COURAGEOUS

FEBRUARY 6-7, 2015 ATLANTA, GA

LEADERSHIP

Facebook.com/TFACollective #SLOC2015 @TFACollective

WELCOME!

Welcome to the 4th Annual School Leaders of Color Conference!

You are joined at this conference by nearly 200 alumni educators: teachers, grade level chairs, deans,

principals, systems leaders, and more. You represent more than 35 cities and regions of the country, and

reflect nearly every corps year from 1990 to today. This is an incredible group! We hope that you are as

energized as we are by the community that we will build here, and the opportunities we will have to learn

with each other.

As leaders of color we are called to lead courageously: to make choices to do right, pursue radical visions

for change, and lead the way for others. But courageous leadership is hard, and sometimes it costs.

This year we’re focusing on how to achieve our visions through courageous leadership. We’ll learn how to

navigate and negotiate our way through the system so that we are creating effective, sustainable change,

draw lessons from others’ courageous choices, and learn how to courageously advocate for all the diverse

communities we serve and represent. Courageous leadership requires us to own our power as individuals

and as a collective community of color. We’ll learn how to avoid the mental traps that cause us to leak our

power and get equipped with strategies to lead from where we are.

The call is clear. We can no longer work quietly in our separate corners towards the change we want to

see. This is our time to come together as one family, to raise our collective voice and roar.

Melinda Wright (New York ’94) Senior Vice President, Diversity and Regional Alumni Support

Teach For America

DeLano Ford Executive Director, Metro Atlanta

Teach For America

“Power properly understood is nothing but the

ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength

required to bring about change.”

— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1964

AGENDA

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5th 7:30 - 9:00pm Early Arrival Happy Hour – Hosted by The Collective

Informal gathering for early arrival attendees. Complimentary appetizers. Twenty-Two Storys,

Hyatt Regency

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6th

8:00 - 11:45am School Visits & Experience Debrief Attendance is limited to those who pre-registered for these visits.

Meet in Assigned Location

9:00 – 11:30am School Leaders of Color Profound Impact Brain Trust Embassy C

Teach For America's "Statement on Diversity" speaks to a belief that teachers who share the socioeconomic or racial background of their students have the opportunity to have a "profound additional impact" in the classroom. But what does "profound impact” mean? With an emphasis on African American and Latino students, this participant-driven discussion will leverage the experiences of school leaders of color in order to identify what “profound impact” looks like in the classroom and explore its resonance as a key lever of transformational change.

Panelists:

Hiewet Senghor, Corps Member Diversity, Teach For America

Ayana Gabriel, Managing Director, Admissions Diversity Strategy

10:00 - 11:40am School Systems Leader Roundtable: Diving into the Core Challenges of Systems-Level Work

Attendance by invitation only.

Embassy A

In this roundtable discussion, alumni school systems leaders and local leaders will discuss the core challenges of systems-level work and developing and sustaining a “revolutionary” point of view to achieve truly transformational change.

Elisa Villanueva Beard, Co-CEO, Teach For America Dr. Howard Fuller, Professor of Education, Marquette University and Former Superintendent,

Milwaukee Public Schools

11:00 -11:45am Emerging School Leaders Forum Attendance is limited to those who pre-registered for this session.

Panelists:

Juliana Worrell, Principal, North Star Academy

Erasmo Montalvan Principal, District 299, City of Chicago School District

Embassy E

12:00 – 1:30pm Opening Keynote and Lunch: Courageous Leadership: You. Me. Us. Now.

Welcome: Melinda Wright, Senior Vice President, Alumni Diversity, Teach For America

Introduction: DeLano Ford, Executive Director, Teach For America Metro Atlanta

Keynote Address: Dr. Meria Carstarphen, Superintendent, Atlanta Public Schools

1:45 – 4:45pm Values Based Leadership Development Session Ballroom

Using the Marshall Ganz Public Narrative model as our framework, this session will help participants

articulate who they are, why they do the work they do, who we are together as a collective, and develop

a call to action or a charge.

Danielle Mullings, Managing Director, Values Based Leadership Development, Teach For America

Shannon Wheatley, Vice President, Teaching Leadership, Teach For America

International

Ballroom

4:45 – 5:00pm Transition Time

5:00 – 5:45pm Policy Snapshot: Elementary and Secondary Education Act

John King, Senior Advisor to the Secretary, U.S. Department of Education

Ballroom

5:45 – 6:30pm Break

6:30 – 9:00pm Evening Reception

DeLano Ford, Executive Director, Teach For America Metro Atlanta

Elisa Villanueva Beard, co-CEO Teach For America

Ed Chang, Director of Coaching and Succession Strategy, KIPP Foundation

Dallas Dance, Superintendent, Baltimore County Public Schools

Student Performance: Atlanta Word Works

Center for Civil and

Human Rights

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7th

7:30am

8:00-9:00am

Ballroom Opens for Breakfast

Morning Plenary Session

Kiran Ahuja, Executive Director, White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

9:15 – 10:30am

10:45-12:00pm

Breakout Sessions – Block I

Breakout Sessions – Block II

See Personal Agenda

See Personal Agenda

12:15 - 1:45pm Lunchtime Panel – Courageous Leadership Through the Lens of Ferguson: Preparing Our Children for the World They Live In

Ballroom

This panel will discuss, using the lens of Ferguson, the bigger issues Ferguson points to and what this

means for educators of color charged with preparing children for the world they live in.

Welcome/Introduction:

DeRay McKesson, Minneapolis Educator, Ferguson Activist, Wetheprotestors.org

Moderator:

Khalilah Harris, Deputy Director, White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans

Panelists:

Dr. Beverly Tatum, President, Spelman College

Nick Chiles, Editor-in-Chief, Atlanta Blackstar, and author of Justice While Black

Brittany Packnett, Executive Director, Teach For America St. Louis

Billy Kearney, Deputy Chief of Innovation – The Office of Innovation and Research, DC Public

Schools, and Founding Executive Director of Teach For America Metro Atlanta

2:00 – 3:30pm

3:45-4:45pm

5:00-5:30pm

Breakout Sessions – Block III

Breakout Sessions – Block IV

Closing Plenary

See Personalized Agenda

See Personalized Agenda

Ballroom

Andrea Pursley, Executive Vice President, Alumni Affairs, Teach For America

Melinda Wright, Senior Vice President, Diversity and Regional Alumni Support, Teach For America

6:00 – 8:00pm Optional Happy Hour (Hosted by: The Collective)

Twenty-Two Storys,

Hyatt Regency

Ballroom

Ballroom

BREAKOUT SESSIONS

BREAKOUT SESSION I - Saturday, 9:15-10:30am

Confronting Barriers to Educational Equity in Rural Poverty Communities Laura Jackson, Director of Special Education, Curriculum, and Pupil Services, Montello School District

Reimagining Parent Engagement Marcello Sgambelluri, Elementary Specialist, Teach For America

Jefferson Academy, Where Everyone LOVES School Natalie Gordon, Principal, Jefferson Academy

Defining the Path Forward in LGBTQ Education Nicole Young-Turner, Associate, LGBTQ Initiatives, Teach For America

Going Beyond Closing the Achievement Gap: Why We Educate and What an Impactful Education Will Require Kriste Dragon, CEO, Co-Founder, Citizens of the World Charter Schools

Leading with Coherence and Courage Frank Lozier, Principal, Compton Unified School District

School-Wide Strategies for Diversity and Inclusion John Kaczorek, Principal, Hiawatha College Prep

Thinking Mathematically: Common Core Teaching in STEM Rob Leichner, Math Teacher, West Mecklenburg High School

BREAKOUT SESSION II - Saturday, 10:45-12:00pm

Expanding One's Thinking about Extended Families: Working with Navajo Children Anneke Lundberg, Assistant Professor, Early Childhood Multicultural

Education, University of New Mexico-Gallup Kimberly Ross-Toledo, Governing Council Member, Uplift Community

School

Wrap-Around Services in Action Joseph Manko, Principal, Baltimore City Public Schools

The Role of Data Disaggregation in Equity: Unpacking the Model Minority Myth Sarah Ha, Managing Director, Asian American & Pacific Islander Initiative, Teach For America

Trauma Responsive/Healing Schools AsaleSol Young, Fellow, Charter School Partners

Practice Makes Permanent: Infusing Practice into Observation Debriefs Antoinette Chukudebelu, Manager of Faculty Talent & Assistant Professor

of Practice, Relay Graduate School of Education Jennifer Cross, Dean, New Orleans, Relay Graduate School of Education

Transformative Education: Making Character Education Courageous Julie Goldstein, Principal, Breakthrough Magnet School, South Hartford Public Schools

From Theory to Practice: Leading and Coaching District Departments through Transformational Change Michelle Bierman, Director Office of Equity, St. Paul Public Schools

Identifying and Developing Talent Angela Maldonado, Lead Talent Management Coach, TNTP

BREAKOUT SESSION III - Saturday, 2:00-3:30pm

Assessing Your Cultural Resilience as a Leader Dr. JuanCarlos Arauz, Founding Executive Director, E3: Education, Excellence & Equity Analyzing and Coaching Teachers

Civil Rights Movement of Our Time Jennifer Roberts, Manager of Training/Co-Leader, Race & Equity, District

of Columbia Public Schools Michelle Molitor, Founder, CEO, Fellowship for Race & Equity in

Education

Real Time Feedback Juliana Worrell, Principal, North Star Academy

Powered By Data: Moving Beyond to the Standards and Pushing Forward to Student Outcomes and Success Anthony Branch, Director of School Support, The Achievement Network Suezette Robotham, Managing Director, Talent Acquisition, The Achievement Network

From Intention to Action: Building Diverse, Inclusive Teams in Education to Deepen Impact Tina Fernandez, Partner, Bellwether Education Partners

Making your Voice Heard: Effecting Change as a Person of Color in a Predominately White Organization Komal Bhasin, Principal, UP Academy Leonard, Lawrence Public Schools Rebecca Richardson, Dean of Curriculum and Instruction, Lawrence

Public Schools

If Not Us Then Who? Kelli Seaton, Instructor, The Kroc Center Karen Smith, Chief Schools Officer, Scholar Academies

Special Education/EBD: Dismantling a Segregated System Jerry Burch, Intervention Specialist, St. Paul Public Schools Stacey Kadrmas, Principal, St. Paul Public Schools Jennifer Stokes, Special Education Teacher, St. Paul Public Schools Cleo Sykes, Cultural Specialist, St. Paul Public Schools

BREAKOUT SESSION IV - Saturday, 3:45-4:45pm

Disruptive Leadership: Designing and Leading a Breakthrough School Jonathan Santos Silva, Head of School, Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy

Creating a Culture of Collaboration and Success in Inner City Schools Carla McCullough, Principal, Alliance Health Services Academy High School

Developing Leaders and Empowering Your Leadership Team Alexandra Arroyo, Director of Talent Development, YES Prep Eldridge Gilbert, School Director, YES Prep North Forest

Building Resilience With And For Yourself, Your Staff, And Your Students Dr. Kacy Seales, Principal, St. Louis Public Schools Dr. Kristen Taylor, Academic Support Coach, St. Louis Public Schools

How to Build a N.E.S.T.: How to Turnaround a School Without Turning Over Faculty and Students Robert E. Croston, Jr., Principal, Chicago Public Schools

Lessons Learned from Year 1 as a School Leader Erica Jordan-Thomas, Assistant Principal, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools

KEYNOTE SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Kiran Ahuja | Executive Director | White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Kiran Ahuja was appointed on December 14, 2009 to the position of Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), housed in the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, DC. In this capacity, she is responsible for directing the efforts of the White House Initiative and the Presidential Advisory Commission on AAPIs to advise federal agency leadership on the implementation and coordination of federal programs as they relate to AAPIs across executive departments and agencies. The White House Initiative on AAPIs works with these entities to improve the quality of life and opportunities for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders through increased access to, and participation in, federal programs in which they may be underserved.

For almost twenty years, Ms. Ahuja has dedicated herself to improving the lives of women of color in the U.S. Well-known as a leader among national and grassroots AAPI and women's rights organizations, Ms. Ahuja served as the founding Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF) from 2003-2008.

Through her leadership, Ms. Ahuja built NAPAWF from an all-volunteer organization to one with a paid professional staff who continue to spearhead successful policy and education initiatives, expanded NAPAWF's volunteer chapters and membership, and organized a strong and vibrant network of AAPI women community leaders across the country.

Ms. Ahuja grew up in Savannah, Georgia, where her understanding of race, gender and ethnicity was formed as a young Indian immigrant. She attended Spelman College, a historically black college, and the University of Georgia School of Law. Following law school, she was chosen as one of five Honors Program trial attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, where she litigated education-related discrimination cases and filed the Department's first peer-on-peer student racial harassment lawsuit. In addition, she participated in the Division's National Origin Working Group as part of a core group of attorneys who organized response efforts for the Division after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Dr. Meria Carstarphen | Superintendent | Atlanta Public Schools

Meria Joel Carstarphen, Ed.D, is superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools. She brings to Atlanta an impressive record in transformative educational leadership that has led to significant student performance gains. Dr. Carstarphen has nearly 20 years of education and experience in diverse, major metropolitan public school districts, including Austin, Texas; Saint Paul, Minn.; and the District of Columbia. She leads and provides oversight to the district’s 50,000 students; 5,500 employees; and 106 learning sites with a $794 million annual budget.

Before coming to Atlanta, Dr. Carstarphen was superintendent of the Austin Independent School District from 2009 to 2014. With a great team, she made extraordinary achievements in academic excellence that included improved graduation rates that reached an all-time high of 84 percent and reduced dropout rates by 25 percent. She credits the success in Austin, in part, to efforts to move away from a culture driven by a dependency on high-stakes testing to one that emphasizes the whole child, every child; social and emotional learning; equal arts-rich environments;

alternative pathways to graduation; and alternative education disciplinary program reform. Prior to Austin, Dr. Carstarphen was superintendent of the Saint Paul Public Schools in Minnesota and held accountability positions with other public schools systems.

Dr. Carstarphen began her education career as a middle school teacher in her hometown of Selma, Ala. She also has worked with elementary-level children in Seville, Spain and Caracas, Venezuela.

Dr. Carstarphen earned a doctorate in administration, planning and social policy, with a concentration in urban superintendency from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She earned a bachelor of arts in political science and Spanish from Tulane University and Master of

Education degrees from Auburn University and Harvard University. She has also studied at the University of Seville, Spain, and University of Innsbruck, Austria.

The Atlanta Board of Education voted unanimously to hire Dr. Carstarphen in April 2014. She became superintendent July 2014. Dr. Carstarphen is passionate about leading Atlanta Public Schools and living its mission every day: Through a caring culture of trust and collaboration, every student will be ready for college and career.

Nick Chiles | Editor-in-Chief, Atlanta Blackstar | Pulitzer-Prize Winning Journalist | Author of Justice While Black Over the course of his 27-year career, Nick Chiles has distinguished himself as one of the nation’s foremost chroniclers of African-American life, culture and celebrity—both as a bestselling author and an award-winning journalist. Chiles is the co-author with Rev. Al Sharpton of the New York Times bestseller, The Rejected Stone: Al Sharpton and the Path to American Leadership, which was released in October 2013 and received lavish praise. He is the co-author with Kirk Franklin of the New York Times bestseller, The Blueprint: A Plan for Living Above Life’s Storms. He is the co-author of Fatherhood: Rising to the Ultimate Challenge with retired NBA center Etan Thomas, who is a member of President Obama’s Fatherhood Initiative. Released in May 2012, Fatherhood was called “memorable and eloquent” by Publisher’s Weekly. Chiles was a co-writer with Massachusetts Gov. Deval

Patrick of his 2012 book, Faith in the Dream. He has also worked as a celebrity ghostwriter.

Chiles has written six books with his wife, Denene Millner (who is the two-time #1 New York Times bestselling co-author with Steve Harvey of the books Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man and Straight Talk, No Chaser). Their non-fiction relationship series, What Brothers Think, What Sistahs Know, published by HarperCollins, was a fixture on the Essence bestseller list over several years. Their novel Love Don’t Live Here Anymore (Dutton) was an Essence and Blackboard bestseller. A Love Story was a finalist for the 2004 Open Book Award for best contemporary African-American fiction. As a fiction writer, Chiles published a short story in the anthology, Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America (Ballantine), which won a 1996 American Book Award.

As a journalist, Chiles spent the bulk of his career as an education reporter, but he also covered politics, health and social services. He has won over a dozen major journalism awards, including a 1992 Pulitzer Prize as part of a New York Newsday team covering a fatal subway crash. He also won the 1993 and 1989 National Education Reporting Award presented by the Education Writers Association. While he was on the staff of The Star-Ledger of New Jersey, Chiles was the recipient of three consecutive New Jersey Press Association awards as the top education reporter in the state in 1996, 1997 and 1998.

Chiles is a 1986 graduate of Yale University. He currently resides in Atlanta with his wife Denene and two daughters, ages 14 and 11. His son Mazi is a student at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania.

Delano Ford | Executive Director, Metro Atlanta | Teach For America

DeLano’s commitment to expanding excellent educational opportunities for students is deeply personal work. Growing up in North Carolina, where his school principal was also the church deacon, DeLano’s childhood was shaped by a tightknit community who cared deeply about their children. Yet, struggling as a freshman at Morehouse College, DeLano became aware that, despite having loving people in his life, his community high school experience had not fully prepared him with all he needed academically. Ultimately graduating with honors, with the support of his family and Atlanta community, DeLano committed himself to reinvesting in his new home of Metro Atlanta and to finding solutions to educational inequity. Prior to joining TFA, DeLano served as Deputy Superintendent of Transformation with the Louisiana Recovery School District and as the Chief Operating Officer of KIPP New Orleans Schools. He began his career as a business consultant and was a Broad Resident. DeLano earned a Bachelor’s degree from Morehouse College and an MBA from the

Johnson School at Cornell University.

Dr. Howard Fuller | Founder/Director | Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University

Howard Fuller’s career includes many years in both public service positions and the field of education. Dr. Fuller is a Distinguished Professor of Education, and Founder/Director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The mission of the Institute is to support exemplary education options that transform learning for children, while empowering families, particularly low-income families, to choose the best options for their children. Immediately before his appointment at Marquette University, Dr. Fuller served as the Superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools June 1991-June 1995. Dr. Fuller became nationally known for his unending support for fundamental educational reform.

His prior positions included: Director of the Milwaukee County Department of Health and Human Services 1988-1991; Dean of General Education at the Milwaukee Area Technical College 1986-1988; Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Employment Relations 1983-1986;

and Associate Director of the Educational Opportunity Program at Marquette University 1979-1983. He was also A Senior Fellow with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University 1995-1997.

Dr. Fuller received his B.S. degree in Sociology from Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in 1962; M.S.A. degree in Social Administration from Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1964, and his Ph.D. in Sociological Foundations of Education from Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1986.

He has received numerous awards and recognition over the years, including four Honorary Doctorate Degrees: Doctorate of Humane Letters from Carroll College in 1987; Doctorate of Laws from Marian College, Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin in 1992; Doctorate of Business and Economics from Milwaukee School of Engineering in 1995; and Doctorate of Humane Letters from Edgewood College, Madison WI.

He is the Chair of the Board of The Black Alliance for Educational Options and Milwaukee Collegiate Academy, and former Chairman of the Charter School Review Committee for the City of Milwaukee. He also serves on the Board of Partners for Developing Futures, Pearls for Teen Girls, Milwaukee Region Board of Teach For America, Milwaukee Charter School Advocates. He also is a member of the Board of Trustees of his Alma Mater, Carroll University. He is an Advisory Board member of the Big Picture Company and the National Association for Charter School Authorizers.

Khalilah Harris | Deputy Director | White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans

Khalilah Harris is Deputy Director at the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans. She focuses her efforts on developing interagency relationships, development of research-based publications, serving as a point of contact on specific policy workgroups and public engagement through social media. Ms. Harris was previously a fellow in the office and has over 14 years of experience in education ranging from coordinating programs for youth advocates and high school law-related education programs at a Baltimore non-profit, being a founder at and serving on the leadership team of a Baltimore middle/high school focused on social justice & project-based learning, and most recently managing dual enrollment and college readiness at the University of Baltimore. She is also an attorney and currently in the final stages of her doctoral degree in Education Leadership and Organizational Development at the University of Pennsylvania. Ms. Harris has a B.S. in Political Science from Morgan State University and a J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law. Khalilah is a native of Brooklyn, NY and has three daughters.

Billy Kearney | Deputy Chief of Innovation, Office of Innovation and Research | DC Public Schools

Billy Kearney is the Deputy Chief of Innovation for the District of Columbia Public School system. In July of 2014, after 7 successful years as the Principal of Charles Hart Middle School, Billy transitioned into the role of Director of Leadership Development for DCPS’ Principal Effectiveness Team. Prior to returning to the District of Columbia Public Schools system, where he began his career in education in 1994 as a Math and Science teacher at Paul Junior High School, he served as the first Executive Director of New Leaders for New Schools in Memphis, Tennessee. He also served as the first Executive Director of Teach For America in Atlanta, Georgia. Prior to moving to Atlanta, Billy lived and worked in New York City as Teach For America’s National Recruitment Director. Billy graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in December of 1993. In December of 2008, he earned an Executive Master’s in Leadership degree from The

McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. Billy was born in Martinsville, Virginia and currently resides in Washington, DC.

John King | Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Education | U.S. Department of Education

John B. King currently serves as a senior adviser in the U.S. Department of Education. King, a former social studies teacher who was named New York's education chief in 2011, has overseen a number of key initiatives that have transformed teaching and learning across the state. He led the transition to rigorous academic standards that prepare students for college, careers and life and expanded career and technical education by creating multiple pathways to high school graduation that give students more opportunities to pursue their passions. In addition, King focused intensely on teacher professional development and preparation in partnership with the New York Board of Regents and led the development of EngageNY.org, a website featuring resources for educators and highlighting best practices across the state. He also oversaw the state's successful bid for a $700 million Race to the Top grant to support education innovation across the state. King also served

on federal Equity and Excellence Commission, which in 2013 put forward sweeping recommendations on the education of underserved and disadvantaged students.

King has focused his career on narrowing the achievement gap and ensuring that all students have access to great teaching. He co-founded Roxbury Prep, a top charter middle school in Massachusetts, and was one of the leaders of Uncommon Schools, a network of high-performing charter schools in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

King, the first African-American and the first person of Puerto Rican descent to hold the education commissioner's office in New York, earned his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, his master's in teaching of social studies from Columbia University, his law degree from Yale University and his education doctorate from Columbia University. He often points to education—and teachers, in particular—as what saved him after he lost both of his parents to illness by the time he was 12. His parents were both educators. King is married with two daughters.

DeRay McKesson | Minneapolis Educator | Ferguson Activist, Wetheprotestors.org

DeRay is the Senior Director of Human Capital with Minneapolis Public Schools and is a Teach For America alumnus, having taught 6th grade math in New York City. He has been documenting the events of Ferguson via Twitter (@deray) and is the Founder and Co-Editor of the Ferguson Protestor Newsletter. He is an activist, organizer, and educator focusing primarily on issues impacting children, youth, and families. He previously worked for the Harlem Children’s Zone and TNTP, opened an academic enrichment center in West Baltimore, and worked with Baltimore City Public Schools leading systemic human capital change.

Danielle Christina Mullings | Managing Director, Values-Based Leadership Development | Teach For America

Danielle was born in Detroit and raised in Atlanta. She attended THE University of Florida (GO GATORS) and joined the Houston corps in 2005. She taught the cutest group of Kindergartners her first year in the corps, then moved up to teach 4th grade her second year. After the corps, Danielle transitioned to staff as a Manager of Teacher Leadership Development where she supported Elementary corps members for three years. Then, she moved to our Human Assets team where she recruited staff for all of Texas as a Director of Talent Recruitment for four years. Danielle now sits on our National Alumni Affairs team as a Values Based Leadership Development coach for Teach For America Alumni.

Brittany Packnett | Executive Director, St. Louis | Teach For America

Brittany N. Packnett is the daughter of educators and civic leaders who emphasized the important of justice and

equity early in life. Raised in St. Louis, Brittany took this challenge to heart and became a 3rd grade educator in

Southeast Washington, DC, as Teach For America 2007 Corps Member. Determined to represent her brilliant

but underserved students in the halls of power, Brittany ventured into educational policy, serving as a

legislative advisor on domestic social policy to U.S. Congressman Wm. Lacy Clay, and as Director of Government

Affairs for Teach For America.

In October 2012, Brittany returned home to lead Teach For America - St. Louis as its Executive Director, overseeing the teaching of over 20,000

students in region. Leading 130 corps members, 450 alumni, and a central staff of 24, and a multi-million dollar fundraising effort, Brittany has led

Teach For America - St. Louis to unprecedented gains in student achievement and alumni engagement, and launched the inaugural Summer

Experience, a new localized training institute for new teachers. During her tenure, she has increased staff and corps satisfaction and invested deeply

in culturally responsive pedagogy, and surpassed fundraising goals by 30% in her first year.

Starting in August 2014, Brittany stood alongside citizens from across St. Louis advocating against injustice in Ferguson, MO. During that time,

Brittany was an active protestor, penning Ferguson Protestor open letters, supporting the This Is The Movement Ferguson Newsletter, and

facilitating the Ferguson Conference Calls with America. In December 2014, Brittany was honored to join a small cohort of activists in the Oval

Office, helping to represent the burgeoning community movement for equity with President Barack Obama. For her continued efforts, Brittany

has been privileged to actively engage in systemic progress as a Gubernatorial appointee to the Ferguson Commission and a Presidential

Appointee to the White House Task Force on 21st Century Policing, on which she is one of the youngest members and the only St. Louisan.

Brittany has been featured on networks and televisions programs including Good Morning America, CNN, MSNBC , Al Jazeera, National Public

Radio, and the Nine Network, and in publications including the Washington Post, USA Today, the Huffington Post, the St. Louis Post Dispatch

and the St. Louis American. She has also received several honors: The St. Louis Business Journal’s 30 Under 30, St. Louis American Young

Leaders, and the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis’ Salute to Women in Leadership, making her the awards youngest honoree in the

history of the award. In January 2015, Brittany was named by TIME Magazine as one of 12 New Faces of Black Leadership.

Brittany currently serves as a mentor to several young women, and sits on the New City School Board of Trustees, the COCA Associate Board,

the John Burroughs School Diversity Committee and the Cultural Leadership Board of Directors.

Brittany is an alumna of the John B. Ervin Scholars program at Washington University and American University School of Education. She

fervently believes that St. Louis can one day be a center of access and equity for every child, regardless of their background. She is thankful for

the opportunity to be part of the solution.

Andrea Pursley | Executive Vice President of Alumni Affairs | Teach For America

Andrea leads our Alumni Affairs team towards maximizing the impact of over 32,000 Teach For America alumni across the country. Andrea first joined staff over a decade ago in 2002 as a corps member in Phoenix, Arizona. She taught for three years in the Roosevelt Elementary School District and also became her school’s grade level chair and led planning for teacher hiring for the district. After leaving the classroom, Andrea became Executive Director of Teach For America’s Phoenix region and led her team through a period of extraordinary progress, doubling the corps size and increasing annual funding from $800,000 to more than $6 million. Over the subsequent two years, she served as a vice president on our Teacher Preparation, Support and Development team and then on our Regional Operations team. Andrea graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Southern Methodist University where she was also a NCAA Division I varsity swimmer and a qualifier for 200M

breaststroke in the 2000 Olympic Trials. Andrea lives in Phoenix with her husband Brian and their three children.

Dr. Beverly Tatum | President | Spelman College

A 2013 recipient of the Carnegie Academic Leadership Award, Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum has served as president of Spelman College since 2002. Her tenure as president has been marked by a period of great innovation and growth. Spelman College, long recognized as the leading educator of women of African descent, is now ranked among the top 100 liberal arts colleges in the nation and is one of the most selective women’s colleges in the United States. Overall, scholarship support for Spelman students has tripled since 2002, and opportunities for faculty research and development have expanded significantly. In 2008, the Gordon-Zeto Fund for International Initiatives was established with a gift of $17,000,000, creating more opportunities for faculty and student travel and increased funding for international students. Alumnae support of the annual fund has also tripled, reaching a record high of 41%. Campus improvements include the award-winning renovation of four historic buildings and the 2008 completion of a new “green” residence hall, increasing on-campus housing capacity by more than 25% and establishing the campus

commitment to environmental sustainability for the 21st century. In 2012 Dr. Tatum made the bold decision to withdraw from NCAA intercollegiate sports participation, a program serving less than 100 students, in favor of a campus-wide wellness initiative designed to impact the entire student community of 2100. Collectively, these improvements serve as the foundation for Strengthening the Core: The Strategic Plan for 2015, which focuses on global engagement, expanded opportunities for undergraduate research and internships, alumnae-student connections, leadership development and service learning linked to an increasingly interdisciplinary curriculum.

An accomplished administrator, Dr. Tatum is widely recognized as a race relations expert and leader in higher education. Her areas of research include racial identity development, and the role of race in the classroom. She is the author of Can We Talk About Race? And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation (2007) and “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” and Other Conversations about Race (1997) as well as Assimilation Blues: Black Families in a White Community (1987). A Fellow of the American Psychological Association, in 2005 Dr. Tatum was awarded the prestigious Brock International Prize in Education for her innovative leadership in the field.

In addition to her active involvement in the Atlanta community, Dr. Tatum is a member of national non-profit boards including the Institute for International Education, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and Teach for America. She also serves on the Georgia Power corporate board of directors as well as the board of the Educational Testing Service. Appointed by President Obama, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

She holds a B.A. degree in psychology from Wesleyan University, and M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from University of Michigan as well as an M.A. in Religious Studies from Hartford Seminary. Over the course of her career, she has served as a faculty member at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Westfield State University, and Mount Holyoke College. Prior to her appointment at Spelman, she served as dean and acting president at Mount Holyoke College. President Tatum is married to Dr. Travis Tatum, professor emeritus of education; they are the parents of two adult sons.

Elisa Villanueva Beard | Co-CEO | Teach For America

Elisa Villanueva Beard’s passion for educational equity comes from personal experience. Elisa grew up in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas and developed a deep commitment to Teach For America's mission as a student at DePauw University, where she was one of just a few Mexican-American students. Her journey with Teach For America started 15 years ago in Phoenix where she taught first and second grade bilingual education as a 1998 corps member. She joined Teach For America's staff in 2001 to lead the organization's work in her hometown in the position of executive director. Elisa was inspired to take on this role because she saw her community beginning to have a different conversation as a result of the work her corps members and alumni were doing. Four years later, she stepped into the role of chief operating officer, leading Teach For America’s field

operations. In this role for the past eight years, Villanueva Beard has led Teach For America’s dramatic growth in our regions from 22 regions to 46. It is Teach For America’s regions where the organization’s program is put into practice and where 80 percent of its funding is raised.

In 2013, Elisa was named co-CEO of Teach For America alongside Matt Kramer. Under their leadership, Teach For America currently impacts more than 750,000 students in over 2,600 schools. Together they manage the leadership team, work with the board, and are held fully accountable for the organization’s success. Elisa holds a B.A. in sociology from DePauw University. She lives with her husband Jeremy and their four sons in Houston, Texas.

Shannon Wheatley | Vice President, Alumni Teacher Leadership | Teach For America

As Vice President of Teacher Leadership, Shannon Wheatley leads the work of supporting the approximately 10,000+ Teach For America alumni who teach, learn, and lead from the classroom.

Shannon began his teaching career as a Rio Grande Valley corps member in 2004 and was a principal in Houston before joining Teach For America’s national Alumni Affairs team. He holds a B.A. in History from The University of Tennessee and a Master’s in Educational Leadership from National Louis University. He and his wife live with their daughter and enjoy running the Buffalo Bayou Trail on weekend.

Melinda Wright | Senior Vice President, Diversity and Regional Alumni Support | Teach For America

After graduating from Cornell University with a Bachelor’s in Africana Studies, Melinda Wright joined the New York City corps in 1994. During her first year, she taught in the Bronx and then in Washington Heights for the following two years. After completing her corps commitment, Melinda worked with a variety of non-profit and for profit educational organizations before heading to George Washington University. While at GWU she attained her Juris Doctorate as well as her Masters in History (African-American Studies) and Public Policy (Education). She also spent her second summer of law school studying International Human Rights Law at Oxford University, an experience which deepened her interest in human rights.

Immediately following law school, Melinda seized the opportunity to serve as the Head Coach of Howard University’s women’s lacrosse team, which was the only Division I team at a historically Black University. After

coaching at Howard, Melinda worked in the Human Resources office of District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). Following her time at DCPS, Melinda served as the Director of Alumni Support for both the Baltimore and Washington DC regions during the nascent days of the Alumni Affairs team. For the next four years Melinda worked at Westminster School in a variety of capacities, including the Director of Diversity and Director of Student Life. She and her family lived in a girls’ dorm on campus and they enjoyed living and working with high-school students.

Melinda currently serves as the Senior Vice President, Diversity and Regional Alumni Support. She is married to Charles Wright and is the mother of three spunky children: Zahra, Eden and Noah Wright.

ABOUT THE COLLECTIVE

Grounded in the belief that achieving educational equity is possible within our lifetime and that alumni of color play a unique role in eliminating educational inequity, The Collective is committed to building the leadership capacity and strengthening the network of alumni of color. We are anchored in both our collective experience as corps members and alumni of color as well as our belief that educational equity is solvable within our lifetime. Through leadership development, network building and collective action, we are committed to transforming the educational trajectory of children in low-income communities.

For more information contact TheCollective@teachforamerica.org

ABOUT THE SCHOOL LEADERSHIP TEAM

Great schools can’t exist without strong school leaders. If we want to achieve educational equity for all kids, we must do our part to cultivate more outstanding principals who can lead transformational schools. Over 700 alumni are leading schools in 37 states -- and are impacting more than 340,000 students. Our team exists to support alumni in their journey to and their work toward running transformational schools.

For more information, contact SchoolLeadership@teachforamerica.org.

ABOUT TEACH FOR AMERICA – METRO ATLANTA

In addition to being the social, economic, and cultural hub of the southeast, Atlanta is a city with a prolific past that has borne witness to some of the most significant moments in American history. In the 1960s, Atlanta was a major organizing center of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and students from Atlanta's historically black colleges and universities playing major roles in the movement's leadership.

Today, we find Atlanta at another critical juncture in time when we must draw upon the strength of determined leaders to eliminate our region’s most pressing civil rights injustice: the disparity in education

that is severely limiting the life opportunities for more than 400,000 students growing up in poverty in the region. Just one out of every five low-income students in Metro Atlanta will attend a high-quality pre-k program, compared to four out of five in more affluent nearby areas. Students from low-income communities are also twice as likely to attend a school that has not met adequate yearly progress, and just 31% will go on to college, as compared to 79% of their higher income peers.

In partnership with schools, districts, and community supporters, Teach For America is working to provide equal educational opportunities for all Metro Atlanta students, regardless of race or socioeconomic status. Our 450 corps members and 900 alumni are a source of talent and energy for our schools and city. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of these teachers and leaders, now, more than ever, Teach For America - Metro Atlanta is positioned to significantly impact the life trajectories of students in our region’s high-need communities.

For more information about Teach For America – Metro Atlanta, contact Ariana Santiago at Ariana.Santiago@teachforamerica.org.

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