Nancy Hoffman

Vice President and Senior Advisor

Contact Nancy Hoffman

Nancy Hoffman works on state policy, higher education, and the transition to postsecondary education. She has been deeply engaged in JFF's work to develop early college high schools and to expand opportunities for college-level work in high school to a wide range of students. She writes and speaks on the topic of college and career preparation, and is an editor of two JFF books: Double the Numbers: Increasing Postsecondary Credentials for Underrepresented Youth; and Minding the Gap: Why Integrating High School with College Makes Sense and How to Do It, both published by the Harvard Education Press.

Dr. Hoffman also works as a consultant for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and has been engaged in its 17-country study of vocational education and training, "Learning for Jobs." Her most recent book is Schooling in the Workplace: How Six of the World’s best Vocational Education Systems Prepare Young People for Jobs and Life (Harvard Education Press 2011), a look at what the United States might learn from countries that have strong secondary and postsecondary career pathways serving the majority of young people.

Dr. Hoffman's career spans work in high schools and higher education. She came to JFF from Brown University, where she was senior lecturer in education, and served as director of the President's Office and secretary of the Brown Corporation.

Previously, at Temple University, Dr. Hoffman served as vice provost for Undergraduate Studies, Presidential Fellow, and director of the University Honors Program, with faculty appointments in English and women's studies.

Dr. Hoffman has held posts as academic services dean at Harvard Graduate School of Education and program officer at the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. She was a founder and faculty member of the College of Public and Community Service at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. At the University of Massachusetts, she also ran the Center for the Improvement of Teaching. She has held teaching positions in English and comparative literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Portland State University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For many summers, she co-convened the Academic Environment Unit of HERS Summer Institute for Women in Higher Education Administration.

Dr. Hoffman holds a B.A. and Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley. She chaired the board of directors of the Feminist Press, the oldest women's press in the United States, from 2002 to 2006. She serves on the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. In addition to her publications for JFF, Hoffman is also author of Women's True Profession: Voices from the History of Teaching (Harvard Education Publishing Group).