ERS Team

Jonathan Travers

Jonathan is the Chief Executive Officer at ERS. He is responsible for ensuring that ERS’ impact greatly exceeds our size. This means guiding our consulting project work in ways that respond to the felt needs of system leadership and that push toward transformational change. It also means ensuring our work contributes to broader organizational and field knowledge around resource allocation, resource use, and school and system design.

Jonathan has led many parts of ERS’ externally-facing work over the last two decades. This has included leadership of projects in more than 20 of our nation’s largest districts, ranging from projects that support high level system strategy in Seattle, Dallas and Montgomery County MD, to school funding system design work in Atlanta and Cleveland, and Strategy implementation in Charlotte and Denver, among others. He’s led several important communities of practice, including the School Portfolio Optimization COP for the Large Countywide and Suburban District Consortium and the Strategic Use of ESSER Working Groups of districts.

Jonathan has also led ERS’ CFO Strategy Networks, including launching our California, Texas, Washington, and Large Countywide Consortium CFO Strategy Networks over the last 5 years. He is the lead author of The Strategic CFO, released in 2019, which serves as an anchor curriculum for these networks. He’s authored dozens of other publications and is regularly quoted in EdWeek, The74, and other media.

Prior to joining ERS, Jonathan served as the Vice President of Finance and Administration (CFO) at Teach For America, Budget Director of the DC Public Schools, and analyst in the Education Branch of the US Office of Management and Budget. He began his career in education as an elementary teacher in the Compton Unified School District.

A graduate of Yale College and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Jonathan spends time outside of work rock climbing and cheering at his sons’ performances and competitions.

Previous Experience

Vice-President of Finance and Administration
Teach For America

Budget Director
D.C. Public Schools

Teacher
Compton Unified School District, CA

Education

M.A., Public Policy
John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University

B.A., American Studies
Yale University