Meseret Negash is the Senior Vice President of External Affairs at Chicago Scholars. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from James Madison College at Michigan State University and a Master of Arts degree in Communication and Education Policy also from Michigan State University. She served as the associated students of Michigan State University Director of Multi-Cultural Education. Her graduate studies primarily included research focused on the areas of information, policy and society, with a focus on how technology can serve to educate the underserved.

Ms. Negash moved to Chicago in 2003 from Washington DC to lead the teacher recruitment initiative for the Academy for Urban School Leadership. In that position, her work focused on attracting career changers who desired to retool and become inner city teachers for Chicago’s Elementary and High Schools. She has also worked at Northwestern University in the office of Alumni and Development.

Ms. Negash’s responsibilities at the Chicago Scholars Foundation are program design and strategic partnerships. She led a community panel of educators and university partners to design a best practice college access program specifically addressing service gaps for first generation college students. The program addresses service gaps for first generation college students, particularly by redefining how community based partnerships can collaborate to meet the needs of marginalized youth. The program that she leads for the Chicago Scholars Foundation is the Onsite Admissions Forum program. The Onsite Admissions Forum is an innovative approach to serving first generation youth by removing the barrier that enables them to travel and interview with schools that they desire to attend. The program was designed to have the schools meet the students, provide admissions feedback and scholarship. In the past 5 years the Onsite has grown from serving 60 students and 30 Colleges to 70 Colleges to 500 students from 100 Chicago High Schools and 14 community based organizations. This year at the Onsite, 11 million dollars in scholarships was awarded to students.

Additionally, Ms. Negash has worked in the communication arena in broadcast television for NBC and BET News in the Public Affairs Department and for the U.S. Senate. Ms. Negash's career experiences span many areas of education ranging from early childhood education, teacher training, scholarship for PhD students, and most recently, strategic partnering with post secondary institutions and community organizations to support development of human capital at the Chicago Scholars Foundation. Ms. Negash is passionate about learning languages; she is fluent in French and Amharic and has lived abroad in seven African countries. Ms. Negash serves on the following boards, The James R. Jordan International Foundation and The Museum of Science and Industry Youth Science Engagement Advisory Board.