Today, we are honored to profile the extraordinary Vanessa Garza, Executive Director, Girls Athletic Leadership School Los Angeles. Before math class even begins at Girls Athletic Leadership School Los Angeles (GALS LA), students are already moving. Some stretch into yoga poses, while others run laps or join a Zumba session. The activity isn’t a break
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
Today, we are honored to profile Dr. Zachary McComsey, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, The Legacy Institute in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Colorado League of Charter Schools recently honored Zach McComsey with a Lifetime Achievement Award, not just for founding a single high-performing school or launching a successful non-profit, but for more than two decades spent expanding opportunities for families.
Today, we are proud to profile the extraordinary charter leader, Sean Stalling, Executive Director, DeLaSalle High School in Kansas City, MO. Sean Stalling says he is going to write a book about baseball. Not just about the game, which he loves, but also about the mechanics of baseball and how they mirror teaching. In the
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
Named in honor of CharterFolk friend and inspiration Brian Bennett, the annual Brian’s Voice Award recognizes the powerful storytelling and advocacy that define the charter school movement. Final-round voting is now open for the 2026 award winners.
Named in honor of CharterFolk friend and inspiration Brian Bennett, the annual Brian’s Voice Award recognizes the powerful storytelling and advocacy that define the charter school movement.
Today, we are honored to profile Elimane Mbengue, the extraordinary Superintendent at Académie Lafayette Public Charter Schools in Kansas City, Missouri. No water. No electricity. Just more than 50 curious first-graders in a mud-hut classroom and a young teacher fulfilling his childhood dream. This is how Elimane Mbengue started his teaching career in a rural
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