This week, we are excited to profile the extraordinary Dr. Garland Thomas-McDavid CEO of Brooklyn Laboratory Charter Schools in Brooklyn, NY.
Dr. Garland Thomas-McDavid likes to say she was “born an educator.” As a little girl growing up in East New York, Brooklyn, she turned her bedroom into a classroom.
Her chalkboard, desk, and curriculum, rescued from school castoffs by her mother who worked in a school, transformed her space. “You couldn’t tell me I wasn’t official,” she said.
From an early age, she imagined herself as a teacher. But, when it came time to choose a profession, she initially ran from the idea. As a high-achieving student, she absorbed the unfortunate but widespread idea that education wasn’t a prestigious career.
“I didn’t see education as ambitious,” she says. “In my mind, I was a high performer. I didn’t want to just be a teacher. I even told my dad—who was a special educator—that he was underachieving.”
It’s a moment she now reflects on with humility and awareness: “I used those words ignorantly. But that’s how society talks about educators. And that’s still something we’re dealing with today.”
Even as she ran from it, her calling never left her. It waited—patiently—until she was ready to return.
From Teen Mom to Educator
Garland’s story is also one of resilience. Growing up in Brooklyn during the crack epidemic of the 1980s, she experienced firsthand the intersection of poverty, addiction, and violence. Her own father struggled with substance abuse, and the challenges of her environment were ever-present.
“I grew up in Brooklyn. I grew up poor—that’s not a secret,” Garland said. “It was a very difficult time. It wasn’t just the poverty—it was the violence, too.”
Despite the odds, education was a lifeline, her parents— both first-generation Americans—prioritized. Her mother enrolled her in a free school choice program that predated the charter movement. It was part of the early school desegregation and equity efforts, busing students like Garland from under-resourced neighborhoods like East New York and Brownsville to schools in better-resourced communities.
While navigating school, Garland became a teen mom—and would eventually raise five children. The experience didn’t derail her calling; it clarified it.
“There’s so much connection between education, parenting, and equity,” she said. “Being a young mother while in school gave me a clear understanding of how critical it is to support families—and how education is one of the most powerful levers of change.”
Navigating motherhood and higher education not only deepened her commitment to equity but also sharpened her insight into how systems either support or fail families. It’s a perspective she carried into her first professional role—in a school system vastly different from the one she grew up in.
A Tale of Two Systems
Garland’s first professional experience as an educator came in Naperville, Illinois, an affluent, high-performing district with strong leadership. Garland became a special education teacher and taught at traditional public schools in the Chicago area, eventually becoming an assistant principal.
She credits her principal, Michael Raczak, with providing a model of what strong, supportive, visionary leadership looks like. “It was a healthy, well-resourced system,” she said. “I always saw it as my training ground.”
While her skills grew, the pull to serve communities like the one she came also grew. That inner conviction led her to the Noble Network of Charter Schools in Chicago, and eventually to serve as the founding principal of Johnson College Prep.
Under her leadership, 100% of the 2014 graduating class enrolled in four-year colleges. This was her calling.
In 2022, she returned to her hometown to lead Brooklyn Laboratory Charter Schools, a 6–12 public charter school in the heart of Brooklyn.
Her mission: to provide the same level of educational excellence she once witnessed in Naperville to students in neighborhoods like East New York.
Leading with Purpose at Brooklyn Lab
“The poorest kids often get the least, whether it’s access to resources or access to highly effective teachers,” she said. “They often don’t even get the best black and brown educators. Sometimes they get underqualified instructors who don’t know the context or the craft.”
Garland believes that leadership development must go beyond surface-level training. It requires vision, investment, and the willingness to see talent before it’s fully formed. “We have to grow people into excellence,” she said. “You can’t just hope for it.” At Brooklyn Lab, 93% of the team identifies as people of color.
Under her leadership, the school has placed special emphasis on developing educators and school leaders who reflect the students they serve. Garland’s signature initiative is the Principal Intern Program, which pairs emerging school leaders with experienced mentors.
“Minority principals can connect with students and families in ways that create real trust and shared understanding,” Garland said. “But we have to do the work of developing those leaders. The system doesn’t make it easy.”
Garland is passionate about building a pipeline of educators who stay in the work, not those who use it as a temporary stepping stone. She has worked to create an environment at Brooklyn Lab that makes students feel loved and a sense of community. “We need people who are in it for real results, not just for the title.”
For Garland, leadership is a calling too.
Educator-Activist and Advocate
Beyond school leadership, Garland sees herself and all charter educators as part of a larger advocacy movement.
A proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. and the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, she brings an activist mindset to everything she does.
“I call people who work in the charter space like they’re educator activists, you know, that it’s more than just the job we have to step into the political arena,” said Garland.
Advocacy is about creating the platforms people need to take control of their own lives, whether personally, professionally, or politically, said Garland.
“The advocacy is about empowerment,” said Garland. “It’s about pushing for people to have the platforms that will allow them to ultimately understand and take the reins themselves, whether that be in their personal lives, the political sphere or in their professional spaces. I think that it’s extremely important to educate and to expose so that people can navigate the those circumstances for themselves and interestingly it is a part of the work you do with kids.”
That advocacy extends to her work with students. She believes strongly in teaching young people about the “hidden curriculum,” the unspoken rules governing how people move through power systems.
Representation, Mentorship, and Real-World Learning
Another powerful initiative under Garland’s leadership is Success Looks Like Me, a Brooklyn Lab program designed to expose students to successful professionals of color across industries.
The school brings in people who look like our students, leaders in tech, medicine, law, education, entrepreneurship, who share their stories, their struggles, and their breakthroughs.
For Garland, it’s a deeply personal effort. “As a young girl, I didn’t have access to people who looked like me in leadership roles. I had to figure it all out the hard way. Now, I want to make sure our students don’t have to do it alone.”
A Long-Term Vision
“We’ve got to figure it out. Our children are counting on us and we need not make excuses for why we’re not reproducing the results that are going to yield the change that children need for a meaningful and promising future,” said Garland.
Dr. Thomas-McDavid’s vision is long-term. Her work at Brooklyn Lab just celebrated a decade of impact. She’s not interested in quick fixes or superficial wins. She wants to develop leaders who are equipped for the real work, educators who will stay the course, uplift communities, and model success for future generations.
“Yes, the children are poor. Yes, they deal with the ills of poverty. Yes, they’re challenged by their personal lives, but that is not an excuse for us not to educate them,” said Garland.
“I want to raise up a generation of leaders who don’t just survive systems, they transform them,” she said. “That’s the work. That’s the calling.”
Though she once rejected education, Dr. Garland Thomas-McDavid is now one of its fiercest champions. “Sometimes we run from our calling,” she said. “But the truth is, I was born to do this. And now I get to help others find that same purpose.”