Lars Esdal

(he/him)
Executive Director

Lars Esdal facilitates and provides leadership to Education Evolving's strategy development; the execution of its program; and the writing and distribution of its publications.

Lars is a graduate of the Minnesota New Country School, a student-centered, teacher-powered charter school in rural Minnesota. While there, he became convinced that students learn first and foremost from what they see modeled around them; when they see teachers exercising agency, collaboration, and shared leadership, they internalize and manifest those qualities in their own lives, communities, and workplaces.

Inspired by a desire to make student-centered learning available for all young people, Lars started working part-time as a student advocate with Education Evolving the fall after graduating from high school, while enrolled in college in Saint Paul. He became executive director of the organization in 2016.

In a prior life Lars was also a software designer and developer, and social media strategist. He founded a consultancy, which helped dozens of think tanks, foundations, and government agencies use the web to develop and distribute their ideas and advance policy change.

Lars holds a Bachelor of Arts from Macalester College, and a Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University. He is passionate about cooking, mixology, latin dance, and studying foreign languages. He is also President of the Labrador Foundation, a small private foundation that shares a theory of change with Education Evolving.

You can reach Lars at lars@educationevolving.org

About Education Evolving

Education Evolving is a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization working to improve public education.

Our mission is to advance student-centered learning for all students, by supporting teachers designing and leading schools, and by advocating for policy that catalyzes community-led innovation.

Our founders and leaders have been instrumental in innovations such as open enrollment and public school choice, the nation's first charter school law, and schools designed and run by teachers.

ยป More about EE