Pahara Announces New Class of Leaders for The Pahara Fellowship

(March 13, 2025) - 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:

• Aidé Acosta, Chief College Office, Noble Network of Charter Schools

• John Armbrust, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Austin Achieve Public Schools

• Kenan Bishop, K-12 Lead/Co-Founder, Rethinc

• Michelle Brown, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, CommonLit

• Sherly Chavarria, Senior Program Officer, Education, Lloyd A Fry Foundation

• Daniel Gray, Deputy Chief for College and Career, Uplift Education

• Caroline Hill, Owner and Founder, 228 Accelerator

• Kevin James, Chief Executive Officer, Better Future Forward

• Rachel Kimboko, Executive Director for Stakeholder Engagement, DC Wildflower Public Charter School

• Terry Croy Lewis, Executive Director, Colorado Charter School Institute

• Gregory McGinity, Executive Director, California Charter Schools Association Advocates

• Dominique Morris, Chief People and Operations Officer, Partnership for Los Angeles Schools

• José Patiño, Vice President of Education & External Affairs, Aliento Education Fund

• Sugeni Pérez-Sadler, Senior Director Student Pathways Policy & Evaluation, New York City Public Schools

• Elizabeth Raji-Greig, Superintendent of Schools, Envision Education

• Darren Ramalho, Founder and Head of School, Breakthrough Charter School

• Gabriel Reyes, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, FLi Sci

• Marisol Rocha, Superintendent, Vanguard Academy Charter School

• Sonn Sam, National Director of Partnerships, Big Picture Learning

• Jessica Sutter, President, EdPro Consulting

• Teryn Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, EdLight

• Margarita Tovar, Chief Talent Officer, Colorado Department of Education

• Raymond Weeden, Executive Director, Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School

• Jimmy Zuniga, Portfolio Director, Network Team, Transcend Education

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.