Chris Meyer

A Louisiana native and father of two boys, Chris is the President and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation whose mission is to enhance opportunity and the quality of life in South Louisiana by leveraging collective resources across the state.

Previously, Chris served as the Founder and CEO of New Schools for Baton Rouge, a nonprofit organization that delivers on the promise of excellent education for all children. Under Chris’ leadership, the organization raised and deployed more than $80 million dollars to support the launch of two dozen new schools serving more than ten thousand students and spurred more than $150 million in new school facility investments.

Chris’ passion for education transformation began with Teach for America in New Orleans, where he taught high school social studies and coached basketball at John McDonogh High School. After Hurricane Katrina, Chris led over 200 students who had evacuated to a rural parish to achieve significant academic gains. Following his time in the classroom, Chris continued his pursuit of public service at all levels of government from The White House to the Louisiana Department of Education, where as chief of staff he pioneered efforts to turn around underperforming schools and shaped the legislative and regulatory framework to enable school transformation and charter school expansion.