Wendy Kopp
Businessperson and former CEO of Teach For AmericaWikipedia
13
MENTIONS
8
EPISODES
8
PODCASTS
Search complete. 13 mentions across 8 episodes found for "Wendy Kopp".
Oct 16, 2026
Matt MahanGUEST
...
Matt MahanGUEST
Wendy Kopp.
Matt MahanGUEST
Yeah, that's right.
Michael NutterHOST
Wendy.
Grant TrahantHOST
It supports entrepreneurs at their earliest stages, often before they have funding, teams, or the kind of track record that traditional investors typically require.
Grant TrahantHOST
For example, Wendy Kopp received support from Echoing Green when Teach For America was just a concept in, in her senior thesis.
Grant TrahantHOST
Similarly, Raj Punjabi became a fellow while building Last Mile Health, which would go on to revolutionize community health worker training in remote areas.
Grant TrahantHOST
What makes Echoing Green's approach unique is its focus on the qualities of the entrepreneur rather than traditional metrics like business plans or resumes.
Jo OwenGUEST
And they carried a piece about a great project that got, uh, teachers to, um, great graduates to teach in the inner city in San Francisco.
Jo OwenGUEST
So I thought, "Well, yeah, that, that's good." I rang the radio station and said, "Give me the name of that project." "Teach For America." I rang Teach For America and I said, "I want to speak to your chief executive, Wendy Kopp." Got straight through to her, which actually shows the power of having a fruity British accent, you know, it kind of really helps.
Jo OwenGUEST
And she said, "Well," you know, basically, "Go away because I'm too busy." You know, "I can't help you." But she said, "McKinsey are looking at what they can do about education in London." So I called McKinsey and said, you know, "How about it?" basically, and, and they fobbed me off on this junior squit called Brett Wigdortz.
Jo OwenGUEST
So I met him and he said, "I'm doing this study." And I said, "I know you're doing this study, and I've got the answer, and it's called Teach For Britain." Okay.
31 MINS LATER
Mary Rose GunnHOST
What experience and tips do you have on making sure that succession is, happens in a very positive way?
Jo OwenGUEST
Right.
Mary Rose GunnHOST
Founders have energy for a, uh, an mission that, uh, is very hard to replicate in a chief executive.
Mary Rose GunnHOST
How do you know when it's the right time, and how do you make sure it doesn't feel like rejection?
Peter LynchGUEST
... she founded Teach For America.
Peter LynchGUEST
Wendy Kopp was, like, 21 when she founded Teach For America.
Charlie RoseHOST
Yeah.
Charlie RoseHOST
Right.
speaker_1HOST
Right.
speaker_0HOST
Because in 1989, Wendy Kopp wrote a senior thesis at Princeton with this radical idea of taking the absolute smartest, most elite college grads, the ones destined to make millions on Wall Street, and diverting them into struggling public school classrooms to fight educational inequity.
speaker_1HOST
Yeah.
speaker_0HOST
When you contrast that 1989 ethos of public service with 2026 parents spending 10 grand to buy their kid an edge in a T-ball league, it feels like our society's definition of success has aggressively narrowed.
Alan BlackburnNARRATOR
For thirty-five years, future leaders with Teach For America have sought to counter inequities.
Alan BlackburnNARRATOR
Wendy Kopp was a senior at Princeton University in nineteen eighty-nine, part of a cohort of the most recruited students in America.
Alan BlackburnNARRATOR
She and her peers, in what was widely called the Me Generation, were being recruited by Wall Street, big banks, lobbying firms, consulting firms, and Fortune five hundred companies.
Alan BlackburnNARRATOR
Kopp, who'd grown up in Dallas and went to good schools throughout her childhood, realized upon getting to Princeton and meeting people from less privileged backgrounds that not everyone had the same access to education that she'd had.
Alan BlackburnNARRATOR
For thirty-five years, future leaders with Teach For America have sought to counter inequities.
Alan BlackburnNARRATOR
Wendy Kopp was a senior at Princeton University in 1989, part of a cohort of the most recruited students in America.
Alan BlackburnNARRATOR
She and her peers, in what was widely called the Me Generation, were being recruited by Wall Street, big banks, lobbying firms, consulting firms, and Fortune five hundred companies.
Alan BlackburnNARRATOR
Kopp, who'd grown up in Dallas and went to good schools throughout her childhood, realized upon getting to Princeton and meeting people from less privileged backgrounds that not everyone had the same access to education that she'd had.
Jack SchneiderHOST
And I think it's not difficult to draw a line from the organizing of the sixties and seventies to the relatively conservative backlash of the eighties that extended into the nineties, emphasizing, uh, teacher accountability that introduced new ways of licensing teachers.
Jack SchneiderHOST
So, uh, you know, Wendy Kopp writes her thesis that becomes Teach for America, I believe in nineteen eighty-nine.
Jack SchneiderHOST
High-stakes testing, the idea is born in the nineteen eighties.
Jack SchneiderHOST
Um, merit pay was a big idea of the nineteen eighties.