About Jen

Jennifer Bronson serves as Managing Director of Learning Programs at Accelerate. In this role she works with Accelerate’s portfolio of grantees to understand emerging best practices in individualized instruction and builds programming for Accelerate’s Community of Practice to share research, explore implementation challenges, and understand the K-12 policy landscape.

Prior to joining Accelerate, Jennifer most recently served as Executive Director of Chattanooga 2.0, the cradle-to-career collaborative of Chattanooga-Hamilton County, Tennessee. Before leading Chattanooga 2.0, Jennifer served as Chief of Staff for Hamilton County Schools, where she led the school system’s COVID-19 response and launched a Student Success Planning pilot in partnership with Harvard University’s Education Redesign Lab and the By All Means consortium. Jennifer began her career as an elementary school teacher through Teach for America in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she went on to work in talent and leadership development for Clark County Schools, the nation’s fifth-largest school district.

Also an attorney, Jennifer served as an assistant public defender in St. Louis, Missouri and is admitted to the State Bars of Wisconsin and Missouri. During her legal career, she worked with the Wisconsin State Public Defender Juvenile Unit and was a judicial intern in the Wisconsin State Supreme Court.

Jennifer earned her bachelor’s degree and Juris Doctor degree from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where she received the Wisconsin Idea Merit Scholarship. She also received a master’s degree in education from the University of Nevada – Las Vegas.

What is your favorite part about the work you lead at Accelerate?

My favorite part of being Managing Director of Learning Programs is witnessing the diverse ways our grantees meet all students right where they are. From states to place-based providers, I have the privilege of working with mission-aligned, passionate educators and learning about their instructional approaches. I’m lucky to collaborate with an incredible internal team while engaging with a rich variety of programs externally. But the absolute best part? School visits – and seeing student learning happen in real time. I’m energized by our partners, their students, and their commitment to ensure every student has access to an excellent, tailored education.

Ask me about…

I’m a mom of three kids eight and under, so my “interests” include managing family chaos, shuttling to activities, attempting to stay active, and routinely biting off more than I can chew!

About Eric

Eric R. Brown, PhD, serves as Director of Research and Evaluation at Accelerate, where he manages Accelerate’s portfolio of funded research partnerships from award through final deliverable to ensure the quality, rigor, and progress of each study.

Before joining Accelerate, Eric spent more than five years as a Research Scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago, one of the nation’s largest independent research organizations. There, he served as project director and task lead on studies for federal agencies, foundations, school districts, and nonprofits. He also provided intensive technical assistance on evaluation designs for a federal agency’s grantees. Earlier, Eric led an independent evaluation practice for youth-serving nonprofits, designing mixed-methods and participatory evaluations of implementation fidelity, adaptation, and effectiveness. He began his career at the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, contributing to studies of teacher-evaluation reform, the transition to high school, data-practice collaboratives and out-of-school time learning.

Across 18 years in research and evaluation, Eric has brought a humanistic approach to technical work, informed by his background as a social worker and grounded in the view that evidence has to be usable by people. His postdoctoral fellowships in culturally responsive and equitable evaluation and critical quantitative methods extend that approach by pairing methodological expertise with attention to the human and contextual side of measurement. Eric holds a PhD in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University, an MSW from the University of Chicago, and a BA from the City College of New York.

What key experiences shape your perspective on education?

I came to education research as a social worker, and that lens still shapes my approach. I learned early on that it is important to spend time in school buildings getting to know educators, listening to their skepticism, and ensuring their concerns are not just heard but addressed. Those relationships are what made our evidence useful, even when results challenged their conventional practice wisdom. I envision an education system where research and evaluation are built with the people closest to students, so every state and district can act confidently on what works and every student benefits.

Ask me about…

My lifelong New York sports teams fandom (Knicks, Giants, and Yankees) which I’ve somehow managed to hold onto after living in Chicago for twenty years.

About Charmie

Dr. Charmie Curry serves as Managing Director of State Programs at Accelerate, where she works with Accelerate’s portfolio of State Implementation Fund and States Leading Recovery grantees to help states implement policies that improve outcomes for millions of students. Prior to joining Accelerate, Dr. Curry served as Associate Commissioner at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, where she led DESE’s district and school improvement work in the state’s lowest 10 percentile of schools. Earlier, she served as founding Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in a Greater Boston school district and a central office leader in the Boston Public Schools. Dr. Curry previously supported educator effectiveness work at both TNTP and Teach Plus.

Dr. Curry began her education career in the City of Boston, and currently lives just north of the city with her family. She is a ‘24-25 Broad Fellow at the Broad Center at the Yale School of Management, and holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Endicott College; a M.A.T. from Northeastern University; and a B.A. from Temple University, where she studied Journalism and Political Science.

What is your favorite part about the work you lead at Accelerate?

What drew me to Accelerate’s work is the drive to address the completely solvable achievement challenges facing our nation’s students today. Accelerate’s belief that an exceptional education should be within the reach of every child in this country resonates deeply with my own values. As someone who has had the privilege and responsibility to lead at the state level, I have seen the promise and pitfalls of well-intentioned policy. I believe that what is possible for our nation’s children is doable and I’m grateful to join the cause to make it happen.

Words to live by:

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” – Frederick Douglass

About Sawson

Sawson is a Data Engineer Fellow at Accelerate. He builds and maintains the data infrastructure behind the organization’s work on high-impact tutoring, which includes reporting on tutoring sessions, attendance, dosage, and skill mastery across Accelerate’s provider and district partners, which gives the team a clear view of how students are progressing and where programs need support. Before Accelerate, Sawson was a data scientist at bioMérieux, where he was part of the team behind the first PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 to receive full FDA authorization. He holds a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Utah.

What key experiences shape your perspective on education?

For my immigrant family, education has been the primary means of social mobility and developing the capacity to navigate a new society. Public schools were where my siblings and I learned not just academic subjects, but how institutions in this country work and how to find our way through them. That foundation carried us into college and into careers in fields our family had no prior connection to. It also convinced me that public education is one of our most powerful levers for social progress, capable of shifting a family’s trajectory within a single generation. I came to data work through mathematics, and I’m drawn to education because it’s where better information can help more students get the support that made a difference for us.

Ask me about…

Jazz piano, snowboarding, cooking and eating

About Jason

Jason Godfrey, PhD, is the Managing Director, Data and Information Systems at Accelerate. In this role, he works with partner organizations to develop the data infrastructure to understand which interventions are moving student outcomes. He co-leads the Call for Effective Technology to identify and evaluate promising AI-powered educational technologies. He directs the Harvard Strategic Data Project Fellows, senior state data leaders building infrastructure to understand and scale new educational programs. He founded the open source Data Alignment and Tutoring Assessment Standard (DATAS), which is now adopted by 26 organizations serving over 700,000 students.

Godfrey has authored or coauthored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and conference papers, spanning generative AI and human-AI collaboration; K–12 and higher education data systems; and equity in access to education. He serves as a reviewer for the NeurIPS Education Program, Human Computer Interaction, and AERA’s Division D. He sits on the Board for the Journal of Writing Analytics.

He earned his PhD from the University of Michigan’s Joint Program in English and Education, where his dissertation demonstrating that high-stakes placement policies relied on functionally inert data received the Dimond Best Dissertation Award. During his tenure he was a Regent, Rackham and OER fellow.

At the center of Jason’s work is nearly a decade of teaching experience, and he intentionally seeks ways to stay present in classrooms even as he leads at scale.

What is your favorite part about the work you lead at Accelerate?

Accelerate breezes through the work of organizations multiple times its size because every single person here is beautifully, compassionately, absurdly, ruthlessly good at their job.

About our partners who I most commonly interface with most often: Our Data Fellows give us byte-level insight into how state-level data systems operate under quotidian conditions. We may be one of the few organizations convening so many data leaders across the states for a common purpose. This allows us to literally set the standard for the field with operating case-studies baked in.

Words to live by:

Don’t hand me a thin straw when you know it’s a thick drink

About Kevin

Kevin Huffman is the founding CEO of Accelerate, a national nonprofit that aligns research, policy, and practice to scale proven strategies in public schools.

Prior to helping launch Accelerate, Kevin was a partner with City Fund, a philanthropic nonprofit, where he supported the efforts of local leaders in cities across the country working to create great public schools for all children.

Kevin is the former Tennessee commissioner of education, where he managed the state department of education in its effort to advance the academic progress of nearly one million students. During his tenure, Tennessee had the largest state gains on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Kevin began his education career as a first- and second-grade bilingual teacher in the Houston Independent School District. After attending law school, Kevin represented school districts, state departments of education and universities, working on policy and litigation matters at the Washington D.C. law firm of Hogan & Hartson. He then joined the senior management of Teach For America in 2000, serving as the general counsel, the senior vice president of growth strategy and development, and the executive vice president of public affairs.

Kevin has written opinion columns for a range of publications including as a regular contributor to the Washington Post. He won the Post’s national writing competition to find “America’s Next Great Pundit” in 2009.

Kevin graduated from Swarthmore College with a B.A. in English Literature, and from the New York University School of Law.

What key experiences shape your perspective on education?

As a classroom teacher in Houston with Teach For America, I saw the gulf between my students’ talent and their opportunities. This radicalized my perspective on American public schools and the need to focus relentlessly on ensuring that all students have the chance to succeed academically and expand their life prospects. Years later, as the state commissioner in Tennessee, I saw first-hand how change can happen at scale when there is a common focus and strategy. This has fueled my belief that we can improve student outcomes in states across the country. And, if we can, then it becomes a moral imperative to actually do it.

Words to live by:

“Try to realize it’s all within yourself, no one else can make you change.” – George Harrison

About Sarah

As Executive Administrator at Accelerate, Sarah supports organizational effectiveness for the Accelerate team and its leadership by strengthening executive operations, administrative functions, and external engagement. She works closely with the CEO and President to ensure that executive priorities, staff capacity, and organizational systems move forward smoothly and are optimized to further Accelerate’s mission and impact.

Before joining Accelerate, Sarah served as Special Projects Manager at CAIR-LA, a civil rights organization supporting policy advocacy, immigration, youth empowerment, and civil liberties in Southern California. In her role, she led the development and sustainability of grants management for the CAIR California chapters, overseeing more than twenty-five initiatives, strengthening organizational capacity, and ensuring programs meet needs and priorities across the state. Prior to becoming Special Projects Manager, she served as Executive Assistant to the Deputy Executive Director.

Her dedication and passion for student success began during her time as a project manager and mentor for a youth mentorship program in Boston, MA and as a kindergarten teacher for low-income students in the Greater Boston area. She is committed to expanding opportunities for young people and underserved communities.

Sarah received her B.S. in Biology from the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is based in Southern California.

What key experiences shape your perspective on education?

From receiving my parents’ constant support and encouragement towards pursuing academic excellence to guiding a 5-year-old in unlocking the magic of reading and his peer breaking the ceiling with advanced mathematics, every small win expounds into lifelong confidence, capability, and continued pursuit of better and greater. Education is the pathway to the road known and unknown for both the individual and the collective; but, it begins with consistency, equity, and stability. It is the catalyst for students’ growth to become a force that reshapes themselves, their families, communities, and systems meant to serve them.

Words to live by:

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” – Annie Dillard

About Tess

Tess is a Program Fellow at Accelerate. In this role, she helps oversee the trajectory of our grants, supports grantees throughout their partnership with Accelerate, and plans our Annual Convening and Community of Practice. Her work helps cultivate strong relationships with grantees and create opportunities for sharing knowledge and solutions across the education sector.

Prior to joining Accelerate, Tess was a Director at CCS Fundraising, a fundraising consulting firm. At CCS, she worked with nonprofit organizations throughout the greater New York City area and advised CCS clients on major campaigns, donor strategy, and fundraising operations. Her background includes experience in program evaluation for education and arts nonprofits serving K-12 students, and she spent time in the classroom as a high school English teacher while working towards her master’s degree.

Tess is a graduate of Harvard College and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. While at Harvard, she was awarded the Glynn Llywelyn Isaac Prize for her undergraduate thesis and the Harvard Fellowship for Teaching as a master’s student. She is also a recipient of the Education Pioneers Impact Fellowship for early-career education professionals. Tess is based in New York City.

What key experiences shape your perspective on education?

My eighth grade English teacher was the epitome of a “warm demander.” While her high expectations challenged me, her support helped set me on a path to pursue educational opportunities that inform who I am today. Her example inspired my goals for my own students and firm belief in each child’s potential. While I am no longer in the classroom, this approach continues to influence my work at Accelerate as I pursue a future in which all children have access to a high-quality education.

Ask me about…

Botanic gardens & dachshunds

About Tia

Tia Kim, Ph.D. serves as Managing Director of Research and Evaluation at Accelerate, where she leads the strategic design and management of Accelerate’s research portfolio and works to translate evidence into actionable insights for states, grantees, and the broader field.

Tia is an applied developmental psychologist with more than 20 years of experience leading research and evaluation at the intersection of rigorous evidence-building and practical implementation. She brings deep expertise in designing and managing experimental and quasi-experimental studies, alongside rapid cycle evaluation and continuous improvement systems that connect research directly to program and policy decisions.

Prior to joining Accelerate, Tia served as Associate Vice President of Research and Insights at Jobs for the Future (JFF), where she led the organization’s enterprise impact measurement framework and developed state-level measurement systems across a multi-state workforce portfolio. Before JFF, she served as Vice President of Education, Research and Impact at Committee for Children, where she served as principal investigator on multiple randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies of social-emotional learning programs, while simultaneously building rapid cycle evaluation infrastructure to support program development and improvement.

Throughout her career, Tia has been committed to centering equity as a principle of research design, translating evidence into forms that practitioners and policymakers can use, and improving outcomes for young people furthest from opportunity. She received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology and has contributed to peer-reviewed research across child development, SEL, and education policy.

What is your favorite part about the work you lead at Accelerate?

What drew me to Accelerate is the commitment to not just building evidence, but ensuring it actually reaches students at scale. Knowing what works is only part of the challenge, the harder question is how you make it work consistently, across real systems, for the young people who need it most. Most organizations focus on one piece of that equation. Accelerate is deliberately trying to connect rigorous research, policy, and implementation together. That integration is rare, and it’s where I believe the most meaningful impact happens.

Ask me about…

K-pop or K-dramas!

About Luke

Luke Kohlmoos serves as Managing Director of Strategy at Accelerate, where he leads the organization’s knowledge-sharing work and helps connect learnings across research, policy, and program teams. His focus is ensuring that evidence is translated into practical, high-impact insights for the field — aligning what we know with what it actually takes to deliver for students.

Luke began his career at D.C. Public Schools, working on community engagement and communications during a period of significant improvement efforts across the district. He later joined Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman’s transition team, where, on his first day, he also met his wife (thanks, Kevin!). Luke went on to serve in several roles at the Tennessee Department of Education, including managing the Teacher Incentive Fund, serving as Chief of Staff for the Assistant Commissioner of Teachers and Leaders, and leading the state’s work on teacher evaluation.

In 2015, Luke co-founded Instruction Partners, supporting school systems in strengthening instructional materials, coaching, and classroom practice. After seven years helping build and grow the organization, he joined Accelerate in 2022 to help spin-off the organization into an independent non-profit. He returned to work full-time at Accelerate in 2025 after living in Spain with his family for two years. Luke now lives in Denver.

What is your favorite part about the work you lead at Accelerate?

My favorite part of the work at Accelerate is being part of an effort that helps the field learn faster and scale what works in ways that are both practical and sustainable. I’m drawn to the optimism behind Accelerate’s mission: believing that strong evidence, when translated well and matched with strong implementation, can genuinely make educators’ jobs easier and students’ experiences better. What keeps me motivated is seeing how shared learning can travel across systems and spark better decisions, ultimately helping great practices take root and grow.

Ask me about…

My poker playing days

About Ben

Ben Lindy serves as Chief External Affairs Officer at Accelerate, where he leads the organization’s fundraising, communications, and external engagement strategy.

Prior to joining Accelerate, Ben founded Impact Advisory Group, a consulting firm that supports mission-driven organizations with strategy and fundraising. He also serves as an elected member of the Cincinnati Public Schools Board of Education, including two terms as board president.

Ben began his career as a seventh-grade social studies teacher in North Carolina with Teach For America. He later served as an administrator with the District of Columbia Public Schools, where he led the district’s teacher hiring strategy. Ben returned to his hometown of Cincinnati in 2012 to become the founding executive director of Teach For America in Cincinnati and Dayton.

Ben writes a regular newsletter on issues facing the CPS Board and has published scholarship on education policy in the Yale Law Journal and the Journal of Public Economics.

He holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Ben lives in Cincinnati with his wife and two children.

What key experiences shape your perspective on education?

Teaching in rural North Carolina had a lifelong impact on my career and on what I believe. It taught me so much about what’s possible in education, even under unbelievably challenging circumstances. It taught me about what it means to work on a team with deeply committed colleagues, and it taught me about the humility it takes to learn and grow.

Words to live by:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

About Tu-Quyen

Tu-Quyen serves as the Managing Director of Operations at Accelerate, and brings expertise in financial management, technology, and human resources.

Prior to Accelerate, she was the Vice President of Operations at Heights Philadelphia and the Chief Operating Officer at Steppingstone Scholars, where she led the operational and fiscal integration of a non-profit merger and supported the rapid growth of programmatic initiatives and partnerships across Philadelphia. During her tenure at Steppingstone Scholars, she oversaw university, city, and state grants and contracts, ensuring fiscal compliance and reporting, and facilitated the growth of the operational budget from $1.1 million to $12 million after the merger.

Tu-Quyen has also served as a regional director of admissions and associate director of opportunity and access for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at the University of Pennsylvania where she coordinated recruitment and yield efforts for underserved students. Her experience serving youth has deepened her commitment to work in areas and spaces that alleviate systemic barriers for historically disconnected populations.

Tu-Quyen holds a B.A from Colby College, and an MS.Ed. in Education, Culture and Society from the University of Pennsylvania.

What key experiences shape your perspective on education?

Having spent my early schooling years in Australia and then transitioning to high school in Philadelphia, I first began to see how the educational and career opportunities available to students shape who they become and what they can achieve. This understanding deepened as I worked closely with Dr. Sean Vereen at Heights Philadelphia, whose vision centers on building a network of opportunities and support systems for underserved students in Philadelphia. Watching students pursue and succeed in opportunities that might otherwise have been out of reach fundamentally shifted my perspective on education and on what it takes to ensure every student has the chance to thrive.

Ask me about…

I’m a DIYer at heart and my first inclination is always “Can I make that?.” I dream of having a flourishing garden but have had no luck keeping my houseplants alive.

About Aidan

As Program Coordinator, Aidan works to build and maintain fruitful working relationships with Accelerate’s grantees. He helps to oversee the grant programs through their full lifecycle from applications, to day-to-day communications and operations, to reporting and learning. He also supports the planning and facilitation of our Community of Practice as well as our Annual Convening to provide spaces for knowledge-sharing and problem-solving across agencies in the field.

Prior to joining Accelerate, Aidan was a Senior Associate, Data and Analytics at Springboard Collaborative, an education nonprofit that facilitates reading programs for students across the country. He supported the organization’s efforts to evaluate and improve their impact on student reading outcomes and developed impact reports to communicate that impact to school district partners and funders, just like Accelerate.

During his time at Springboard, Aidan was also selected to participate in Harvard’s two-year Strategic Data Project Fellowship, where he further honed his skills in translating data into action for education agencies. His project specifically uncovered which families and students were successfully building and sustaining at-home reading habits through Springboard’s programs and designed programmatic changes to support the families who were struggling with building that habit.

Aidan earned his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Princeton University and was the recipient of both the Howard Crosby Warren Junior and Senior Prize in Psychology. He is currently based in Philadelphia.

What key experiences shape your perspective on education?

Before she passed, my mom was a special education teacher working in a public school district just outside of Cleveland, Ohio, where I grew up. She instilled in me a deep commitment to ensuring that public education meets every child where they are and supports them in both their needs and goals. Since graduating from college, I’ve had the opportunity to contribute to organizations that are trying to make that philosophy of public education a reality. In many ways, my career is in honor of my mom and her own values that she passed on to me.

Ask me about…

Live music, podcasts, cooking, restaurants, and our national parks

About Narric

Narric Rome serves as Managing Director of Government Relations at Accelerate. In this role he works to advance Accelerate’s federal and state policy agenda and build effective partnerships with education stakeholders.

Prior to joining Accelerate, Narric was the Vice President of Government Affairs at Americans for the Arts where he led education policy initiatives for the creative sector focused on strengthening equity in public school, and out-of-school settings, and managed over 20 major fly-in events on Capitol Hill. At the state level, while at Americans for the Arts, he led a multi-year, multi-state grant program helping to advance the policy goals for state advocacy organizations. Narric also served as a legislative aide to Secretary Richard Riley at the U.S. Department of Education where he received the Peer Recognition Award.

Over the course of two decades, Narric led advocacy efforts impacting the No Child Left Behind Act, the Every Student Succeeds Act, and pandemic-era assistance programs. In 2019, Narric and his government affairs team were recognized by the Public Affairs Council with their Lobbying Strategy Innovation award.

Narric holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Vermont and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from Columbia University. He and his family live in Annapolis, MD.

What is your favorite part about the work you lead at Accelerate?

My favorite part of the work I lead at Accelerate is the chance to be both creative in policy and entrepreneurial in strategy. I get to work directly with states through our grant program, helping them design and refine high-dosage tutoring at scale, while also shaping national guidance and tools. I also collaborate closely with national education stakeholders and partners to advance coherent, scalable policy solutions. With each state pursuing its own path—and the federal government stepping back—there’s a real need for responsive, evidence-driven leadership. I love spotting advocacy opportunities, testing ideas quickly, and helping states turn research into policy solutions that move the field forward.

Ask me about…

Pizza, Phish and sailing

About Elizabeth

Elizabeth Ross serves as Managing Director of State Programs at Accelerate, where she works with Accelerate’s portfolio of State Implementation Fund and States Leading Recovery grantees to help states implement policies that improve outcomes for millions of students.

Prior to joining Accelerate, Elizabeth served as Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning for the Office of the State Superintendent (OSSE) in Washington, DC, where she led OSSE’s Advancing Excellence work — helping ensure all DC students excel by setting high standards, providing robust supports for educators and students, and holding schools and school systems accountable. Earlier, she served as Vice President and Managing Director of Teacher Policy at the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), leading research and technical assistance to support states. Before NCTQ, Elizabeth worked at the US Department of Education on equity-focused student support and teacher quality initiatives.

Elizabeth also teaches US Legal Research, Analysis, and Writing at Georgetown University Law Center and Education Law and Policy at American University.

Elizabeth began her career as a third-grade teacher at Simon Elementary School in Washington, DC, where she currently resides. Elizabeth holds a B.A. from Georgetown University, where she studied English Literature and Government; an M.A.T. from American University in Elementary Education; a J.D. from Villanova University School of Law, where she was a public interest scholar; and an Ed.M. from Harvard University Graduate School of Education, where she was a Zuckerman Fellow.

What is your favorite part about the work you lead at Accelerate?

States play a critical and often underappreciated role in driving increases in student learning. It’s a privilege to work with and learn from so many smart, strategic state and system leaders as we help support, strengthen, and sustain the policies and structures that improve student outcomes. I feel lucky to lead this work, learn alongside the Accelerate team and our partners, and share what we discover with the field.

Words to live by:

“Fight for the things that you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg”

About Nakia

As President, Nakia leads Accelerate’s integration of its program, research and state policy work, and will continue to oversee the organization’s operations.

Before joining Accelerate, Nakia served as a senior leader at the district and state levels. As Deputy Superintendent of Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS), she led transformative work to pilot high quality instructional materials aligned to the science of reading and full implementation of whole child supports to achieve educational equity. Before her appointment in GCPS, Nakia served as interim and deputy superintendent at Hamilton County Schools (HCS) in Chattanooga, Tennessee, driving continuous improvement across all departments and leading HCS to become the fastest improving district in Tennessee. Prior to her appointment in Hamilton County, Nakia was Assistant Commissioner, Division of Data and Research, at the Tennessee Department of Education. During her time at the department, she helped set the strategic direction for PreK-12 educational policy, as co-author of the state’s highly regarded plan under the Every Student Succeeds Act. Nationally, she was selected for the Future Chiefs leadership development program by Chiefs for Change, as well as the Broad Residency in Urban Education by the Broad Center, now part of Yale University.

Nakia began her career in technology and banking after earning a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and an MBA from Duke University. She completed a doctorate in education at Vanderbilt University.

What key experiences shape your perspective on education?

In two years with two highly effective teachers, I went from being a kid labeled as speech-delayed to entering the gifted program and then skipping a grade. Mrs. Turnell-Smith, my second-grade teacher, must have never looked at the records from my first school, and she recommended me for the gifted program by December. Then in third grade, Ms. Gardener helped me to accelerate through the curriculum, ultimately recommending that I skip fourth grade. I know that these master teachers changed my life trajectory, and I strongly believe that education should open a world of opportunities for every child.

Words to live by:

How you do anything is how you do everything.

About Kim

As Managing Director of Advancement at Accelerate, Kim leads fundraising strategy and external engagement efforts to amplify the organization’s work. She ensures that partnerships and collaborations align with Accelerate’s mission and long-term goals. Kim previously served as Chief of Staff, where she supported special projects and helped build out the organization’s development and communications functions.

Before joining Accelerate, Kim served on the leadership team at DREAM, a network of extended-day, extended-year schools and programs in New York City. In her roles as Senior Advisor, Chief of Staff to the Co-CEOs, she led strategic initiatives that enabled the organization to function more effectively and efficiently.

Prior to DREAM, Kim provided counsel and strategic support to organizations across the nonprofit sector at CCS, an international fundraising consultancy. Her commitment to educational equity stems from her first career as a secondary math teacher in New Orleans, where she taught at open-enrollment public schools serving low-income populations through Teach For America.

Kim received her B.A. in English and B.S. in Public Policy from the University of Southern California and her M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, son, and dog.

What is your favorite part about the work you lead at Accelerate?

I am consistently inspired by the breadth of our work and its impact. We are relentless in our commitment to improving educational outcomes for students, and it’s a privilege to find ways to elevate these efforts and collaborate with others who share this vision.

Ask me about:

Transitioning from city to suburb life

About Debra

Debra Wexler serves as Managing Director of Strategic Communications at Accelerate, where she leads the organization’s external narrative and visibility strategy, translating complex research into compelling stories and actionable insights so more students benefit from approaches proven to improve learning.

Debra has more than 20 years of experience leading communications and marketing for mission-driven organizations across education, philanthropy, and the public sector. Most recently, as Senior Director of Media & External Relations at the KIPP Foundation, she secured high-profile media placements and elevated leadership voices through opinion essays and speaking engagements. She also supported advocacy communications and oversaw crisis and reputation management.

Throughout her career, Debra has pursued work where storytelling is a catalyst for change. She has led rebrands at New Leaders, The Human Project at NYU, and Hunter College. As communications director at Carnegie Corporation of New York, she led strategic communications for the foundation’s education and democracy grantmaking programs,ensuring research informed policy and practice — building on similar experience at TNTP, New Leaders, and as consultant for Harvard economist Roland Fryer.

Her experience also includes serving as deputy press secretary for the New York City Department of Education, where she managed communications on some of the most complex issues facing the agency, wrote persuasive speeches and political testimony, and supported community engagement around sensitive issues including school funding, closures, and facilities sharing.

Debra holds an M.A. and M.Phil. in American Studies from New York University and a B.A. in English and History from Oberlin College.

What key experiences shape your perspective on education?

Education is personal for me. I grew up in a family of educators — my parents both taught in New York City schools, my brother taught in the high school we both attended, and my husband spent his career as a teacher, school and system leader in New York City. I have seen the life-changing power of education firsthand, as a public school graduate, parent, and through a long history working in and around education.

I believe deeply that public education is the foundation of prosperity and progress — for individuals and for our nation. It is also essential to the health of our democracy and informed civic engagement. That conviction is what has kept me in this space across my entire career, and it shapes how I think about communications. Getting proven practices into more schools isn’t just a professional goal. For me, it’s about what public education can and should deliver for every student.

Ask me about:

I love to travel. Highlights include Greece, Japan, Costa Rica, and Kenya — a trip that stands out above the rest. My older daughter lives in Scotland, which has also inspired travels throughout Europe.

About Rick

Rick Zadd is Accelerate’s Managing Director of Finance, where he leads the organization’s financial activities and provides strategic guidance to the leadership team for long term financial growth and sustainability. He brings more than a decade of experience at the intersection of education, finance, and operations, with a record of building systems that enable organizations to scale their impact.

Before joining Accelerate, Rick served as Vice President of Finance and Operations at the Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), where he oversaw finance, grants management, HR, IT, and operations. As a member of the leadership team, he led the operational aspects of the organization through a period of significant budget and staff growth. Previously, Rick spent seven years with the Tennessee Department of Education in various operations and finance roles, and earlier taught middle and high school math in traditional and charter settings in Nashville and Cheatham County, TN.

Rick holds a master’s degree in education from Lipscomb University, a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has been a Certified Management Accountant since 2022. He serves as the founding board treasurer of Nurses Middle College Nashville, a charter high school that opened in 2025 to expand pathways into nursing. Rick lives in Cleveland, OH with his wife and two sons.

What key experiences shape your perspective on education?

During my time as a middle and high school math teacher, it was clear to me that while a lot could be achieved within my classroom, there were larger barriers for some of my students that could only be solved with new systems or policies in place. I’m honored that I’ve had the chance to try to address those needs through work in state government, and more recently, nonprofit organizations that pursue better outcomes for all students.

Ask me about:

Proper exterior holiday lighting technique, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the workplace comedies of Michael Schur, and which children’s books hold interest after 100+ readings