Linda Perlstein, an associate director of the College Excellence Program, has consulted for the program since its inception. Before coming to Aspen, she was lead curator for the Amazon Books retail chain, a consultant to think tanks and philanthropies on K-12 and postsecondary issues, the public editor of the Education Writers Association, and a staff writer at the Washington Post. Linda is president of the board of directors of the professional mentoring organization Friends of the Children-Seattle. She has written two books, Not Much Just Chillin’: The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers and Tested: One American School Struggles to Make the Grade, and edited many others. Linda holds a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and a master’s from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.