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.
In 2009, Zach founded Atlas after seeing a strong need for high-quality educational opportunities in an often-overlooked community. Through bold vision, relentless determination, and strong trust-building, he created a school that now serves thousands of students and families each year.
“That was about 20 years ago,” Zach said, “That was like my first kid.”
Where many schools focused only on college outcomes, Atlas was designed from day one around the whole student: counseling, athletics, transportation, and a broad definition of success. It is the only K–12 charter in Colorado Springs offering transportation, serves a student body where about 95% qualify for free or reduced lunch, and enrolls over 1,200 students.
A Grown-Up Vision
Zach landed in Colorado Springs by chance. After graduating from Harvard Divinity School, he and his wife moved back to Colorado, where they had met, and he began as a fellow with El Pomar. The two-year program taught him how institutions operated: managing people, thinking long-term, and managing finances.
As he put it, it was a crash course to learn how to be a grown-up.
“You have to wear a black suit and tie and learn how a foundation works,” Zach said.
Though he had been working in education, schools, or nonprofit spaces, the fellowship opened his eyes to what is possible. He realized social impact work didn’t have to be scrappy and small-scale. It could be strategic, professional, and well-funded.
At the end of the program, the Fellowship provides recruiters to help find a job. Zach was serendipitously introduced to Building Excellent Schools, where he encountered a different kind of ambition: founders starting high-performing public schools in communities with limited opportunity. Visiting campuses across the country, he saw what focused leadership and urgency could produce, and what it could mean for kids.
“I had never thought about starting a school, had not been a teacher,” he said. “I had more nonprofit/foundation experience,” he said.
But after visiting campuses, he said himself, “You can start a school. There are people working really hard every day to try to give kids who typically don’t have a lot of opportunity.”
BES supported and inspired Zach to start Atlas in Colorado Springs.
From One School to Many
After spending a decade leading Atlas, Zach transitioned to a new role: building a pipeline of leaders through the Legacy Institute’s Legacy Fellowship.
“We’re not just training people to open schools,” Zach said, “We’re training them to build institutions that last decades.”
The Legacy Fellowship is a two-year paid program for aspiring school founders. Fellows rotate through four-week cycles and visit top schools nationwide. They learn directly from experienced leaders to support their charter plans and build networks.
Zach believes that improving education requires working across sectors, not just within charter school silos.
“I didn’t even know what a charter school was when I started Atlas,” he said, “And I’ve seen great ones and some not-so-great ones.”
For Zach, the point isn’t the label; it’s the expanding opportunity for children. That view has allowed the Legacy Institute to partner with local districts, sometimes unlocking charter growth and other times investing in district initiatives.
The work has supported positive outcomes, such as new charter approvals after years of stagnation. It has also led to shared funding models that support both district and charter students.
The Legacy of Leadership
At the core of Zach’s work is a simple, consistent belief: leadership teams matter more than individual leaders.
“Leadership teams are everything,” said Zach. Atlas is a prime example. Nearly two decades after its founding, the school is thriving. It succeeds not because of a single founder, but due to layers of leadership.
“If a school becomes about one person, it won’t last,” he said.
In the Legacy Fellowship, founders are encouraged to build teams early, hire co-founders a year before opening, and share broadly. It’s a countercultural approach in a sector that often celebrates individual founders.
At the center is the Legacy Fellowship, which combines “the professionalism of El Pomar” with “the fire that Building Excellent Schools had.”
“If you don’t have both,” Zach said, “you’re going to probably struggle to make an impact or make an impact for very long.”
But he is candid about the realities of the work. “At its core, you’re running a small business, and that’s really hard.”
Leaders (as CharterFolk readers know) must manage facilities, talent pipelines, and community relationships, all while staying grounded in their purpose. And according to Zach, that’s where many stumble.
Even more fundamentally, they have to avoid a common trap where, according to Zach, their model triumphs over their mission. The work, he argues, requires constant recalibration: “how much of this is a model… and how much of this is a mission?”
That perspective shapes how Zach navigates an increasingly polarized landscape. He believes education leaders should not get caught up in debates over charter versus union or traditional education. It is a missed opportunity.
You’ve Got to be Around
At the center of Zach’s philosophy is a simple idea: “The first thing is you’ve got to be around.”
For students, especially those without built-in advantages, consistency matters. Showing up every day over time creates the conditions for trust, stability, and growth.
“You ought to be there doing the same thing every day,” he said, “so they can have a lifetime of their own opportunity.”
That kind of work is rarely glamorous.
“The real work is in the middle,” he said. “It’s the relationships. It is showing up over time. It is doing things that are not exciting but actually matter.”
It also takes humility. Leaders who try to do everything alone often burn out or become guarded. Teams, by contrast, create resilience.
“Hire your professional best friend,” he said. “Form a triangle, then put on all the armor, and you are going to win everything.”
Strong teams allow leaders to be honest about their own limitations.
“They can say, I am not the best at this, and someone else has me. That is when you get the best version of people.”
Enduring Work
For Zach, no single initiative, whether charter schools, scholarships, or early childhood programs, can fully address the inequities he sees. The work is cumulative.
It is about building systems that reinforce each other, leadership teams that endure, and institutions that communities can trust.
“When those things are stable,” he said, “kids get stability, and they get opportunity.”
That spirit has defined his career. The Lifetime Achievement Award ultimately recognizes not just what Zach has built, but how he has built it, and the belief in leaders who will carry that work forward.