Athena Lao is a Senior Program Manager at TED-Ed, where she co-leads the development of a global professional learning program supporting educators in sharing their best ideas with the world. Her career spans teaching, college counseling, consulting for school districts and nonprofits, and co-founding an education nonprofit in Bulgaria that engages thousands of students in speech and debate. Prior to TED-Ed, she spent a decade in international higher education, designing and managing large-scale scholarship, exchange, and professional development programs for governments, corporations, and foundations. She holds an AB from Harvard, an MSEd from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from Quantic.
