Aspire Public Schools is happy to announce new team members for the Memphis region, who will be working closely with community leaders, parents, students and teachers over the upcoming year. Aspire plans to open 2 schools in Memphis in 2013.
“We are so excited about our new team,” said Allison Leslie, Executive Director of the Aspire Public Schools Memphis Region. “Being on the ground and working within the community this year allows us the flexibility to work together to create and implement creative plans for each school that will speak to the needs of that specific community.”
The team includes: Kahlmus Eatman, Katie Kling, Saree Mading, Nickalous Manning, and Caroline Vance.
Kahlmus Eatman -Managing Director of Business & Operations
Eatman has been tapped to serve as the Director of Business and Operations. He worked for Aspire as an Operations Manager in 2008. After his time with Aspire he relocated to Los Angeles to work with Pacific Charter School Development, where he managed the development of new school facilities. During his time at Duke University as an undergraduate, Eatman co-founded an organization called Black Male Outreach and Education that supported African American young men during high school and college to realize their goal of being first in their family to graduate from college. He found his way into the charter school world after working with The Bridgespan Group in San Francisco and Boston.
Katie Kling – Memphis K-5 Math Instructional Coach
Kling has been a member of the Aspire team since 2004. She joined as an elementary schoolteacher at Aspire East Palo Alto Charter School in California. In 2010, Kling became a K-5 Math coach, serving multiple schools across Aspire, and this fall she will begin her work to support Memphis by spending the majority of the school year working with teachers to revise and align assessments, pacing guides and curriculum to the common core.
Saree Mading -Managing Director of Student Services, HR & IT
Mading has most recently served in the role of Director of Student Services for Aspire and is the President of the Ravenswood City School Board. Upon relocating to Memphis, Mading will support student services in Memphis, and manage HR and IT. Mading joined Aspire in 2001 as a middle school social studies and science teacher. She became a vice principal in 2006 and started her school board work in 2008. Currently, her experience as president of the school board has inspired her interest in expanding her work to include operations.
Nickalous Manning- Community Outreach & Partnerships Manager
A native of Memphis, graduate of Melrose High School in Orange Mound and former principal of Lanier Middle School in the Whitehaven area of Memphis, Manning will serve as Community Outreach and Partnership Manager. He is a graduate of the New Leaders program, and earned his Master‟s in Educational Leadership and his Doctorate while serving as a principal.
Caroline Vance -Memphis K-5 Literacy Coach
Vance is a graduate of Rhodes College. After her undergraduate studies, she joined Teach for America in Houston and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to work for RISE. After a few years, she decided she wanted to return to the classroom and became a founding teacher at Aspire ERES Academy. In Memphis, Vance will serve in as the K-5 Literacy Coach, which will be extremely important when reviewing the option of adding Pre-K to the educational program in Memphis.
About Aspire Public Schools
Aspire Public Schools is a nonprofit organization that currently operates 34 high-performing, open-enrollment public charter schools serving 12,000 students in underserved communities across California and will open schools in Memphis, TN in fall, 2013. Aspire is one of the highest-performing public school systems in California, delivering a rigorous „College for Certain‟ education to students in grades K-12. An unrelenting focus on college preparedness led to 100 percent of graduating Aspire seniors being accepted to four year colleges or universities in 2010, 2011 and 2012. Aspire offers a high-quality education in six cities throughout California: Los Angeles, Oakland, Stockton, Sacramento, Modesto and East Palo Alto. Visit Aspire Public Schools at www.aspirepublicschools.org.