Our alumni
School Leadership Initiative
Corps and Alumni
Alumni School Leadership Profiles
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Ed Chang
Building Excellent Schools Fellow - Atlanta
Atlanta '01
Ed Chang graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1997 with a B.S. in biology and psychology and remained there while enrolled in the Master's Program in Physical Therapy. Ed left the medical field and began his career in education after being accepted to Teach For America in 2001 and worked for four years as a middle school science teacher in Atlanta Public Schools. In 2004, Ed was a corps member advisor at the Houston institute, where he facilitated sessions for corps members and sharpened his ability to lead by motivating and teaching adults. Following institute, Ed was a founding teacher of Atlanta Charter Middle School and served as a learning team leader. In both positions, he used his expertise to help guide other teachers and corps members in achieving success with their students. Ed has an M.S. in secondary science education from Mercer University.
Ed is pleased to share his experiences in the BES Fellowship, as a Teach For America summer institute staff member, and as an urban charter school founder with interested Teach For America Alumni.
Giulia Cox
Principal, MS 118 - New York City
New York '91
Upon graduation from Bryn Mawr College with a degree in sociology, Giulia joined the 1991 Teach For America corps in New York. She taught language arts to seventh graders in the Bronx. After her corps experience, Giulia went on to be a school director for the Teach For America institute, where she honed her management ability and learned to navigate complex relationships with teachers and district officials. Giulia continued to work in the New York City school system, serving as the technology coordinator and the professional developer for standards and techniques for District 6. As the technology coordinator, she coordinated teacher training on the use of laptops in the classroom.
Giulia completed Fordham University's Master's in Educational Administration program in 2000. She was also an assistant principal at MS 390 in District 10 in the Bronx. Giulia's school is currently a host school for Teach For America's New York City institute.
Gordon Gibbings
Principal, Animo South Los Angeles Charter Public High School - Los Angeles
Los Angeles '99
Gordon Gibbings graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in general studies. He joined Teach For America in 1999 and taught fourth grade at Bixby Elementary in Long Beach. Gordon went on to graduate school to pursue his Ph.D in educational policy at the University of California, Berkeley, during which he conducted extensive research on charter schools. He was so impressed by the models he studied that he decided to leave his Ph.D program and go back to being a practitioner armed with fresh and promising ideas for how to make public education work for urban students. He returned to his original placement school where he taught fifth grade literacy and completed his certification courses simultaneously. Upon receiving his teaching credential, Gordon served for one year as the testing data coordinator at Jordan High School before becoming assistant principal, completing Long Beach Unified’s Aspiring Principals Program, and beginning an educational doctorate degree at the University of Southern California.
Inspired by the high-performing Los Angeles-based Green Dot Public High Schools, his principal transitioned to oversee a cluster of Green Dot Schools, and Gordon followed in his footsteps as the leader of his own school. Three weeks into becoming a charter school leader at a Green Dot School, Gordon is diligently working on building an excellent school that will send Animo South LA’s first class of graduating seniors to college. Gordon shares his own aspirations for one day running a charter network. Gordon can be reached at ggibbings@animo.org.
Dave Hardy
Curriculum Support Specialist, Miami-Dade County Public Schools - Miami
Miami '03
In 2003, after earning a B.S. in Economics at Colgate University, Dave Hardy joined Teach For America. Bringing his leadership and commitment to education to the classroom, Dave taught at Madison Middle School in Miami during his corps experience, and continued teaching there through 2007. In the summer of 2007, Dave joined the 2007 Atlanta institute staff as a school director, leading corps members and managing the operational functions at Inman
Middle School. He is currently working toward his master’s degree in educational leadership at St. Thomas University and has taken on the role of curriculum support specialist, working to improve student achievement in two of the worst performing schools in Miami-Dade County.
Dave has earned several recognitions for his teaching and leadership, taking the role of language arts department chairperson and reading leader, as well as coach of the varsity basketball team. He would be happy to speak with other alumni concerning his current leadership roles and future endeavors in school leadership. He can be reached at
dhardy@dadeschools.net.
Nigena Livingston
Director of Instruction, Cleveland Lighthouse Community School - Cleveland
Detroit '02
Nigena Livingston graduated from State University of New York at Buffalo in 2002 with a degree in Health and Human Services. Upon joining Teach For America, she taught sixth and eighth grade science at Dursee K-8 in Detroit. She also served as a corps member advisor at Markham Middle School in Watts, Calif. during the 2004 and 2005 institutes. She went on to become a program director in Miami and the following year decided to become a founding member of Cleveland Lighthouse Community School, a charter school started by alumnus Niloy Gangopadhyay (Bay Area '02). Although she initially applied for a teaching position, the principal at Cleveland Lighthouse Community School felt Nigena’s leadership experience more closely matched the director of instruction position. Two years into this role, Nigena loves working with teachers to ensure that all students make progress, not just those who have fallen behind, and to be able to demonstrate individual academic gains with concrete data that she is responsible for tracking and analyzing. When Nigena faces challenges not aligned with her areas of expertise, she seeks input from Lighthouse Academies colleagues across the network, as well as from current and former Teach For America program directors, CMAs, and corps members she has kept in touch with throughout the years. Her greatest accomplishment in her first year as director of instruction was achieving network-wide student performance goals of four-point-plus improvements in both reading and math on the Stanford 10.
Nigena is pleased to share her experience with interested alumni. Her e-mail address is nlivingston@lighthouseacademies.org.
Marc Mannella
Principal, KIPP Philadelphia Charter School - Philadelphia
Baltimore '98
After completing his commitment to the 1998 Baltimore corps, Marc Mannella taught science an additional two years at the high school level. Seeing very bright children in his high school classes struggle to do basic mathematics and read science textbooks, he decided to take on education reform on a larger scale. He was accepted into University of Pennsylvania's educational policy doctorate program, but decided to pass on the opportunity, as he knew he wanted to continue making a more direct impact on the lives of children. Instead, he founded and currently serves as the school leader for the KIPP Philadelphia Charter School.
On the 2006 state test (Pennsylvania System of School Assessment), 80 percent of the school's seventh graders scored proficient or advanced in reading, and 86 percent did so in mathematics - outperforming the statewide averages in both subjects. In addition, the school outperformed Philadelphia City School District averages at every grade level in both reading and mathematics.
Orpheus Williams
Principal, Achievement First Crown Heights - New York City
D.C. Region '98
Orpheus Williams is a New Leader principal at Achievement First Crown Heights, the first Achievement First middle school in New York City.
After earning his undergraduate degree from Cornell University, Orpheus joined Teach For America and spent two years teaching high school chemistry, biology, and physics in a Washington, D.C. public high school. During this time, he also earned an M.A. in science education from Trinity College. He went on to assume a position as assistant principal in charge of instruction at Clay Elementary School in Mableton, Ga., followed by his appointment as project manager for a non-profit alternative certification program in Atlanta. Orpheus moved to New York City in 2002 after being accepted to the New Leaders for New Schools program. During his residency year, he served on the leadership team at IS 62 Ditmas Middle School in Brooklyn.
