Levi Bohanan was a policy entrepreneur at Next100 and is now a special assistant at the U.S. Department of Education in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. At Next100, Levi worked on issues related to progressive child care policy and high-quality early education. His work at Next100 focuses on expanding access to high-quality child care and early childhood development opportunities for low- and middle-income families. Levi has partnered with the University of Chicago’s GenForward to gather original data on millennials and Gen Z attitudes toward child care. He has worked to elevate the need to support and invest in the early childhood education workforce, and challenges faced by homeless students and how policymakers should respond. He has also written on how public education dollars are being diverted to conversion therapy—which he connects to his personal experience with it as a teenager.

Previously, Levi served at the U.S. Department of Education as a political appointee in the Obama administration under Secretaries Arne Duncan and John B. King, Jr. While there, Levi drew on his personal experience with homelessness in his teens to help inform new federal guidelines for supporting homeless students. Levi has also worked with various education nonprofits based in New York and nationwide on strategic advocacy efforts and policy development.

Levi received his BA in political science from Texas A&M University and his MA in education policy analysis at the Teachers College at Columbia University.