Deborah_Bial
Deborah Bial (born 1965) is an American businesswoman. She is the founder and president of the Posse Foundation[1] and a trustee of Brandeis University.[2]
Bial is known for the concept of her foundation, which is to send groups of around ten students to collaborating colleges so that they can support each other and achieve a greater success rate. She is also known for the Bial–Dale College Adaptability Index, an activity-based test of college readiness that incorporates Lego play.
She was one of the 2007 winners of the MacArthur "Genius" awards[3][4] and is a frequent speaker at college graduations.
→==Life== Bial was born in Manhattan[5] and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey. Her father played bassoon and contrabassoon with the New York Philharmonic and her mother worked as a public relations professional for the New York State Psychiatric Institute. She describes her younger self as shy and not standing out in any way: "There was nothing remarkable about me growing up." Her childhood ambition was to become a writer and illustrator of children's books.[6]
She attended Brandeis University, graduating in 1987.[7] She worked briefly as a paralegal, and then became a counselor for the CityKids Foundation in New York. After starting Posse, she returned to graduate school, and earned master's and Ed.D. degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1996 and 2004, respectively.[8]
She delivered the 2012 commencement speech at her alma mater, Brandeis University.[9] She has also been chosen as a commencement speaker at numerous colleges and universities including at DePauw University (2008),[10] at the University of Rochester (2015),[11] at Vassar College (2017),[12] Kalamazoo College (2018).[13] and at The College of Wooster (2019).[14]