Van Schoales joined Keystone Policy Center as senior policy director in 2021. He is one of the two Founding Partners of Education Civil Rights Now and the former President of A+ Colorado, a research and advocacy organization founded by Senator Michael Bennet and Mayor Federico Pena to improve public education in Colorado. Van has 33 years of experience leading education improvement efforts from the classroom to the statehouse.
Van is an award-winning public high school science teacher (recognized by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers and Stanford University) who also served as a successful school leader in independent, public district, and public charter schools during the first half of his career. He was the founding principal of The Odyssey School, the first Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound Charter in the nation. Van has organized numerous successful efforts to improve public schools and school systems, overseeing more than fifty reports on public education improvement. He regularly consults and speaks on education topics and is often quoted in news outlets including The Denver Post, NBC News, ABC News, National Public Radio, Chalkbeat, The New York Times, Education Week, Univision, and Fox News. Van serves as a Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for the City of Denver and volunteers on several nonprofit boards.
Van earned a B.S. from the University of California – Santa Cruz (Earth Sciences), M.S. from Brown University (Geological Sciences), M.A. from San Francisco State University (Education Administration), and an M.A. from Stanford University (Education).