About Eva

Eva Ostrum, an award-winning educator and filmmaker, author, and regularly cited media expert on education, has focused her career on raising student achievement and increasing access to higher education. Eva’s professional life began in the Yale University Office of Undergraduate Admissions, where she worked as an assistant director. Graduate work in education policy motivated Eva to enter the classroom, where she remained for almost a decade, including as part of a turnaround team that reclaimed a failing urban high school. As a teacher, Eva won a Conant Fellowship from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a distinction that the university bestows on three Boston Public Schools educators annually. She also received nominations for the Golden Apple and State Teacher of the Year awards. Eva constantly looked for ways to combine her work in the classroom with policy consulting and teacher leadership roles. Her professional experiences while still a teacher included consulting to education think tanks and government agencies, developing curriculum, and delivering grant-funded professional development to teachers.

In 2000, Eva decided to transfer her skill set to the private sector. She founded College Broadband, Inc. (CBB), an educational media and consulting firm that she ran for six years. CBB provided media production and school-based consulting services to urban schools and districts. Under Eva’s leadership, CBB produced Turusma: A Young Man’s Journey to College (2001), an award-winning documentary short that screened at film festivals around the country and overseas. Booklist (August 2002) described the film as a "good choice for sparking discussion about stereotypes, the limits sometimes imposed on African American youth, and college admissions." School Library Journal (December 2002) called Turusma's story one that "demonstrates the satisfaction of knowing what hard work can bring, and makes clear the path a boy travels to become a man." Video Librarian (September/October 2002) dubbed Turusma "sincerely made...a useful springboard for discussion, especially for minority youth." (Click here to learn more about Turusma .)

Eva’s ongoing commitment to urban education led in 2004-05 to CBB’s national search for Urban America’s Best & Brightest, the designation given to the winner of the first national scholarship award to recognize academic excellence in urban public schools. Dell, Inc. and BCT Partners (Donald Trump Apprentice IV winner Dr. Randal Pinkett’s company) collaborated with CBB on this campaign—one that received coverage in Essence, on BET Nightly News, on the Russ Parr Morning Show, and more. (Click here to learn more about the 2004-05 Urban America’s Best & Brightest campaign.)

In 2003, Eva expanded her consulting to include educational coaching and college counseling to parents and students. The methods and strategies that Eva used provided the inspiration and foundation for her critically acclaimed book, The Thinking Parent’s Guide to College Admissions: The Step-by-Step Program to Get Kids into the Schools of Their Dreams (Penguin 2006). (Click here to learn more about The Thinking Parent’s Guide.) Rice University honored Eva in 2005 by inducting her into its Nominators Circle, a distinction that it awards annually to fifteen educators nationwide.

After almost seven years as a serial entrepreneur, Eva returned to a high school setting. She served as an assistant principal and then principal from 2006-2008, where she once again enjoyed the exhilaration of high school turnaround. As an administrator, Eva worked with a team of teacher leaders to raise student attendance by five percent in three months and to lead a school from Corrective Action to AYP.

A sought-after guest expert and public speaker on education, Eva has been featured in media outlets around the country, including BET Nightly News, NPR, Teen People, and NBC’s Today show. Schools, parent organizations and labor unions have all invited her to address their members on topics ranging from raising student achievement to the quantifiable benefits of diversity. Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and the Harvard Graduate School of Education have both asked Eva to conduct teaching and curriculum development seminars or appear as a guest speaker and she has delivered workshops for educators as an invited presenter at national conferences.

Eva Ostrum has earned three academic degrees, including a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in French Studies from Yale University, a Master in Public Policy (M.P.P.) from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) from Boston University. She received her first publication credit, “Teaching for English Proficiency: The Need for an Evaluation of Language Programs in the New York City Public Schools," while still in college and continued to publish while in graduate school and in the classroom. Her articles have appeared in Education Week and Teacher Magazine , as well as elsewhere. Eva is currently seeking a doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania (degree expected, 2010). Her research focuses on eliminating the achievement gap.

Eva has participated actively in civic and community-based organizations, including the New York City chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO-NYC), where she sat on the board and held other leadership roles from 2002-2005. NAWBO-NYC awarded Eva its “Community Builder” award for her successful efforts to attract women from diverse backgrounds to leadership roles within the organization.

Click here to contact Eva.