Member

Vice President, Office of Social Impact & Inclusion and Executive Director, Panasonic Foundation

Former Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics

Alejandra Ceja is the executive director of the Panasonic Foundation. She assumed this role in June 2017 and is responsible for leading the Foundation’s investments in educational equity.

Alejandra is the former executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. She was appointed by the White House in 2013 to serve President Barack Obama and the U.S. secretary of education to increase the educational attainment and life outcomes of Hispanics across the nation.

Prior to this role, Alejandra was the chief of staff to the under secretary of education at the U.S. Department of Education, where she was responsible for coordinating policy activities related to postsecondary education, career and technical education, adult education, and federal student aid. Her previous professional experience includes serving as the senior budget and appropriations advisor for the House Congressional Committee on Education and Labor, where she worked on budget and education policy issues. Alejandra helped draft legislation in support of reauthorizing the National and Community Service Act, resulting in the enactment of the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. From 1999 to 2007, Alejandra was a program examiner for the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

A native of Huntington Park, CA, Ceja holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles, and a Master’s degree in public administration from Baruch College at the City University of New York. She is a graduate of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s Public Policy Fellowship, the Presidential Management Fellows program, the National Hispana Leadership Institute, and the National Urban Fellows program.