Barbara Reisman is the Senior Advisor to the Maher Charitable Foundation, a family foundation with a focus on early childhood policy and programs and a strong interest in improving public education. From 1997 to 2016, Barbara Reisman was Executive Director of The Schumann Fund for New Jersey, where she focused the Fund’s early childhood grantmaking on strategic policy and program initiatives that helped make New Jersey’s preschool system an exemplar for other states. The Schumann Fund also supported parent and community organizing to improve public schools; helped launch a district-wide small schools initiative in Paterson and state-wide; and funded student-led research into conditions in the state’s poorest urban districts. From 1986 to 1997, Ms. Reisman was Executive Director of the Child Care Action Campaign (CCAC), a national organization working to improve child care and early childhood education. At CCAC, she helped to organize a collaboration of 20 national organizations to work together to expand public and private investment in child care and early childhood education. She is the author of numerous articles and Funder-to-Funder Conversation – Panelist Bios June 20, 2023 publications on the economics of child care and childcare policy. Prior to joining CCAC, Ms. Reisman was the Director of Finance and Administration at the Environmental Defense Fund. Ms. Reisman is a trustee emerita of Brown University and of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. She is a trustee of Grantmakers for Education and has also served on the board of Grantmakers for Education. A Montclair, NJ resident, Ms. Reisman holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from Harvard Business School, an M.A. in History from Rutgers University, and a B.A. from Brown University.
