Angela Hawken

Professor of Public Policy, New York University and Director, BetaHub

Angela Hawken, Ph.D., is Professor of Public Policy at New York University and Director of NYU’s BetaHub, which supports innovation for social good in 30 U.S. states and 5 countries. BetaHub includes BetaEd, dedicated to working with teachers as “pracademics” who partner with BetaEd researchers on rapid-cycle innovation and experimentation in their classrooms and beyond. BetaEd upends the conventional academic-practitioner research relationship, empowering practitioners—including teachers, school administrators, and staff—with a central role so that research is performed with and by them, as “citizen scientists” with their own student constituencies.

"Ask people of any age to describe their favourite teacher. Without hesitation, they will give you the teacher's name, and they'll even relate a memory or two. But their words will fall short, and they'll struggle to convey what made that teacher so special. The Global Teacher Prize is for those teachers who remind us of our limited vocabulary and boundless potential."