Alex Cortez is a partner with Bellwether in the Strategic Advising practice area. Alex has 19 years of experience working in education and social change as a consultant, a school operator, and in philanthropy. Alex has deep experience helping organizations scale a combination of their direct impact in serving students; their widespread impact by building the capacity of partners to replicate their model; and their systemic impact by shifting mindsets, relationships, and power to in turn shift policy, practice, and resource flows.

Prior to joining Bellwether, Alex was a managing partner with New Profit, a national venture philanthropy, where he focused on funding and advising nonprofits growing their impact in K-12 and postsecondary education. He also led an initiative to scale efforts that supported parents in exercising their innate power to create and sustain change, including publishing a set of resources on how to harness measurement to maximize impact in parent power initiatives.

Alex formerly served as a regional director of growth and sustainability at the KIPP Foundation, leading network-wide efforts to increase performance and serving as a trusted advisor to the executive teams of five KIPP regions. He also served as chief of staff, strategy and execution for KIPP Houston Public Schools, leading efforts to improve performance and prepare the strategy and organizational systems to grow from 20 to 50 schools. Alex began his career in for-profit consulting, and then nonprofit consulting as a manager with The Bridgespan Group.

He serves on the boards of 4.0 Schools, Saga Education, and Innovate Public Schools. He also serves his community as a member of the Massachusetts State Board of Higher Education. He has a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University, and an MBA and MPA from Harvard University. Originally from New Orleans, he currently resides in Brookline, MA.