Lande Ajose

Lande Ajose is an accomplished public policy leader who has worked relentlessly to improve lives in her home state of California. She is now taking her human-centered approach to solving real world climate challenges global, as Managing Director of Waverley Street Foundation. Before joining Waverley, Lande served as Vice President, Senior Fellow, and Walter and Esther Hewlett Chair in Understanding California’s Future at the Public Policy Institute of California, shaping the Institute’s work on the most pressing issues facing the state.

Lande is a nationally recognized higher education expert, and formerly served as a senior policy advisor for California Governor Gavin Newsom where she helped to advance several special initiatives including the Commission on the Future of Work, the Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery, and the Recovery with Equity Task Force for higher education. Before joining the Newsom administration, Lande was executive director of California Competes where she developed policy proposals for improving the state’s higher education system.

She chaired the California Student Aid Commission, and served on the governance bodies of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, the Institute for College Access and Success, and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Senior College University Commission.

Lande is committed to championing the families and communities who are impacted by the real world impacts of climate change and working to build bridges between these communities and the organizations supporting cutting edge solutions. She currently sits on the Board of Trustees at Occidental College and KQED, and on the PPIC Higher Education Center Advisory Council. She is also the co-host of the podcast Sparking Equity. She holds a PhD in urban and regional studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).