Perspective | 35 years in, our people are the story
In 1990, 23 young, intrepid leaders chose eastern North Carolina. They joined Teach For America (TFA) when the organization was little more than an idea. As members of TFA’s historic first cohort of corps members, they were united in one shared belief: Talented people, working in the classrooms that need them most for at least two years and then for a lifetime across every sector and field, can change what is possible for all kids. Thirty-five years later, the belief still holds.
Lisa Guckian grew up in Warren County, taught by those first TFA corps members. Their example stayed with her, and she went on to join the corps herself. Today she continues to work toward educational excellence for all through her work with LEE and co-chairs our statewide advisory board. But the story keeps going.
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Lisa’s daughter, Scarlett, a senior at UNC-Chapel Hill, now tutors students through TFA Ignite. Her experience with Ignite taught her that “what we share with students can travel with them beyond the lesson — and what students and other educators share with us can change us too.”
As a result, Scarlett has decided to build on her mother’s (and father’s — he’s an alum too!) legacy by joining the TFA corps to teach full-time next fall. That’s three generations of students and teachers connected by one thread: Teach For America.
Through Scarlett and so many like her, the impact of those first ENC 23 is still unfolding.
As our national community gathered earlier this month for Teach For America’s 35th Anniversary Summit, I’ve been thinking about those first corps members.
One of them is Dr. Shawn Stover. Thirty-five years in, he’s grown from a first-year fourth grade teacher who first learned about Teach For America in a Daily Tar Heel ad to becoming a school administrator, principal, and superintendent across numerous N.C. school districts — most recently serving as superintendent of Rockingham County Schools.
What began in 1990 has grown into a national network of nearly 80,000 corps members, alumni, and Ignite fellows, leading in classrooms, districts, nonprofits, government, and other sectors.
As I walked the halls of this TFA “family reunion,” I was struck not just by the sheer volume of individuals who are part of TFA’s history, but by the collective impact of our network over more than three decades. In North Carolina, the work those original 23 started has shaped who we are today: our state’s leading talent accelerator for educational impact.
Today, our TFA NC network lives and leads across 80% of our state. In Charlotte specifically, our alumni are carrying the classroom with them as they lead in different sectors.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tyler Adams said yes to teaching with TFA in Charlotte — and today, he’s still at it. While he continues to teach, he’s pursuing his doctorate in urban education and leadership, researching what makes Black male educators stay in education, and also sharpening his craft through our Reinvesting in Student Excellence (RISE) Fellowship, a selective program dedicated to keeping corps members in the classroom beyond their initial commitment.
From her first two years in the classroom with TFA, Erin Nicole Barksdale Coles developed a vision for the type of school she would one day lead. Now, as principal of Hidden Valley Elementary School, she is leading her team in writing a new narrative about what’s possible for her students, who last year exceeded key district literacy targets for the first time in four years.
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Amanda Cahn was first introduced to the complex challenges of education workforce management by serving as a TFA corps member. Years later, she implements those lessons at the district level for more than 19,000 educators, serving as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) executive director of retention and rewards.
And outside of Charlotte’s pre-K-12 system, TFA alums are building on their initial two years in the classroom to change the conditions that surround kids and families throughout Mecklenburg County and beyond.
Courtlyn Reeves, a former CMS principal, carried his initial TFA commitment into healthcare as a senior director of human resources at Novant Health, where the work is developing talent and leaders who help ensure kids can show up to school healthy and ready to learn.
Jimmy McQuilkin taught Spanish and coached basketball at Phillip O. Berry Academy, Ian Joyce taught history at Eastway Middle School, and Alyssa Sharpe taught first grade before leading UrbanPromise Charlotte, GenOne Charlotte, Crescent Coalition, and Digi-Bridge — nonprofit organizations that complement what happens in Charlotte classrooms to help ensure that the Queen City’s young people have real pathways to workforce development and economic mobility.
They are only a few of the hundreds of alumni at work across Charlotte. While they lead in different ways, each carries their classroom experience. Together they are driving toward the same goal: an excellent education for all children.
A new independent study found the same pattern in cities across the country. In Groundwork for Change, Bellwether traced how Teach For America alumni helped drive education reform in Camden, Denver, and New York City over the past two decades, drawing on interviews with more than 40 education leaders.
Across three very different cities, the same pattern held — alumni contributed at every level of the system, from schools to government.
Their influence was cumulative, built across many organizations and roles rather than through one sole entity. And their leadership was as much about execution as vision: doing the daily work of implementation that makes change last. We see the same pattern here in North Carolina.
As Michelle Fockler, a TFA alum who started her career in a Bertie County classroom and now leads our Alumni Impact team puts it: “Systems change happens when educators who have taught the students who need the most are in the rooms where decisions get made, asking the questions that matter and pushing back on what won’t hold up in a real classroom. That is the talent engine TFA has been building in North Carolina.”
Teaching and the times have certainly changed since 1990, but what those first 23 brought to eastern North Carolina holds steady: deep belief in what our students can do and fierce commitment to fight for each one of them.
One day, all children will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education. The people in this network — from those first 23 corps members like Shawn to incoming corps members like Scarlett to those who will follow in their footsteps — are the reason I believe we will get there.