J.B. SCHRAMM

“[Kinney] helped transform College Summit (now called Peer Forward) from a neighborhood effort serving a few hundred kids to a city-wide, and then national, operation.”

— J.B. Schramm, Managing Partner, Grove Collective Foundation; Co-Founder, Peer Forward; Washington, D.C. resident for 35 years 

 Letter of Testimony for Kinney Zalesne 

In 1995 I started a college access program in the basement of an affordable housing provider in Adams Morgan. I knew that DC’s young people from low-income backgrounds had much more talent than colleges knew how to spot. 

Among the first people I called to help me was Kinney Zalesne, because I knew she was then working with Attorney General Janet Reno on community-based crime prevention strategies. 

After just one College Summit workshop, Kinney fell in love with the program. Within months, she left her job at Justice to help me scale it up. 

Over the next four years, she helped transform College Summit (now called Peer Forward) from a neighborhood effort serving a few hundred kids to a regional, and then national, operation. With Kinney as President, we increased our budget 20-fold, forged bold and non-traditional partnerships, brought new national attention to the gap between low-income talent and colleges’ ability to find it, and boosted low-income college enrollment and persistence. We even championed a change in federal law to require that high schools be measured not just on graduation, but on college enrollment and persistence. 

Kinney has always been a powerful bridge-builder and persuader. She remains a close friend and colleague; indeed, my wife and I asked her to be our daughter’s godmother. 

DC couldn’t do better than having Kinney as its Delegate. 

J.B. Schramm 

Managing Partner, Grove Collective Foundation 
Washington, D.C. resident for 35 years