Gail Manza, Ph.D.

Gail Manza is a Fellow with the FrameWorks Institute. A social worker with theoretical and practice expertise in community organization and movement building, she has special interest in how leaders view evidence and mobilize knowledge on behalf of social change. For more than two decades, she led national networks of locally driven public/private collaboratives aimed at strengthening the wellbeing of children and their families—including United Way’s Success by 6®initiative, which aims to improve early childhood education. She also served as CEO of MENTOR, a nonprofit organization that supports youth mentoring programs, and was recognized for grounding the nationwide expansion of mentoring in evidence-based policy and practice. Gail also served as founding chair of the Federal Mentoring Council; was an architect of the Center for Evidence-based Mentoring; and co-authored The Mentor’s Field Guide: Answers You Need to Help Kids Succeed. Gail has a strong record of nonprofit board leadership, including service on the board and executive committee of the National Human Services Assembly. She holds an MSW/MCP from the University of Maryland School of Social Work, and a PhD from Bryn Mawr College’s Graduate School of Social Work & Social Research.