SANDRA WILCOX CONWAY, M.ED; MBA

Sandra Wilcox Conway, M.ED; MBA is a social impact consultant and CEO of Conway and Associates. She has worked in philanthropy, social impact consulting and civic engagement since the mid-1980’s.

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Sandra began her career in New York City with Foote, Cone and Belding and the Exxon Foundation. Following graduate school, she joined NCNB Corporation. She served in various management and communications roles including development of the first corporate social responsibility strategy for NCNB’s support of public education. She served as NCNB’s representative on The North Carolina Business Committee for Education. In 1995 she was hired by The First Union Foundation to redesign the company’s commitment to public education. Sandra oversaw First Union’s transition to a focus on early childhood literacy through the design and implementation of the nationally recognized Reading First Program. Reading First received The Points of Light Foundation award in 2000 for corporate community involvement and currently engages over 6800 schools in partnership with Wells Fargo employees. 

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From 2000-2011, she served as a strategic advisor to non-profits and social entrepreneurs including The Women’s Impact Fund, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) Parent University, Chapel of Christ the King Preschool, Outward Bound’s Charlotte Advisory, The Janam Peacebuilding Foundation (Kenya), The Community School of the Arts and The Catawba Lands Conservancy.  In 2011-2012, she designed and led, DVA (Donors, Volunteers and Ambassadors) Charlotte, the nonpartisan women’s leadership organization in support of the 2012 Democratic National Convention. DVACharlotte was recognized by The Charlotte Observer and The White House Women’s Conference for its innovative model and impact on civic engagement and leadership.

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Since 2012 Sandra has refocused her practice Conway and Associates on issues of private funding and educational equity including the organizational design and development of The CMS Foundation. In 2014, Sandra and Elyse Dashew co-created, Public School Friends, a grassroots network advocating for increases in local funding for public education. In 2015-16, she led a campaign (Creating a 21st Century Movement for Integration) to generate public will to address school segregation in partnership with Dr. Amy Hawn Nelson, Director of UNC-Charlotte’s Institute for Social Capital, and other education advocates.

 

In 2017-2018, she collaborated with Dr. Hawn Nelson, The Public School Forum of NC and Duke University’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative on a grant to better understand parent belief systems and behavior impacting school choice and equity. Sandra served as the NC organizer and Impact Producer for the rollout of the Starz series, America To Me. Sandra is a graduate of Chapel Hill High School, Wake Forest University and holds both an MEd. and an MBA from UNC-Chapel Hill.

She and her husband, Peter, have three children, Peter, Ben, and Adelaide.

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Sandra is currently supporting two social impact projects:

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• The Color of Education, a collaborative sponsored by Duke University’s Samuel Dubois Cook Center on Social Equity and The Public School Forum of North Carolina.

  • The collaboration grew out of The Forum’s Study Group 16 and was launched in 2018 with an event featuring Nikole Hannah-Jones and other efforts to address re-segregation.

  • In 2019 and beyond, Color of Education will evolve into a yearly, summit and other strategies to engage key stakeholders focused on achieving racial equity in education

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• Narratives on Inequality in The South, a collaboration with Duke University and Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation.

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