About
Elena Vasquez is the Chief Executive Officer of Bright Horizons Foundation, a $180M operating non-profit focused on educational mobility for first-generation college students. Under her leadership, the foundation has tripled the number of students served annually while improving four-year graduation rates by 22 percentage points. Elena has spent her career in mission-driven organizations and is widely respected for the rigor she brings to non-profit operations. She serves on the boards of two national education organizations and is a frequent commentator on the gap between non-profit ambition and operational capacity.
Writing
Non-Profits Do Not Have an Impact Problem. They Have an Operations Problem.
The conversation about non-profit performance has been stuck on impact measurement for two decades. The binding constraint is somewhere else.
March 23, 2026
Why First-Generation College Students Drop Out (And What Actually Works)
After fifteen years of working with first-generation college students, the patterns are clear. The interventions that work are not the ones that get funded.
February 7, 2026
The Board Conversation Every Non-Profit CEO Avoids
There is one conversation that almost every non-profit CEO needs to have with their board and almost none of us actually do. Here is how to start it.
January 7, 2026