusetts Early College Initiative, which serves nearly 10,000 students and boosts college success rates for historically underserved students. New policies have also tripled needs-based financial aid and proactively policies addressed private college financial risk. A Lecturer at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education for over a decade, he teaches on education policy change and on innovations in blending K-12, college, and careers. Over 25 years, he has co-founded education nonprofits, including Empower Schools. He has held appointments from three Massachusetts Governors and the Mayor of Boston and served on several university boards. The author of Time to Learn and over 20 peer-reviewed papers, Chris is a Harvard graduate and lives in Boston with his wife, Hilary, where they raised their five children.