Robin Gelinas

Robin Gelinas, a senior policy advisor, provides assistance to clients at state education agencies and other state-level entities to inform, guide, and facilitate the process of policy change. She also works with various nationally and federally focused organizations to provide assistance in strategic planning and policy analysis. Ms. Gelinas's core areas of expertise are: educator quality and effectiveness, high school reform, college- and career-readiness, state capacity building, school/district supports and interventions, and student supports.   

Ms. Gelinas formerly served as Senior Director of Policy Initiatives for the Texas Education Agency. In that role, she introduced and created momentum for new policies and initiatives within the agency and throughout the state. Specific contributions included: 

• Created and managed Texas's teacher pay for performance program – the largest plan, to date, nationally. In this capacity, she also led state efforts in outreach, implementation, guidance, technical assistance, and capacity-building. Additionally, she provided direction and guidance on other various educator excellence issues, including mentoring, school leadership, alternative certification, and teacher evaluation policies.
  
  
• Managed the Commission for a College Ready Texas (CCRT), a Governor-appointed advisory group made up of well-respected representatives from the business, philanthropic, and research communities to give feedback on college ready standards, facilitate the work of statutorily required vertical alignment teams, and provide research and general support to promote college-readiness throughout the state.
  
  
• Played leading roles in managing various other grants, policies, and technical assistance programs to create innovative educational pathways and options for middle and high school students, including dual credit, early college high schools, and STEM.   

Prior to joining the Texas Education Agency, Ms. Gelinas worked as a policy associate at the Alliance for Excellent Education, where she provided general leadership in policy efforts and authored or co-authored multiple briefs and papers relating to federal high school policy and teacher quality.   

Early in her career, Ms. Gelinas was employed first by Accenture and then by BearingPoint, Inc., where she assisted clients in the change management process, including strategic and organizational planning, communications, and training development. 

She earned a Masters in Public Policy from Duke University's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, where she received a Terry Sanford Fellowship. She also has completed additional classwork at Duke MBA, Duke Law School, and UNC Law School. She earned a Bachelor of Science, cum laude, in Business and Finance from Wake Forest University.