(January 25, 2024) - The Pahara Institute announced today a new cohort of the highly selective Pahara Fellowship. These 24 individuals join the Pahara community of leaders, which is designed to strengthen and sustain values-driven leaders who are transforming public education so that every child is prepared to lead a free and fulfilling life.
The Pahara Fellowship is a one-year, cohort-based program that identifies exceptional leaders in the educational excellence and equity movement, facilitates their dynamic growth, and strengthens their collective efforts to dramatically improve public education, especially those serving low-income children and communities. The Fellowship provides these leaders with the unusual opportunity to step back from their demanding daily work to reflect with peers on their collective and individual impact as leaders and change agents. Fellows challenge each other to think beyond traditional silos and sector boundaries to develop strategies that enhance their effectiveness as leaders, address leadership challenges in public education, and accelerate the improvements needed to provide high-quality learning opportunities for all of our nation’s children.
The newest cohort of Pahara Fellows includes:
Chad Aldis, Vice President for Ohio Policy, Thomas B. Fordham Institute
Valissia Allen, Chief Executive Officer, Leadership Preparatory Charter School
Daniela Anello, Head of School, DC Bilingual Public Charter School
Melissa Brookens, Superintendent of Equity, Leadership, and Schools, Aspire Public Schools
Melissa Connelly, Chief Executive Officer, OneGoal
Mark Dixon, President, A+ Education Partnership
Recy Dunn, Chief Executive Officer, Ascend Public Charter Schools
TeRay Esquibel, Executive Director, Ednium: The Alumni Collective
Wayne Jones, Chief Executive Officer, Penn Hills Charter School of Entrepreneurship
Ryan Mandado, Chief Education Officer, DreamHouse 'Ewa Beach Public Charter School
Marlon Marshall, Chief Executive Officer, The City Fund
Amber Medina, Chief of Schools, KIPP SoCal Public Schools
Bill Murphy, Chief Operations Officer, Indianapolis Public Schools
Bob Nardo, Executive Director, Libertas School of Memphis
Kelvey Oeser, Deputy Commissioner, Educator and System Support, Texas Education Agency
Armando Orduña, Executive Director, Latinos for Education
Nidhi Patel, Head of WW Strategy and Partnerships, Education, Apple
Jaclyn Piñero, Chief Executive Officer, uAspire
Miriam Raccah, Chief Executive Officer, Black, Latinx, Asian Charter Collaborative
Richard Rivera, Chief Program Officer, I Have a Dream Foundation
Chris Shropshire, Program Officer, Rainwater Charitable Foundation
Jessica Sie, Chief Academic Officer, Zeta Charter Schools
Rachel Valentin, Executive Director, Charter School of New Castle
Adeola A. Whitney, Chief Executive Officer, Reading Partners
To access bios and photos of the Pahara Fellows, click here.
For more information please contact info@pahara.org.
About the Pahara Institute
The Pahara Institute seeks to strengthen the movement for educational excellence and equity by developing and sustaining values-driven leaders. The guiding principle of the Pahara Institute is that bold improvements are needed in our public schools so that every child in America is prepared to lead a free and fulfilling life. Pahara’s programs are designed to identify leaders in education innovation, and through a time-tested dialogue approach, strengthen and sustain their efforts to bring about critical improvements to our public schools. For more information, please visit pahara.org.