Fernando M. Reimers is the Ford Foundation Professor of the Practice in International Education and Director of the Global Education Innovation Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is interested in advancing understanding of the ways schools can empower students to participate civically and economically, and to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. He served on UNESCO's Commission on the Futures of Education that authored the report Reimagining Our Futures Together. A New Social Contract for Education.
Reimers teaches courses on education policy and educational innovation that explore how to support students in developing competencies which help them improve their opportunities and quality of life, and to contribute to improve the world. He was the founding director of the International Education Policy Master's Program, a program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education that supported the development of leaders of systemic efforts to enhance the quality and relevancy of education around the world. His book One Student at a Time. Leading the Global Education Movement. is an analysis of the contributions of the graduates of this program to the Global Education Movement. This book is also available in Spanish.
His current research focuses on educational innovation and the impact of education policy, leadership, and teacher professional development on education that supports the holistic development of children and youth. He directs the Global Education Innovation Initiative, a cross-country research and practice collaborative he founded focusing on education for the 21st century.
He has written or edited 50 academic books, including the following:
On system level change
On Educating Global Citizens—Empowering Students
On Educational Leadership
Other Comparative Education Studies
He has written a series of children's books designed to foster intergenerational conversations around values and competencies which are necessary to live well with others in a diverse and interdependent world, which have been published in eleven languages. He has also co-authored a children's book to promote ecological awareness titled The Voices of the Trees, also available in Portuguese and Spanish.
He has served on the Harvard faculty since 1998. Previous to that he worked at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, the Harvard Institute for International Development and the World Bank. He earned Doctoral and master's degrees in education at Harvard University and obtained a Licenciatura en Psicologia at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. He received an Honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from Emerson College, a Centennial Medal Award from the Institute for International Education, and a Global Citizen Award from the US Committee for Teaching About the United Nations. He was the CJ Koh Visiting Professor at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. He is a member of the US National Academy of Education, of the International Academy of Education and of the Council of Foreign Relations.