On September 9, President Biden announced his intention to nominate Adam Gamoran, president of the William T. Grant Foundation, as director of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) in the U.S. Department of Education. With a budget of over $800 million, IES is an independent, non-partisan agency that leads research, statistics, and evaluation for the U.S. Department of Education. The President’s nomination was welcomed by U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.
In December, the U.S. Senate went into recess without having confirmed the nomination. As a result, Dr. Gamoran will remain in his current role as President of the William T. Grant Foundation. “It was an honor to be nominated for this important government position,” Dr. Gamoran explained, “and I was prepared to serve regardless of the outcome of the 2024 elections. I am fortunate that I already have a great job that I love doing, and that our Board has encouraged me to continue in that role.”
Adam Gamoran has served as President of the William T. Grant Foundation since September 2013. Under his leadership, the Foundation launched a new initiative to support research to reduce inequality in youth outcomes, and entered a new phase of its long-standing effort to support research to improve the use of research evidence in programs and policies that affect young people. These focus areas will continue to guide the Foundation’s work. Another signature accomplishment is the Institutional Challenge Grant program, a collaboratively funded initiative that challenges universities to build partnerships with nonprofits or government agencies, jointly develop and execute a research agenda to reduce youth inequality, build the capacity of agency partners to use evidence in their decision-making, and shift universities’ incentive structures to encourage and value community-engaged research.
In 2022, Dr. Gamoran chaired a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that produced the report, The Future of Education Research at IES: Advancing an Equity-Oriented Science. Earlier, he served on the National Board for Education Sciences as an appointee of President Barack Obama.
Photo: William Atkins / The George Washington University
