Alexandra Bernadotte

Alexandra (Alex) Bernadotte is the founder and chief executive officer of Beyond 12, a technology-enabled nonprofit that integrates personalized coaching with mobile technology to increase the number of traditionally underserved students who graduate from college and translate their degrees into meaningful employment and choice-filled lives. She has over 18 years of executive management and strategic development experience in the nonprofit and private sectors. Immediately before launching Beyond 12, Alex was an entrepreneur in residence at NewSchools Venture Fund, where she developed the business plan for Beyond 12.

Alex’s previous professional experience includes serving as executive director of The Princeton Review’s Silicon Valley office; executive director of Foundation for a College Education, a nonprofit college access program; co-founder and vice president of marketing at educational travel startup Explorica; director of operations at EF Education; and operations manager at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, where she coordinated the efforts of an international youth substance abuse prevention foundation. Alex currently serves on the board of directors of Cengage Group and the board of advisors of the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship and the Presidential Commission for Financial Aid at Dartmouth College.

Alex earned her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth and a master’s degree with a concentration in policy and organizational leadership from Stanford. She is an Ashoka Fellow, a recipient of the NewSchools Venture Fund Entrepreneur of the Year award, a Jefferson Award for Public Service winner, a Dartmouth College Social Justice Award and Stanford University Alumni Excellence in Education Award honoree, a Fellow of the Pahara – Aspen Institute Education Fellowship, and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership  Network. In addition, Beyond 12 was named one of the world’s ten most innovative education companies by Fast Company.