Founder & Chief Learning & Innovation Officer
Dr. Marla M. Dean is a nationally recognized leader and expert in K-12 education, early childhood education, health equity, economic justice, whole-child approaches, and two-generation (2Gen) policies and practices. She is the speaker behind the TEDx Talk "2Gen Policies: A Pathway Out of Poverty," a 2024 Washington Business Journal Innovator in Health Care, and was featured in NPR/WAMU's Voices of Ward 7 & 8 series for Women's History Month 2026.
During her tenure as CEO of Bright Beginnings, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit that employs 2Gen strategies to support children and families experiencing homelessness and housing instability, Marla grew the organization from $5M to $9M in annual revenue and secured multiple six and seven figure donations. She led the construction and opening of a $19M+ early childhood education and family learning center in Ward 8 using New Markets Tax Credits, satisfying the construction loan three years before maturity, and developed the BBI economic mobility matrix to measure outcomes of the organization's two-generation approach to ending intergenerational poverty.
Through her firm, Dean's List Consulting, Marla provides strategic leadership and advisement to a wide range of clients. She serves as strategic advisor and project lead for the Health Equity Fund at the Greater Washington Community Foundation, which has distributed over $90 million in less than five years to more than 125 nonprofits, guided by a three horizons theory of change and a connection between health equity and economic justice. She designed the Fund's $12.5M policy and advocacy round (the Foundation's largest advocacy investment to date), a $43M demonstration project round, and an $11.5M collective action round addressing D.C. autonomy, immigration, housing, youth safety, and healthcare, and produced the Foundation's inaugural Health Equity & Economic Justice Summit in 2024 and 2026. She also leads the Developing Families Maternal Health Fund, a multi-million dollar two-generation initiative addressing infant and maternal health outcomes, and serves as strategic lead to Sharing DC, a pooled donor-advised fund supporting community-based organizations across the District.
Dean's List Consulting additional clients include Ascend at the Aspen Institute, the Child Care for Every Family Network, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), Bellwether Education Partners, New Hope Housing, GOODProjects' Black Justice Institute Black Leadership Fellowship, and AsylumWorks. She also serves as strategic advisor and lead consultant to Kids' First Years, building a collaborative ecosystem involving city government, the school district, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit stakeholders to strengthen Alexandria's early childhood education system, including development of a Common Agenda strategic framework. Marla is a skilled trainer and facilitator, designing and leading national convenings, popular education series, executive retreats, and fellowship cohorts and confidential leadership forums for nonprofit CEOs, early childhood directors and social justice advocates., including designing and facilitating "Unmasking the System," a four-part popular education series on the racial history of childcare policy.
She currently serves as:
o National Board Chair of the birdSEED Foundation, an organization committed to increasing Black and Brown homeownership in rapidly gentrifying cities, where she has overseen more than $1M in provisional grants, assisted 75+ BIPOC homebuyers, and led an expansion to Philadelphia
o Board Member of the District of Columbia Early Learning Collaborative (DCELC)
o Member of the Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC) Policy Council
She previously served as Board Chair of Philanthropy DMV, where she led a complex organizational wind-down following high-profile leadership transitions, overseeing CEO selection and the association's responsible dissolution.
Marla has served on numerous nonprofit boards, city government councils, commissions, task forces, and mayoral transition committees, including:
o Mayoral Appointee and Inaugural Chair of the D.C. Commission on Poverty
o Chair of the Ward 7 Education Council (2020 to 2026)
o D.C. Council Appointee to the Early Childhood Educator Equitable Compensation Task Forces I and II, which established the Pay Equity Fund, securing more than $83M and pay parity for early childhood educators
o Mayoral Appointee to the School Boundaries and Student Assignment Committee, where she helped protect Ward 7 DCPS schools from closure
She has received numerous awards and recognitions, including:
o National Coalition of 100 Black Women Metropolitan Washington DC 2025 She's 100 Equity Award
o Washington Business Journal 2024 Nonprofit Health (Equity) Leader, Inaugural Class of Innovators in Health Care Awards
o Ward 7 Democrats 2024 Changemaker Award
o Seeding Disruption Fellowship, 2024 Cohort, Equity Lab
o 2023 Empowered Women Award from the East of the River Family Strengthening Collaborative
Dr. Dean brings over 30 years of diverse leadership experience in teaching, coaching, school and district administration, nonprofit leadership, and executive strategy. She is a former English and social studies teacher, assistant principal, high school principal, turnaround principal, and executive director of schools across Washington, D.C., Maryland, Michigan, and Virginia. She previously served on Mayor Bowser's Thrive by Five Coordinating Council and on the New Markets Tax Credit Advisory Boards of CityFirst Bank and the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF).
Marla holds a B.A. in Political Science and an M.A. in Teaching and Learning from The University of Michigan, an Education Specialist degree in Educational Leadership from Michigan State University, and a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Organizational Theory from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a lifetime member of both Leadership Greater Washington, Class of 2020, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc