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Duwain Pinder

Serves educational institutions on strategy and performance improvement and supports organizations across sectors on strategies to accelerate economic mobility

Duwain is a partner in McKinsey’s Ohio office, a leader in our Education Practice, and a cofounder and leader of the McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility.

Examples of Duwain’s recent client work include the following:

  • developing a ten-year university strategic plan and creating the internal infrastructure to execute with fidelity
  • facilitating a coalition of private, public, and social sector leaders to improve talent pathways and expand inclusive growth in their region
  • implementing a financial and operational transformation for a university
  • strategy for a national nonprofit to improve economic mobility in multiple states

Prior to joining McKinsey, Duwain worked for Teach For America as the director of growth, development, and partnerships, where he helped launch Teach For America’s presence in Ohio. He has authored research on improving education outcomes, expanding economic mobility nationally and in Ohio, and preparing for the future of work.

Published work

Cleveland’s hidden opportunity: How we can accelerate economic progress for thousands of families in Cuyahoga County,” Cleveland Business Journal, February 2025

700 years to equality. Blacks lag 100s of years behind white when it comes to prosperity,” The Columbus Dispatch, June 2024

How business can help Columbus narrow its housing gaps —and be a role model for other U.S. cities,” Columbus Business First, August 2023

Closing the job mobility gap between Black and White Americans,” Harvard Business Review, July 2021

Past experience

Teach For America
Director, growth, development, and partnerships

Education

Harvard Business School
MBA, management

Harvard Kennedy School
MPP, business and government policy

Case Western Reserve University
BS, finance