Samantha Tweedy is the inaugural President of the Black Economic Alliance Foundation – the nation’s leading organization harnessing the collective expertise and influence of Black business leaders and allies to build generational wealth for the Black community.
Samantha brings two decades of experience building and leading transformative racial and economic justice initiatives at the intersection of the public, private, and philanthropic sectors. She was the first Chief Partnerships and Impact Officer at the Robin Hood Foundation, one of the nation’s largest anti-poverty organizations. She developed and directed the Power Fund to invest in nonprofit leaders of color and the High-Quality Schools Fund to support innovative school models for New York City’s most under-resourced communities.
Samantha brings a unique mix of on-the-ground and executive experience to her leadership. She served as the first Chief Advancement Officer at Uncommon Schools, a network of over 50 public charter schools serving historically disadvantaged students of color who go on to graduate from four-year colleges at higher rates than students from the wealthiest American households. She also founded and directed an elementary school that won the National Blue Ribbon School Award for its success in closing racial and socioeconomic opportunity gaps.
After graduating from Yale Law School and Duke University, Samantha began her career as an attorney at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, where she worked on landmark school equity litigation to close the public school spending gaps that disproportionately impact students of color and practiced commercial litigation.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Samantha lives in Bed Stuy with her husband and two children, Stokely and Evers.