Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, and Dr. Priscilla Chan, a pediatrician who is his wife, said Wednesday that they had hired James H. Shelton III, a former deputy secretary of the United States Department of Education, to oversee their efforts in education, in the latest example of former federal officials who are taking up jobs in Silicon Valley. Mr. Shelton will lead the education component of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, which Mr. Zuckerberg and Dr. Chan announced they were creating last year for their philanthropic and social entrepreneurship endeavors. The education work is focused on customizing learning for students and addressing disparities. “When you think about philanthropy, the question is, ‘How can you be catalytic?’” Mr. Shelton said in a phone interview. “It’s a huge opportunity for transformational work.” Mr. Shelton’s hiring is part of a stream of Washington officials going to work for tech titans. Among them are Jay Carney, a former White House press secretary, who is now senior vice president for corporate affairs at Amazon, and David Plouffe, a former senior adviser to President Obama who is chief adviser and a board member at Uber. The trend is more recent in education. Former federal education officials often used to enter politics or take up positions at universities and research groups. But in March, the Emerson Collective, an organization set up by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple’s co-founder, Steve Jobs, said it had tapped Arne Duncan, the former education secretary, to lead an effort focused on young people in Chicago. The advent of nontraditional philanthropic vehicles seems to be drawing new interest from veteran education officials. Both the Emerson Collective and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative are limited liability companies, an organizational structure that enables investing and advocacy, as well as philanthropy. “Silicon Valley traditionally has not played a huge role in education reform,” said Richard Culatta, a former director of the Office of Educational Technology at the Department of Education and now chief innovation officer of the state of Rhode Island. He said the hiring of prominent education officials like Mr. Shelton, who is also a former executive at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Mr. Duncan could herald new approaches to learning. “There could be huge impact from nontraditional organizations in really innovating in the field,” he said. In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Mr. Zuckerberg said the couple’s education initiative would focus on “personalized learning” — the idea of using various technologies to help students customize their educational pathways — and on addressing barriers to education like poverty and illness. “We set up the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative with the flexibility to support nonprofits, invest in companies and advocate for policies that will advance this mission,” Mr. Zuckerberg wrote. “We’ll build technology where it can help, and we believe in listening to and working closely with parents, teachers and students to understand the specific needs of the communities we’re working in.” The couple are already involved in a variety of education endeavors. They donated $100 million to schools in Newark, and they have pledged $120 million to schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. They have donated $23 million to EducationSuperHighway, a nonprofit group dedicated to increasing broadband access for schools nationwide. They have also invested $15 million in AltSchool, a network of private schools. Dr. Chan is also working on The Primary School, which takes a new approach to elementary schools. Scheduled to open this fall in East Palo Alto, Calif., it is a free private school that will provide health care and education for students and their families. In a Facebook Live video on Wednesday, Dr. Chan said that she recognized the role that teachers could play in shaping students’ futures. “Teachers were the first people who opened my eyes to what was possible in the world, and what was possible to me,” Dr. Chan said.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has hired former US Deputy Secretary of Education, James Shelton III to head the multi-billion dollar education philanthropy organisation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Founded Wednesday, the foundation aims to give 99% of Zuckerberg’s Facebook stock, valued at around $45bn, to a variety of educational causes. Shelton previously worked as a program director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and as a partner at the NewSchools Venture Fund, both of which have donated and invested heavily in education technology, among other public schooling causes.