Sophie Fanelli

Sophie Fanelli is the President of the Stuart Foundation where she is responsible for leading the foundation’s investments to advance whole child education in California and Washington State.  She oversees four grantmaking portfolios: School Finance & Accountability, Educator Leadership, Creativity & Arts Education, and Adolescent Learning. Sophie first joined the Stuart Foundation as Senior Program Officer for Education in October 2012.

Previously, she served as Director of Research & Policy at the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) at UCLA where she oversaw public policy and legislative efforts focused on education equity and access, student and parent engagement, and school transformation.  She also worked at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California where she concentrated on a range of social and racial justice issues including advancing education equity, LGBTQ issues, immigrants rights, and advocacy for the homeless.  Sophie was trained as a lawyer in France, Italy and at the University of Texas in Austin where she focused on criminal justice issues.