The Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF) has a new leader.
From an email:
We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Diarese George to our team! After an extensive national search, Dr. George has been selected as NPEF’s new President and CEO and will be starting in his role on August 4. He is currently the founder and executive director of the Tennessee Educators of Color Alliance (TECA) and previously served in a variety of roles serving the education ecosystem in Nashville and Tennessee, including as the director of recruitment for the Nashville Teacher Residency and as a high school teacher in the Clarksville/Montgomery County school district. We are looking forward to how his expertise and collaborative spirit will help NPEF advance outcomes for Nashville’s students. You can learn more about Dr. Diarese George in our official announcement here.
Nashville Public Education Foundation names Dr. Diarese George next CEO
The Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF) announced that Dr. Diarese George will be the organization’s next President and CEO.
From a press release:
“From direct experience, including time as a teacher, Dr. George understands the challenges and opportunities in Nashville’s public education system,” said Ralph Davis, chair of the NPEF Board of Directors. “He brings passion and data-driven insight to his work and we are excited about what NPEF will accomplish under Dr. George’s leadership.”
“As a former teacher, nonprofit founder, and advocate, I know the power and exponential impact that great schools and great educators make in a student’s life,” said Dr. George. “I’m honored to lead NPEF into its next chapter and advance its strong legacy of building connections and partnerships that ensure every student in Nashville has the opportunity and access to succeed.”
Before leading TECA, Dr. George served as director of recruitment for the Nashville Teacher Residency, where he drove efforts to diversify the educator workforce by recruiting more people of color into the profession. Prior to that, he was a high school business teacher in the Clarksville/Montgomery County school district. Known for his deep networking and relationship-building skills, Dr. George has held several national and statewide fellowships, including Education Pioneers’ Summer Fellowship, the Tennessee State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) Educator Fellowship, Hope Street Group Teacher Fellowship, and the Mosaic Fellowship, which empowers education leaders of color across Tennessee. His passion for advancing education is further reflected in his service on statewide councils, boards, and committees.
From an email from Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF):
We are looking forward to the annual Public Schools Hall of Fame event on September 30, 2025, where we will honor outstanding educators, nonprofits, and leaders in our community. This year’s honorees represent exceptional dedication and expertise and have shown tremendous commitment to our public schools, students, teachers, and families. We invite you to visit our website to learn more about the event, meet the honorees, and save the date to join us.
On Tuesday, June 24, Old Dominion’s Matthew Ramsey presents a donation of $50,000 on behalf of The Ramsey Foundation to the “BAND TOGETHER” fundraiser to help save the concert band program at J.T. Moore Middle School in Nashville, TN.
On March 28, 2025, it was announced that J.T. Moore Middle School’s long-standing band program would be eliminated for the 2025–2026 school year. In response, a passionate group of parents launched the “BAND TOGETHER” campaign with the mission to save the school’s concert band program and keep music education alive. With generous support from Matthew Ramsey and The Ramsey Foundation, the campaign has raised over $65,000, enough to hire a part-time band director for the upcoming year. The campaign’s goal is to reach $92,000 by June 30 to fund a full-time band teacher and keep the music alive for all grades.
At EdCo, we’ve been reflecting on the end of this school year and celebrating the huge impact we were able to make due to our new Program Coordinator, Virginia Henry.
Thanks to her expertise and work ethic, our “EdCo in the Classroom” Programs were able to triple the delivery of in-class support to schools all over Nashville from Q3-Q4!
Looking forward, EdCo is excitedly preparing for our 11th Annual Summer Workshop.
We’ve been reviewing teacher-applications and selecting candidates for EdCo’s 11th Cohort. Summer Workshop is where they’ll come together for the first time as a class of our newest Members and learn how to use (and contribute to) EdCo’s mutual aid network.
We can’t wait to graduate them as official Members of our Educators’ Cooperative!
Nashville education blogger and MNPS parent TC Weber suggests that some of the sloganeering over at MNPS (Metro Nashville Public Schools) doesn’t match the reality on the ground.
Metro Nashville Public Schools will gladly sell you a t-shirt stating “every child known” and then proceed to ignore those children, both gifted and struggling, whose needs fall outside of the norm.
During Teacher Appreciation Week, educators are showered with gifts and accolades while the rest of the year is spent making them feel underachieving, incompetent, and lazy. All this is done under the guise of doing what’s best for kids as if these classroom educators are unaware of the needs of the children they interact with daily.
The Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF) announced honorees for its 2025 Public Schools Hall of Fame.
The honorees this year are:
Inspiring Leader: Cane Ridge Elementary Executive Principal Dr. Chris Plummer
Inspiring Educators:Addison Barrack, a Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFE) educator at Antioch High School.
Montrell Williams, an Integrated Mathematics 1 Teacher at Whites Creek High School.
Inspiring Organizations:Adroit, an organization dedicated to expanding equitable access to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education for students of all backgrounds. Through its LEGO and robotics team, the Pioneers, Adroit empowers underrepresented youth to build foundational STEM skills and tackle real-world challenges.
Nashville Tools for Schools, an organization working to “build for our children’s future” by building custom furniture, shelving and storage cabinets, and outdoor items for MNPS schools. Nashville Tools for Schools leverages retired community members with skills in woodworking to create items that enhance libraries and classrooms across the district.
The Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF) launched a website focused on recruiting people to teach in Nashville’s public schools.
From a promotional emal:
At NPEF, we believe teachers are the best positioned to move the needle for students and advance the positive outcomes we all want for kids. That is why we created the Teach Nashville websiteto support Metro Nashville Public Schools’ recruitment efforts by acting as a one-stop-shop for information on becoming a teacher in our district.
The online resource contains a variety of information that new and aspiring teachers need to solidify their decision to work in our district. On the Teach Nashville site, prospective MNPS educators can hear directly from teachers in our district about their experiences, find out what makes MNPS unique, learn about the teacher licensure process, explore different Nashville neighborhoods, find information about salary and benefits, and more.
The Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF) will soon be seeking a new President and CEO. Katie Cour, who has led the advocacy nonprofit for more than six years, is moving on to a new opportunity.
An email sent by NPEF explains:
Today we are sharing the bittersweet news that Katie Cour, our president and CEO, will be stepping away from NPEF after over six years with the organization. We are extremely grateful to Katie for the transformative work she has helped us achieve and the strong partnerships she has built.
During her tenure, Katie has been a strategic thinker, leader, and collaborator dedicated to addressing critical challenges in public education, and she has helped spark important conversations about improving outcomes for students. As NPEF’s president and CEO, she has shaped initiatives such as Teacherpreneur, a partnership with Metro Schools and the Mayor’s Office to improve teacher pay, NPEF’s documentary “By Design: The Shaping of Nashville’s Public Schools,” and the launch of the Nashville Child and Youth Collaborative alongside other local nonprofits.
Cour’s last day is July 3, 2025. The group will conduct a national search for its next leader.
Pupo-Walker is now poised to begin a new role as the Director of National Education Strategy at the Raikes Foundation.
“Gini brings a wealth of proximate and systems leadership to our work for educational equity,” said Dennis Quirin, Executive Director of the Raikes Foundation. “I am confident that under her leadership, the Foundation will continue to make durable, transformative progress toward a public education system that supports economic prosperity, the health of our communities, and our democracy.”
