Yale School of Management - Andrea Levere '83

"I came to Yale SOM because I believed it was essential that people who were committed to a career in social and economic justice learned how to finance and manage things. As someone who has the privilege of creating more inclusive markets to bring low-income people into the economic mainstream, I rely and build upon the skills, relationships and perspectives I learned at SOM every day."

Andrea Levere has led the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) as its president since 2004. CFED is a private nonprofit organization with the mission of building assets and expanding economic opportunity for low-income people and disadvantaged communities through matched savings, entrepreneurship and affordable housing.

CFED designs and operates major national initiatives that aim to expand matched savings for children and adults, bring self-employed entrepreneurs into the financial mainstream and turn manufactured housing into an appreciating asset. CFED operates a comprehensive public policy program to build and protect assets at the local, state and federal levels, and produces the nationally recognized Assets and Opportunity Scorecard.

Under Ms. Levere’s guidance, CFED launched two new efforts this year to close the college completion gap by addressing key financial barriers low-income individuals face. The 1:1 Fund is an online marketplace that matches donor dollars to those of students saving for college in a matched savings account. The Partnership for College Completion is an innovative initiative by CFED, UNCF and KIPP that combines incentivized savings accounts, financial and college-readiness education, and scholarship assistance to prepare KIPP students for college success.

Prior to joining CFED in 1992, Ms. Levere was a director with the National Development Council. At NDC, she worked with cities and states to structure financing for small businesses, affordable housing and urban development projects and was a lead trainer for the Economic Development Finance Certification Program. She also designed and conducted "Taking Care of Business," a financial management program for entrepreneurs designed to help small businesses grow successfully.

Ms. Levere served first as a member and then as chair of the board of the Ms. Foundation for Women from 1988 to 2005. Currently, she serves as the chair of ROC USA (Resident Owned Communities USA), a national social venture that converts manufactured home parks into resident owned cooperatives. In 2009 she was appointed to Bank of America’s national consumer advisory council and in 2011 to an advisory group for Morgan Stanley.

She holds a bachelor's degree from Brown University and an MPPM from Yale University. In 2001, she received the Alumni Recognition Award from the Yale School of Management and in 2008 was named to the inaugural class of its Donaldson Fellows Program, which recognizes alumni who help educate business and society leaders.

Ms. Levere lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with husband Michael Mazerov '82, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and has two children.