Cindi Williams (Waypoint Education Partners)

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Cindi Williams is the CEO of Waypoint Education Partners. Cindi’s insights are grounded in decades of experience in research, advocacy, and communications as a senior official in the White House, US Department of Education, US House of Representatives, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and as a veteran of three presidential campaigns.
Most recently, Cindi served as a Principal at HCM Strategists, leading the K-12 portfolio. In this role, she and her team had the distinct privilege of partnering with a diverse set of leaders working to scale evidence-based solutions. These ranged from Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research to the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation to the National PTA to state education leaders in Tennessee, Virginia, Texas, New Mexico, South Dakota, California, and Massachusetts. She has focused on a wide range of impactful issues, including accelerating learning in the aftermath of the pandemic, increasing excellent educational options for underserved students, ensuring that every child has access to high-quality instructional materials, and making the case for educational data to inform decision-making.
In her role as co-founder of Learning Heroes, she and her colleagues have amassed a comprehensive body of research on families’ hopes, fears, and expectations about their children’s education. This research uncovered a shocking fact: that nine out of ten parents believe their children are at or above grade level. In order to address this misbelief and the unrealized potential of parent engagement it represents, Cindi and the team at Learning Heroes spearheaded the “Go Beyond Grades” campaign designed to help families of children in the public school system. Much of the work at HCM and now Waypoint and Learning Heroes is connected to the goal of equipping parents to be more informed advocates for their child’s learning.
Cindi has served on numerous boards and commissions, including Chair of the Washington State Charter School Commission, Technology Access Foundation, Northwest Center, Advisory Board of the Bush Institute, member of the US-Afghan Women’s Counsel, and U.S. Delegate to the Special Olympics World Games in Shanghai.
She lives in Bellevue, Washington with her husband and their two sons.

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