Education Pioneers

Education Pioneers (EP) fuels the general management and leadership capacity necessary to transform the U.S. K-12 public education system into a lever for equity, excellence, and justice for all. More than 4,700 Education Pioneers Alumni work in school districts, charters, nonprofits, and state agencies, impacting more than 11.5 million students.

The Problem
Public education in the U.S. is a large, complex sector that spends over $750 billion annually and reaches over 90% of K-12 children. At this size and scale, education could be a critical lever for equity and social justice. However, our current education systems reflect and perpetuate structural opportunity gaps. Despite pockets of excellence and transformation, the system underserves students of color, fails to provide pathways to economic mobility, and ultimately does not empower every student to reach their potential.

Realizing this bold ambition for public education will require systemic change and transformation through exceptional, strategic, and inclusive leadership at all levels. K-12 education under-invests in finding and growing the general management and leadership capacity necessary to realize this vision and struggles to attract, develop, and retain diverse and representative talent that reflects the community it serves. Every school system needs financial professionals, human capital experts, data analysts, and operations leaders. These talent profiles are in high demand in every sector, but few fully grasp the importance of them in education. Moreover, although more than 50% of students identify as people of color, education leadership continues to be predominately white, creating an unfavorable representation gap. The COVID-19 pandemic taught us all that having talent in the right place at the right time matters. So, as we rebuild the sector, we must address the market and system failures that prevent education from finding and retaining the quantity and caliber of general management talent needed to transform.

The Solution
Education Pioneers attracts, develops, and connects talent for critical general management roles through their unique and impactful suite of fellowships. EP Fellows bring valuable, in-demand skills and short-term capacity for high-impact projects. EP Alumni lead projects, teams, and organizations to advance a more equitable future for all students. EP focuses exclusively on the general management functions outside of the classroom and places specific emphasis on recruiting and cultivating leaders of color, leaders representative of the communities they serve, and talent from places where K-12 typically struggles to compete, such as MBA and MPP programs and the private sector. EP Fellows go on to join an ever-growing alumni network of more than 4,700 leaders, over 50% of whom identify as people of color, who champion equity and systems change in their local communities.

EP fellowships, including a 10-week Summer Fellowship and a 10-month Impact Fellowship, target early to mid-career professionals at pivotal moments in their professional journeys. Fellowships combine a work placement at a local education organization with cohort-based leadership development to cultivate the skills, mindsets, and orientations needed for adaptive, inclusive, and long-term leadership in education. EP’s fellowship model addresses market and system failures for talent in education by balancing the inherent tensions between the needs of in-demand talent, the needs of employers, and the long-term needs of the sector.