Education | Policy | Strategy | Institutions & the Future of Work | Author
Rochelle Prasad, Hon. LL.D
Teacher by training, systems builder by nature, Rochelle Prasad works across education, policy, strategy, and the future of work.
Over the past decade, she has focused on understanding what people actually need to succeed, and what gets in the way.
She founded SPARK Foundation as a teenager after seeing how many young people were leaving school without the mentorship, leadership experiences, life skills, or access to opportunities they needed to figure out what came next. What began as a grassroots initiative grew into an international education and social impact organization reaching more than 500,000 young people, 4,000 educators, and 1,500 schools across six countries.
Her work sits between strategy and implementation. She has built and scaled programs, led teams, managed complex projects, advised governments, developed cross-sector partnerships, and worked across classrooms, nonprofits, universities, government, and international institutions. Through SPARK and other initiatives, she has also helped generate more than $2 million in funding and partnerships.
Today, Rochelle works across education policy and strategic initiatives, bringing together governments, educators, nonprofits, businesses, and multilateral institutions around shared priorities. Her work within the United Nations system and with governments including Canada and Fiji has focused on education, youth representation, workforce development, and how institutions can better respond to the people they serve.
Alongside her policy work, she remains grounded in education. She has taught at UC Berkeley and University Canada West, developed university curriculum across public policy, leadership, and social innovation, and trained more than 300 educators.
More recently, Rochelle has been thinking deeply about how AI and emerging technology are reshaping education, work, institutions, and society. She is particularly interested in what happens when technology moves faster than existing systems can adapt, and how we make sure people have real agency in shaping what comes next.
She is also an author and public speaker, writing and speaking about education, leadership, policy, and the systems shaping young people’s futures.
Her work is grounded in a simple idea: young people should not just be included in conversations about their future. They should have real influence over the decisions shaping it.
Rochelle is an Honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) recipient, Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree, and recipient of the Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case, RBC’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada, the UN Young Leader of the Year Award, and The Diana Award.
She believes that at its best, education does not just prepare people for the future. It gives them the power to shape it.
Rochelle's Story!
Rochelle has spent her career designing learning experiences that unlock potential - from classrooms across Fiji, Ecuador, Kenya, and Canada to global stages at the United Nations. Her work bridges education, policy, and real-world impact, with a growing focus on how technology is reshaping how people learn, work, and participate in society.
Grounded in the belief that learning should open doors to opportunity, not just access, she builds systems that connect classrooms to careers, and young people to real pathways in leadership, policy, and the future of work.
Whether she is teaching students, advising governments, or building youth-led initiatives, Rochelle is guided by a simple question: how can learning be made more meaningful, more equitable, and more connected to the realities young people are stepping into?
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