Today, we are honored to profile the extraordinary Bill Kurtz, Senior Advisor and Former CEO of DSST Public Schools in Denver, Colorado. Two years after stepping down as CEO of the network he helped build from the ground floor, Bill Kurtz keeps coming back to the same sentence when he talks about the Denver School of
Today, we are honored to profile Patricia Brantley, CEO of Friendship Public Charter School in Washington, DC. Pat Brantley grew up in a Newark, New Jersey household where public service wasn’t just something you did, but who you were. It was the family business. Her mother started working as a teacher before becoming a lawyer and, eventually, a judge. Her stepfather, Ramon Rivera, was the inaugural executive director of La Casa de Don
Today, we are honored to profile the extraordinary Deborah Brown, Middle School Director, The Exploris School in Raleigh, North Carolina. Students at The Exploris School gather each morning for a meeting built around one simple idea. “We are all crew, not passengers,” said Deborah Brown, Director of Exploris’ Middle School campus. At Exploris, “crew” refers to small groups of students who meet with their teacher each day to explore the school’s core values of Innovation, Relationships,
Today, we are honored to profile the extraordinary Dr. Natalie Smith, Founder and CEO, Global Citizens Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. On any given day at Global Citizens Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., a four-year-old might greet you in Mandarin, a kindergartner might switch effortlessly into Spanish, and a parent might text their school’s founder to share that their
Today, we are honored to profile Maureen Israel, Executive Director, Bullis Charter School in Los Altos, California. Maureen Israel grew up in Michigan and experienced what she describes as a “very sheltered” Midwestern upbringing that also planted the seeds for what would become a lifelong conviction: Where a child goes to school matters, and parents should have a major say in that decision. Maureen is the Executive
Good day, CharterFolk. Today, we are pleased to share a Contributor Column from Gary Larson, the CEO of Larson Communications. This is Part Two of a two-part series on how to communicate as a movement. Read Part One. We provide a bio for Gary below. Gary Larson is founder and CEO of Larson Communications, a
Good day, CharterFolk. Today, we are pleased to share a Contributor Column from Gary Larson, the CEO of Larson Communications. This is Part One of a two-part series on how to communicate as a movement. We provide a bio for Gary below. Gary Larson is founder and CEO of Larson Communications, a mission-driven communications firm
Today, we are honored to profile Valissia Allen, the extraordinary founder and current Chief of Strategy & Innovation at Leadership Preparatory Charter School in Memphis, Tennessee Valissia Allen is currently the Chief of Strategy & Innovation at Leadership Preparatory Charter School, the Memphis school she founded more than a decade ago. Before that, Valissia spent several formative years working as a public defender in Charlotte, watching the
Today we are excited the share the story of the extraordinary Rhonda Deomampo, CEO and Superintendent of Synergy Academies. There’s a word that Rhonda Deomampo keeps coming back to, and it’s not just because it inspired the creation of the school she has led for nearly a decade. Synergy. For Rhonda, who is the CEO and Superintendent of Synergy Academies in Los Angeles, that work is less a slogan
We are honored to profile the extraordinary Cherie Graham, Chief of Instructional Support and Family Engagement, Sugar Creek Charter School. There’s a story Cherie Graham likes to tell about the day she decided to join Sugar Creek Charter School. It was 2015. She’d been working as a teacher for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) — the second-largest school district in North Carolina — for ten years and was feeling the pull toward something