(February 20, 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:
Katie Boody Adorno, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Leanlab Education
Sarah Anderson, Chief Executive Officer and Superintendent, Blackstone Valley Prep
Paul Astuto, Chief of Staff & Strategy, Prospect Schools
Marshall Baker, Director, Educational Analytics, Parsec Education
Antoinette Banks, Chief Executive Officer and PhD Student, Expert IEP
Brian Banks, Superintendent and Chief Academic Officer, MacDowell Preparatory Academy
Erica Beal, Executive Director, School Leader Lab
Travis Brown, Executive Director, Pharos Academies
Gudiel Crosthwaite, Superintendent, Lynwood Unified School District
Brandon Cummings, Deputy Chief, Leadership Development, School District of Philadelphia
Clarisse Mendoza Davis, Chief Executive Officer, See Forever Foundation & Maya Angelou Public Charter Schools
Farnaz Flechner, Superintendent, Environmental Charter Schools
Erika Halstead, Chief Executive Officer, Minds Matter
Christina Kishimoto, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Voice4Equity LLC
Felix Li, Chief Operations & People Officer, Summit Public Schools
Miranda Ming, Executive Director, Momentum Academy
Jorge Miranda, Chief Schools Officer, KIPP Public Schools, Northern California
Thomas Munoz, Interim Vice President of Site Strategy and Senior Advisor to the Chief of Education, College Track
Cat Peretti, Executive Director, CityTutor DC
Carolyne Quintana, Former Deputy Chancellor of Teaching & Learning, New York City Public Schools
Rita Raichoudhuri, Chief Program Officer, One Million Degrees
Marcos Silva, Executive Director, RGV LEAD
Cassandra St. Vil, Chief Executive Officer, Philadelphia Charters for Excellence
Sean Talamas, Managing Partner, Leadership Cooperative
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.