Alli Leslie is currently serving as the School Program Head for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She works with students and families who are receiving treatment for catastrophic diseases and ensures that they continue to receive an extraordinary education. Previously she served as the Chief Academic Officer for Compass Community Schools in Memphis, TN. She helped open the network of six schools in the summer of 2019 after working as a consultant for Instruction Partners. In 2012, she relocated to Memphis to open Aspire’s first region outside of California through the Achievement School District designed to turn around schools in the bottom 5% of the state. After six years, the Aspire Memphis region served 1,600 students in four different schools throughout the city. Alli started her career with Teach for America in Houston, Texas, in 1999 after graduating from the University of California at San Diego. She worked at a middle school with a high percentage of English Language Learners and started a multi-age newcomer program to support language development during adolescence. In 2001, she moved back to California where she went to work for Aspire Public Schools as a teacher and then later became the principal of Aspire East Palo Alto Charter School after earning her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of California at Berkeley. Before moving to Memphis, she started the Aspire Teacher Residency Program, now called Alder Graduate School of Education, to develop high-performing teachers during a year-long training experience. For fun, Alli enjoys spending time with her family, gardening, and going for runs around her neighborhood with her husband.