Leading Educators CEO Chong-Hao Fu announced that Karolyn Belcher and Melanie Dukes will join the organization’s board of directors at a time of rapid evolution in the education sector.
New Orleans (December 18, 2024) – Today, Leading Educators CEO Chong-Hao Fu announced that Karolyn Belcher and Melanie Dukes will join the organization’s board of directors at a time of rapid evolution in the education sector. Yusuf Ahmad, CEO of Playlab, was also appointed by board chair Kara Helander as a board advisor on artificial intelligence.
Belcher is a highly experienced school system and nonprofit leader, recently serving as interim superintendent at Achievement First and chief academic officer at Charleston County School District. Dukes is the founder of EdVenture Lab, an independent consulting firm focused on using experimentation and forward-thinking approaches to help education innovators navigate the intersection of technology, access, and learning.
“As the charge of preparing all students for a bright future gets more complex, Karolyn, Melanie, and Yusuf offer a wealth of experience in finding nimble, impactful, and innovative ways to support student success,” says Fu. “They are accomplished, visionary advocates for students and educators, and I could not be more grateful for their belief in our mission.”
As an advisor to the board of directors, Ahmad will provide valuable, real-time insights into how educators and students are leveraging AI to find efficiencies, strengthen current practices, and ignite new possibilities for learning. His platform Playlab is democratizing AI in education by serving as a “safe sandbox” for a global community of educators to learn, adapt, and create educational AI in context.
A nationally recognized leader in school system improvement, Leading Educators is working to leverage its unique capabilities and rare record of cultivating exceptional teacher practice in new ways at the intersection of excellent teaching, talent, and technology. Once such initiative, the first-of-its-kind School Teams AI Collaborative, is garnering national attention for empowering some of the most innovative school teams in the U.S. to elevate and codify promising practices for AI-enabled instruction.
Belcher, Dukes, and Ahmad will play important roles in guiding organizational strategy and health as school systems brace for the end of ESSER funding, continue to make difficult choices with tightening budgets, and experiment with new technologies. Leading Educators aims to directly support 272,079 students and 28,000 educators each year by 2027.
The Leading Educators board of directors is composed of eleven members with experience in state and city-level educational leadership, education policy and research, organizational management and leadership, sustainable business growth, and talent. Belcher and Dukes join Kara Helander (Chair), Michelle Boyers, Sheila Brown, Chong-Hao Fu (CEO), Tiffany Johson Lewis, Claudy Jules, Stuart Kaplan, Nina Kontos, and Aylon Samouha.
About Karolyn Belcher
Karolyn Belcher has nearly 30 years of experience as a teacher, principal, teacher trainer, and school system leader. She shares, “I have admired Leading Educators for years. The staff has deep expertise in high-quality curricular implementation, operates effective professional development for educators, and has a demonstrated track record of results for kids. I am looking forward to working more closely with this talented team.”
She previously worked as the interim superintendent at Achievement First, chief academic officer for Charleston County School District, and interim chief talent officer for the Alliance College-Ready Public Schools network in Los Angeles.
Other accomplishments include serving as president of TNTP, working in various roles for 11 years, and founding and leading the John A. Reisenbach Charter School in Harlem, N.Y. She earned her degrees from Mount Holyoke College and Teachers College at Columbia University.
About Melanie Dukes
Melanie Dukes is a visionary education and technology leader dedicated to creating equitable learning opportunities through innovation. As the founder of EdVenture Lab, an independent consulting firm, she leverages her extensive experience in education technology, philanthropy, operations, and strategic leadership to drive transformative change in education.
“I am excited to join the Leading Educators board at this pivotal moment in education. Their approach to creating systemic change through empowering high-quality teaching, combined with their innovative vision to leverage AI to transform instruction, deeply resonates with my work and areas of passion,” says Dukes. She adds, “Their proven track record of improving outcomes for historically marginalized students makes this an especially meaningful opportunity to serve.”
Prior to launching EdVenture Lab, Dukes served as the Associate Program Director of K-9 Education at the Overdeck Family Foundation, where she led the organization’s K-9 grantmaking portfolio team, allocating $24M across 40+ organizations. Her career spans pivotal roles in education technology, non-profit management, and finance, including positions at 2U, Inc., Relay Graduate School of Education, KIPP NYC Public Schools, and Morgan Stanley.
Dukes’s commitment to education extends beyond her professional roles. She serves on multiple non-profit boards, including Saga Education, Throughline Learning, Launch Expeditionary Learning Charter School, and PAVE Academy Charter School.
She earned an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Industrial Engineering, and is pursuing an M.A. in Learning Technology and Experience Design at New York University. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband and three girls.
About Yusuf Ahmad
Yusuf Ahmad is a self-described “lifelong kindergartener” who builds systems for thinking, making, and learning. As co-founder and CEO of Playlab, he champions spaces for educators and nonprofits to create their own AI tools.
Previously, Ahmad contributed to Scratch, researched creative tools for educators, and helped found ALU and alx. He also coaches startups through MIT’s Sandbox Fund.
Ahmad’s work builds on ideas from bell hooks, Seymour Papert, Ruha Benjamin, Alan Kay, Mitch Resnick, and many others.
About Leading Educators
Leading Educators is a national education nonprofit that helps school systems leverage research on how students learn, what teachers need to excel, and how systems improve to nurture excellence in every classroom. When teachers learn, students learn.
By building on strengths and bolstering the conditions for educators to succeed, we ensure that transformational leadership, practices, and results endure without us. Teachers reach new professional heights, and more students thrive. Learn more at leadingeducators.org.
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