2026 Eddies Awards: Suzanne Kubach PIE Network Weaver of the Year

State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE)

SUMMARY

As president and CEO of the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), David Mansouri leads one of the most consistent and impactful advocacy organizations in the PIE Network. David models the Network’s “give and get” spirit through his service on the PIE Network board, currently serving as vice chair, as well as his approachability, curiosity, and willingness to share and learn from other Network members. Through the advocacy and vision of David and his team at SCORE, Tennessee students have seen sustained growth driven by student-centered reform and practical implementation support.

EXAMPLES OF DAVID’S ADVOCACY

Since the founding of the PIE Network, Tennessee has been a leader in reform policy and has the results to back it up. David has played a central role in those efforts for years, modeling collaboration and data-informed policy and advocacy work. Whether it’s defending the role of assessments, strengthening literacy policy, or driving improvements to higher education funding formulas, David and his team are at the forefront. 

Over the last year, SCORE and other coalition partners in Tennessee led efforts to defend the state’s assessment and accountability system by going on the offense to shift the debate and maintain high expectations for Tennessee students. SCORE’s work in developing a new “Credential Impact Framework” led to important changes to the state’s outcome-based formula for higher education, shifting the funding formulas to focus on valuable credentials that lead to economic independence for credential earners. 

The advocacy work David and his team lead extends far beyond policy development and passage with critical support for effective implementation. SCORE’s support for the strong implementation of the Tennessee Literacy Success Act has led to greater adoption of proven literacy instruction practices and a stronger focus on instructional coherence. These actions are leading to measurable growth in student outcomes and improvements in teacher quality.

BRINGING THE PIE NETWORK COMMUNITY AGREEMENT TO LIFE

David exemplifies and models the PIE Network Community Agreement. Whether it’s through skilled moderation of a panel on a controversial topic at Summit or by taking a sincere interest in supporting a new executive at the PIE exec’s meeting, David brings an authentic connection to every interaction. Time is the most valuable thing we have, and David willingly gives of his time to support the Network through actions large and small. His interactions are respectful, but he’s not afraid to stand up for students and what they need to succeed. David is one of the true education policy experts in the country, but his humility and approachability set him apart.

RESOURCES

• From Completion to Impact: Redefining Postsecondary Funding and Student Success 

• The Future of State and Local Assessments in Tennessee

Nominated by: Ryan Franklin (Philanthropy Advocates)

Educators for Excellence

SUMMARY

Evan has embodied the give-and-get spirit of the Network by co-founding and co-leading the Protect Public Education coalition to support other PIE Network members’ efforts to push back against federal education funding cuts and rollbacks of important civil rights and accountability protections for students, especially those from historically disadvantaged groups.

EXAMPLES OF EVAN’S ADVOCACY

Along with leaders from NPU, EdTrust, and Ed Counsel, Evan co-founded the PPE coalition shortly after the 2024 election. PPE is now a broad alliance of 35+ education, civil rights, and advocacy organizations. PPE’s priorities include protecting federal education funding, defending the Department of Education against efforts to dismantle it, safeguarding equal access to educational opportunity, and shielding students from immigration action in schools. Of utmost importance is the unique point of view that Evan and E4E bring from reform-oriented educators across the country.

PPE runs direct-action campaigns encouraging constituents to contact their representatives and collects personal “stories of impact” from people describing how the Department of Education has affected their lives — building a public narrative bank to reinforce its advocacy with lived experience. 

One of PPE’s most important victories involved the 2026 federal education budget. PPE convened leaders from over 30 organizations and ultimately succeeded in ensuring that Congress passed a bipartisan spending package that preserved funding for federal education programs, a rebuke of the Trump administration’s proposed FY2026 budget, which would have cut more than $12 billion from the Department of Education and eliminated numerous programs for students and educators.

PPE also played a key role in getting the U.S. Department of Education to release almost $7 billion in withheld K-12 funds covering: Title II-A for educator training and development; Title III-A for English learners; Title IV-A/B for after- and summer school programs, among others; migrant education; and adult literacy, in July 2025. This included generating significant bipartisan Congressional pressure, with 10 Republican senators (e.g., Moore Capito, McConnell, and others) writing directly to OMB Director Russ Vought.

PPE is currently engaged in the fight to stop the Department from being dismantled, specifically calling for barring interagency agreements (IAAs) that would transfer Department programs and responsibilities elsewhere, to agencies poorly equipped to oversee them, reversing transfers already underway, and restoring the Department to full operation.

Throughout all this work, Evan brings extraordinary strategic prowess and a calm demeanor that facilitates the formation of robust policy positions and maximum buy-in from actors across the education advocacy sector.

BRINGING THE PIE NETWORK COMMUNITY AGREEMENT TO LIFE

Evan Stone’s leadership of the Protect Public Education (PPE) coalition is a living expression of the Community Agreement’s core commitments — connection, respectful engagement across differences, and treating members as experts who take risks together.

The Agreement holds that “connection is the foundation of the Network” and calls on members to “get to know each other as professionals and people.” Evan modeled this by co-founding PPE alongside leaders from National Parents Union, EdTrust, and Ed Counsel in the aftermath of the 2024 election, then growing it into a 35+ organization alliance spanning education, civil rights, and advocacy groups. Building and sustaining that scale of coalition required exactly the kind of authentic relationship-building the Agreement envisions, turning individual connections into a durable, collective infrastructure for impact.

Evan is always good about organizing teacher voice, whether it means physically bringing teachers to DC for important hearings, organizing teachers to hop on calls with Hill staff, elevating their voices in the press, etc. He’s constantly uplifting educator voices in a way that both adds credibility to the coalition’s advocacy and makes all of its members better advocates because we’re able to better understand the teacher perspective.

The Agreement also asks members to “engage in respectful and direct conversations across lines of difference on challenging issues,” expecting non-closure but sharper understanding. PPE’s work is inherently cross-ideological: securing the release of nearly $7 billion in withheld K-12 funds and a bipartisan FY2026 spending package required Evan and PPE to build genuine relationships with both Republican and Democratic senators and staff who might not otherwise engage with reform-oriented educator voices — turning potential adversaries into allies on shared student-outcome goals.

In addition, the Agreement’s belief that “our members are experts” and its call to “build brave Network spaces to get vulnerable, take risks, and learn” shows up in how Evan brought E4E’s distinct reform-educator perspective into a coalition dominated by civil rights and parent-advocacy voices — a risk that required candor about differing starting points, but one that ultimately strengthened PPE’s credibility and reach. His calm, strategic demeanor is precisely the disposition the Agreement asks of members navigating disagreement toward shared impact.

Beyond Evan’s co- leadership of PPE, the organization he leads, Educators for Excellence, itself embodies the Agreement’s spirit of connection and shared expertise, having built its entire model around elevating classroom teachers as genuine experts and connecting them across lines of ideological and pedagogical difference to shape policy. E4E’s willingness to convene educators with divergent views on contested issues — and to bring that same brave posture into the broader PPE coalition — reflects an organizational culture that mirrors exactly what the Community Agreement asks of the Network.

RESOURCES

• PPE website
• E4E: Warning from the Classroom: Teachers Reject Trump’s Policies
• “If McMahon Really Wants to ‘Invest in Teachers,’ She Should Listen to Them” Evan Stone via the 74

Nominated by: Charlie Barone (National Parents Union, NPU)

Freedom to Choose Schools

SUMMARY

Jay Artis-Wright has embodied the give-and-get spirit of the Network by quietly connecting Black and Brown school leaders, mentoring emerging advocates, steadying coalitions through leadership transitions, and brokering bipartisan relationships — all in support of other PIE Network members’ work to expand and defend high-quality public school options, including charter schools and microschools, for students and families across Tennessee, Georgia, and the nation.

EXAMPLES OF JAY’S ADVOCACY

Through her leadership, Jay has fostered collaboration among charter schools, microschools, and advocacy organizations across Tennessee, Georgia, and beyond. She has stepped in to preserve critical work during leadership transitions elsewhere and has successfully built relationships across political lines to foster bipartisan support for educational opportunity. Above all, Jay invests in others by mentoring emerging advocates and empowering parents and educators to lead. 

“I lead the Center for Black Educator Development, and I have watched Jay Artis-Wright operate from the vantage point most of the Network might not ever see: the late-night phone call, the unannounced introduction, the steady hand on a transition that only those who directly benefited noticed. I have collaborated with Jay across multiple states as she has organized and advocated alongside families attending charter schools.” – Sharif El-Mekki

The clearest example is the New Niagara Initiative, which Jay helped lead — a multi-city listening and blueprint project that took us to Memphis, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, and Philadelphia to engage parents, students, educators, and community organizations on what it will take to rebuild Black education. What stays with me from that work is not the report we produced. It is the way parents reacted to Jay in every city. They embraced her. They trusted her. They leaned in. Her care, her commitment, and her clarity are the level our sector needs and the level families across this country deserve. Jay did not show up as the headliner. She showed up as the weaver — connecting Memphis Lift parent organizers to Houston mentorship leaders, linking Atlanta culturally responsive curriculum work to Philadelphia mental health advocates, and translating across charter, microschool, and district lines so the resulting blueprint belonged to the communities, not to any one organization. 

Then she pushed to operationalize it through New Niagara Hubs so the work could outlive any single funder or political cycle. That is only a fraction of what she does daily through Freedom to Choose Schools. When her team brought 1,000 Black and Latino charter scholars to the Georgia State Capitol in 2024, the headlines went to the students — exactly as Jay wanted it. Through her Choice Words podcast, she elevates educators and families of color that the sector too often overlooks. Jay consistently fosters belonging by bringing diverse perspectives to complex issues and engaging in respectful conversations. She mentors emerging advocates without claiming them. That is the give-and-get spirit.

BRINGING THE PIE NETWORK COMMUNITY AGREEMENT TO LIFE

The PIE Network Community Agreement asks members to show up generously, assume good intent, share credit, and stay focused on students. Jay Artis-Wright lives every line of it. She is generous by default. Across the New Niagara cities — Memphis, Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia — and in the daily work of FCCS, the first instinct I see in her is to give. Whether it is a contact, a template, or, most often, a warm introduction. I, and so many others, have often engaged her for an objective yet well-informed read on the political terrain. She offers it before any transaction is attached, and she offers it whether or not the recipient sits within her organization’s lane. 

Her contributor columns at CharterFolk and her monthly News from Jay letters are themselves acts of generosity — she uses her platform to lift up partner organizations, pending legislation, and emerging leaders rather than her own brand. She assumes good intent across lines that most of our field treats as uncrossable. Jay has built working relationships with leaders whose politics differ sharply from hers and mine, and she has done so without softening her commitment to the families she has served for two decades. That is not centrism. That is discipline — the discipline of staying focused on the kids in the room while the adults around the table argue. 

She shares credit relentlessly. When New Niagara surfaced, the brilliance of parent organizers and community groups already doing the work, Jay made sure the report named them as the experts and positioned policymakers and funders as the ones who needed to catch up. When something hard happens, she absorbs more of the weight than is hers to carry because she believes in the age-old adage that if we want to go far, we mustn’t go alone. And she keeps the focus on students. Every conversation with Jay circles back to a specific child, a specific family, a specific classroom. Not abstractions. Not optics. Kids.

RESOURCES

• Choice Words podcast, hosted by Jay: Choice Words by Freedom to Choose Schools – Podcast 
• CharterFolk contributor column: CharterFolk Contributor Jay Artis-Wright – A Chance Encounter and Mixed Emotions: My DNC Experience 
• 50CAN Moving the Needle featuring Jay’s essay: Moving the Needle – 50CAN National 
• News from Jay (monthly letter): News from Jay: April 2024 – Choose Schools
• Excerpt from Podcast: LinkedIn – SAPI & Triumph Public Academy

Nominated by:

• Sharif El-Mekki (Center for Black Educator Development)
• Laura McGowan-Robinson (Diversity in Leadership Institute)
  

National Parents Union (NPU)

SUMMARY

Keri, by leading NPU, has worked tirelessly on campaigns that protect and advocate for the most vulnerable. From local-based responsive work (in Minnesota defending immigrant students) to federal policy reform (READ Act), NPU, under Keri’s leadership, partners with other organizations to leverage collective action. In the true sense of the word, Keri is a weaver who focuses on the strength of the whole cloth. She uses her voice and platform to be loud, bold, and unapologetic about what is right for families and students.

EXAMPLES OF KERI’S ADVOCACY

NPU has a long list of recent advocacy campaigns (see below). It’s not just the number of campaigns but the partnerships that NPU has developed, across sectors and advocacy organizations, that adhere to NPU’s motto: Nothing About Us Without Us.

• Defending the Rights of Minnesota’s Immigrant Students in the Wake of Operation Metro Surge, in partnership with EdAllies, Educators for Excellence, Great MN Schools
• The READ Act: The Biggest Federal Literacy Reform in Over a Decade, in partnership with All4Ed, Bipartisan Policy Center, Center for American Progress (CAP), Collaborative for Student Success, EdTrust, Educators for Excellence, MassPotential, National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD), National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), Teach Plus, The Center for Learner Equity
• Addressing Teacher Shortages and Inequities: The Case for Differentiated Pay for Hard-to-Staff Roles, in partnership with DFER
• ESSA Waiver Watch: A One-Stop Shop for Understanding Waivers & Protecting Critical Guardrails, in partnership with All4Ed, EdTrust
• Red, Yellow, Green: The Tool That Lets Any Parent Audit AI in Their Kid’s School
• Education Protection War Room Coalition: Holding the Line for 50 Million Students Against Federal Attacks on Public Education, in partnership with EdTrust, Educators for Excellence
• No Plaintiffs, No Case. How Parent Power Brought the Department of Education to Court

BRINGING THE PIE NETWORK COMMUNITY AGREEMENT TO LIFE

What NPU does in amplifying parent voice is unique to national organizations; NPU centers on the people who are the most impacted by education policy. This is something that has been easily overlooked and undervalued in our collective advocacy efforts. 

Keri is a connector. The number of partnerships NPU is engaged in is a testament to her ability to speak to everyone (from parents and community members to EDs and CEOs of national organizations) and develop those relationships.  

Keri’s work is directly aligned to PIE’s goal of enabling advocates to “get vulnerable, take risks, and learn.” She takes the risks to be a bold advocate, sometimes at the risk of her own personal safety. She has partnered with lawmakers and advocates across the political spectrum to stay true to what’s important for students, such as on the bipartisan READ Act.

RESOURCES

• NPU’s Parent blog
• Keri’s Blog
• Investing in Educators paper

Nominated by: Sonia Park (Diverse Charter Schools Coalition)

MindshiftED Parent Institute

SUMMARY

Maribel Gardea did not just join the parent movement. She built a piece of it from the ground up. As co-founder and executive director of MindShiftED Parent Institute in San Antonio, she has turned a grassroots nonprofit into a training ground for parent power, with a mission to engage, educate, and activate caregivers in the city’s most underserved neighborhoods and build their collective strength to fight for their kids.

EXAMPLES OF MARIBEL’S ADVOCACY

The proof is in the people around her. Through MindShiftED’s Academy of Powerful Parents, mothers who walked in unsure how to read an IEP walk out as organizers. One of her own facilitators started as a parent who could not get language access at her daughter’s school meetings. Today, she organizes across the community and helps bring the next parent through the door. That is the whole game with Maribel. She does not collect followers. She builds leaders, and then she makes room for them to lead. 

She does this work because she has lived it. Maribel is the mother of Voozeki, a teenage son with cerebral palsy who is non-verbal and communicates through an eye-gaze device, looking at symbols on a screen to tell the world what he needs. For years, her district refused to provide that device at school until she invoked his rights under IDEA. She knows in her bones that for a child with disabilities, the right technology is not a luxury. It is a voice. 

That is why she refused to sit on the sidelines when the One Big Beautiful Bill put deep Medicaid cuts on the table. Medicaid is one of the largest funders of school-based services for kids with disabilities, from therapists to assistive technology that lets nonverbal kids learn alongside their peers, and Maribel made that reality impossible to ignore. She spent days in conversations with elected officials, then helped lead a coalition of parent advocates at a press conference alongside Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, putting families face-to-face with the lawmakers deciding their children’s future. While much of the country argued about the bill in the abstract, she kept the fight where it belonged, on whether a kid like Voozeki would still have the tools he needs in his classroom.

BRINGING THE PIE NETWORK COMMUNITY AGREEMENT TO LIFE

And Maribel shows up where it costs something. MindShiftED regularly organizes and coaches other parents to testify at San Antonio school board meetings, turning scattered, frustrated families into an organized voice. In August 2025, she was delivering a community petition on school safety and communication, reading it in English and Spanish so every family could follow, when officers removed her and arrested her for running past her speaking time. She spent the night in jail. Days later, the district attorney threw out every charge for lack of evidence. She took the hit. The families she brought kept their voices. This award honors the superconnector who shares what she has, lifts up other advocates, and strengthens the whole movement. That is Maribel Gardea on an ordinary day.

Nominated by: Keri Rodrigues (National Parents Union, NPU)

MassPotential

SUMMARY

Mary Tamer generously shares her expertise, relationships, and strategic guidance on literacy policy, educator voice, coalition building, and evidence-based reading instruction. She embodies the give-and-get spirit by convening the Mass Reads Coalition — connecting PIE members (Ed Trust MA, Teach Plus MA, NCTQ, E4E, MBAE, Latinos for Education MA alongside civil rights organizations, parent groups, disability advocates, and the business community, and representing their collective voice. These efforts culminated in the unanimous passage of the Massachusetts landmark Right to Read Act.

EXAMPLES OF MARY’S ADVOCACY

Mary has gone above and beyond to connect organizations, educators, advocates, researchers, and policymakers in support of literacy reform in Massachusetts. Through her leadership of Mass Reads, she has consistently shared resources, made strategic introductions, aligned partners around common goals, and created opportunities for members to learn from one another. Her ability to build trust across diverse stakeholders was instrumental in advancing the Right to Read Act and strengthening statewide collaboration around evidence-based literacy instruction. Mary’s work extends well beyond her formal role; she consistently identifies opportunities for partnership, elevates others’ work, and ensures the success of the broader field, not just her own organization.

Mary created the conditions for organizations that don’t always work together to stay unified across multiple legislative sessions on a single core ask: improving literacy. Her partnership with NCTQ illustrates this perfectly. As NCTQ worked to ensure the Right to Read Act included a strong focus on teacher preparation, Mary provided strategic guidance on which advocates, elected officials, and state education leaders to engage around NCTQ’s findings on the misalignment between Massachusetts teacher prep programs and the science of reading. She facilitated introductions, participated in briefings alongside the NCTQ team, reviewed op-ed drafts, and advised on the positioning and distribution of NCTQ’s report. As a direct result, the final Act requires teacher preparation programs to align with evidence-based literacy instruction and establishes oversight mechanisms to hold every program accountable. She connected members to legislative champions like Sen. DiDomenico, Rep. Sena, and Rep. Cataldo; centered parent voices at hearings; and amplified other members’ efforts through her advocacy. 

BRINGING THE PIE NETWORK COMMUNITY AGREEMENT TO LIFE

Mary embodies the PIE Network Community Agreement in both her leadership style and her approach to partnership. She believes deeply that connection is the foundation for meaningful change and consistently invests in building authentic relationships across organizations, sectors, and perspectives. Through her leadership of Mass Reads, she has created opportunities for educators, advocates, policymakers, researchers, and funders to learn from one another and work toward a shared vision for students. Mary approaches differences with curiosity and respect, helping partners navigate challenging conversations while keeping students at the center. She is also willing to be vulnerable, share lessons learned, and create space for others to do the same, fostering a culture of trust and continuous learning. 

Under her leadership, the Coalition’s work was anchored in dramatically improving outcomes for the nearly 80% of low-income Black and Latino students and 90% of students with disabilities in Massachusetts who are not reading at grade level. Mary held that moral imperative for the Coalition and ensured the voices of those most impacted were visible at every hearing, in every media moment, and in every conversation with legislators.

What distinguishes Mary is her commitment to collective impact; she freely shares resources, makes connections, elevates the work of others, and celebrates the successes of the broader field. Her leadership reflects the very best of the PIE Networks’ give-and-get spirit and demonstrates how strong relationships, mutual respect, and shared learning can drive meaningful change for students.

RESOURCES

• Compromise would reshape how Massachusetts teaches reading –  Commonwealth Beacon
• Mass. Senate unanimously approves long-awaited overhaul of state’s reading curricula – The Boston Globe 
• What I’d like to see the state’s new ed commissioner tackle first (Viewpoint) – masslive.com 
• Senate and House aligning on evidence-based reading instruction–  Commonwealth Beacon

Nominated by:

• Christopher Marino (Teach Plus Massachusetts)
• Jennie Williamson (EdTrust in Massachusetts)
  
• Heather Peske (NCTQ)

Maya Martin Cadogan, Parents Amplifying Voices in Education (PAVE)

SUMMARY

Maya Martin Cadogan has embodied the give-and-get spirit of the Network by weaving together DC education advocates, funders, system leaders, and national partners to support other PIE Network members’ efforts to defend and advance a positive, evidence-based education narrative for DC’s kids and schools. She also currently serves as the PIE Network Board Chair.

EXAMPLES OF MAYA’S ADVOCACY

Maya Martin Cadogan went well beyond her daily role as Executive Director of PAVE by serving as the connective tissue for a citywide coalition at a moment when DC urgently needs a coordinated, credible education story. Through DC Kids and Schools (DCKS), she helped bring together local nonprofits, funders, charter schools, DCPS, and other strategic education partners to elevate what is working in DC while remaining honest about what still needs improvement. 

A specific example is how quickly she built the DCKS launch infrastructure. In August, she coordinated funding, a funder lunch, website development, coalition partner recruitment, campaign communications, launch event planning, speaker outreach, and partner alignment. Maya secured early philanthropic commitments from local family philanthropies to support the effort. By the September launch, that behind-the-scenes weaving produced a national-facing moment. The launch breakfast drew 54 people in the room, including leaders from ED, Senate HELP, Bush Institute, Bellwether, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Progressive Policy Institute, Fordham Institute, Collaborative for Student Success, NewSchools Venture Fund, and Charter School Growth Fund, as well as DC Councilmembers and education leaders. 

Maya’s strategy went beyond convening people. Her goal was to equip coalition partners to be leaders and faces of the campaign. Before the launch, she sent coalition partners materials, a lookbook, a brochure, table goals, talking points, and explicit guidance to focus on four bipartisan pillars: high-quality choice, math and reading gains, career and college focus in high school, and universal Pre-K. Within three months, the coalition had hosted a launch breakfast, two dinners, three school tours, created two campaign videos, started a newsletter, and launched a new website. The campaign has raised DC’s national profile, helping all coalition members be more successful in fundraising for their work.

BRINGING THE PIE NETWORK COMMUNITY AGREEMENT TO LIFE

Maya embodies the spirit of a strong Network by giving generously, helping others to lead, and centering shared purpose with the conditions that help her peers show up well. She currently serves as the PIE Network Board Chair, where she models the Community Agreement through every Network interaction. Her DCKS emails consistently model collaboration by thanking partners, naming contributions of her team and coalition members, and inviting questions and ideas that distribute responsibility across the group rather than positioning the work as belonging to one organization. 

She weaves in the deepest sense, connecting people who hold different kinds of power and expertise so they can work together toward a bigger purpose. The campaign includes parents, school leaders, systems leaders, elected officials, practitioners, and funders as the audiences to unite around advancing public education in DC and shifting the national narrative. That is exactly the kind of cross-role, cross-sector connective work the Weaver award recognizes. Maya’s leadership is especially powerful because she pairs inspiration with practical infrastructure. She did not simply ask partners to believe in DC’s story but equipped them with a toolkit that included key data points, communications training, and explicit next steps for outreach and amplification. 

The campaign Maya created made space for the coalition to respond to a volatile policy environment. The DCKS federal roundup was designed to summarize federal developments from Congress, the White House, and key agencies, and explain the impact on education and DC. She connected federal developments, local budget pressures, home-rule concerns, and education policy so that partners could advocate from a shared, informed base. Finally, Maya embodied both care and urgency. Her messages repeatedly return to “our kids and schools,” the need to love and support DC through difficult moments, and the importance of keeping students at the center. Even when managing intense logistics, she kept the coalition grounded in purpose, gratitude, and shared responsibility.

RESOURCES

• DC Kids and Schools website
• DCKS LinkedIn page
• 74 blog co-authored by Deputy Mayor for Education Kihn and Superintendent Mitchell: How D.C. Public Schools Are Reimagining What’s Possible for Every Student – The 74

Nominated by: Josh Boots (EmpowerK12)

Progressive Policy Institute

SUMMARY

Rachel Canter is the Director of Education Policy for the Reinventing America’s Schools project at the Progressive Policy Institute and served on PIE’s board from 2018-2023. She is a powerful national thought leader who helped Mississippi achieve transformative success and now works to help others understand what it takes to translate good policy into transformative gains in student outcomes.

EXAMPLES OF RACHEL’S ADVOCACY

In 2008, Rachel founded Mississippi First and served as its Executive Director for over 16 years. In Mississippi, Rachel led advocacy efforts for multiple watershed public education initiatives, including the passage and expansion of the state’s pre-K law, the passage of the state’s charter school law, the adoption of new state education standards and assessments, the passage of a new teacher loan repayment program, the passage of a historic teacher pay raise in 2022, and the passage and funding of the 2024 student-centered public school funding formula. In addition to leading many of the state’s key education policy conversations with the legislature, she also worked with the Mississippi Department of Education to implement the reform agenda. Since then, Rachel has become a go-to resource for reformers across the country trying to understand what Mississippi’s reforms can serve as a model for other states. Her “Inside the Mississippi Marathon” report, published in April, delves into elements of Mississippi’s reforms with great specificity so that other states can create their own roadmaps to success. She frequently speaks at state and national forums (and writes) about how to take the Mississippi model national, giving reformers and policymakers across the country hope that improved student outcomes are possible.

BRINGING THE PIE NETWORK COMMUNITY AGREEMENT TO LIFE

Throughout her career, Rachel has built a reputation as one of the most effective education reformers in the country. She has shown a steadfast commitment to building connections, candidly sharing her personal experience, and engaging in conversations across lines of difference. Working across sectors and with leaders at every level, Rachel has helped strengthen not just PIE Network organizations but the sector broadly. She is deeply committed to rebuilding public education and helping the field move beyond ideological and partisan deadlock.

RESOURCES

• Rachel Canter – Progressive Policy Institute
• Inside the Mississippi Marathon – Progressive Policy Institute
• States Are Learning the Wrong Lesson From the ‘Mississippi Miracle’ – The Atlantic

Nominated by: Victoria McDougald (Thomas B. Fordham Institute)

Robin Steans, Advance Illinois

SUMMARY

Mentor, champion, cheerleader, confidante, maverick, one-of-a-kind, top-level nerd, head of the pack—these are just a few of the terms that characterize Robin Steans as a weaver working within the Illinois and national education reform community.

EXAMPLES OF ROBIN’S ADVOCACY

Known for her exceptional work ethic, charm, wit, wisdom, and unwavering belief in what’s possible, Robin Steans has nurtured and inspired dozens of leaders and rising leaders in the PIE Network over the past two decades. Many of us have looked to her as a role model for getting things done. She is often the powerful nudger who inspires someone to take on a new leadership role, launch a new initiative (or entirely new organization), or join an effort underway to change how Illinois education works to better serve students. 

Robin has been a transformative leader in strengthening Illinois’ public education system. In her official capacity as President of Advance Illinois, Robin has been responsible for:  

• Championing The State We’re In, connecting research, data, and community voices to inform policy and galvanize action around Illinois’ most pressing education challenges since 2010. 
• Working to pass the Evidence-Based Funding Formula in 2017 and continuing to advocate for more investment, with widespread impact in every Illinois district, and leading the effort to do the same in early childhood and higher education.
• Forming and leading the Educator Pipeline Group that’s been together since 2019, bringing virtually every major statewide stakeholder together to address systemic pipeline challenges. The group has advanced major policy wins (forming and funding a statewide Educators Rising org, pushing for the state teacher recruitment landing page, promoting and defending the MTI scholarship and its current iteration) and has made a meaningful difference in teacher vacancy rates while also increasing teacher diversity.
• Championing access to high-quality schools by advancing rigorous standards, strong accountability, and policies that expand educational opportunities for historically underserved communities and families.
• Working to build and protect robust data systems across the B-20 education continuum, especially important amid the elimination and disruption to federal data collection.
• Convening the broader sector to deepen the understanding and advocacy efforts around changes in federal education policy and how they would impact Illinois schools, communities, and families; and informing the public on key state educational issues, translating complex policy debates into accessible information that helps communities advocate for their schools.

In her capacity as former Board Chair of the PIE Network, members will know Robin from the Eddies stage, where she and Chris Korsmo served as co-hosts of these very awards, culminating in her “Most Masterful Mistress” award at the end of her multiple-year run.

Long before Robin became the founding executive director of Advance Illinois or joined the PIE Network, she was already a legend in Chicago public education, shaping the district’s three-decade transformation from a troubled system to one on the rise. As a founding board member of North Lawndale College Prep, she has championed high-quality public school options that deliver transformative outcomes for students and families. She continues to advance Chicago’s schools today, bringing state and national perspectives to local advocates.  

Few are more deserving of this distinction. We are delighted to nominate Chicago’s own Robin Steans for all she has woven into the PIE Network, locally and nationally.

BRINGING THE PIE NETWORK COMMUNITY AGREEMENT TO LIFE

The PIE Network Community Agreement is about fostering connection, engaging in respectful and direct conversations across lines of difference, and building brave spaces to get vulnerable, take risks, and learn. Robin brings these to life in the following ways:

• Robin models what “showing up” means at its best. She shows up for the important moments of her peer advocates, sends notes of encouragement and affirmation before and after wins (big and small), and helps us all stay clear-headed during times when we are most challenged.
• For more than a decade, she has championed thoughtful bipartisan collaboration in Illinois, including as a dedicated volunteer and supporter of the Edgar Fellows Program, helping foster relationships across political, racial, geographic, and ideological differences.
• For those who have reported to Robin or sat at a negotiating table across from her, you likely never worked with anyone quite like her. She suffers no fools and sets a high bar, while her affirmations help you strive for excellence. Robin amazes with her ability to be in the know on a vast array of issues, taking on more than seems humanly possible. She possesses a gift of being resolute and clear-headed, keeping her eye on the north star—student outcomes—in the face of adversity, criticism, and pressure from all angles. 
• Within her own organization, she trusts people with meaningful responsibility, invests in their growth, and challenges them to stretch beyond what they thought possible. She listens, inviting staff to push her own thinking, making both the work and the organization stronger.
• Robin allows us all to celebrate the incremental win, remember the big picture, and keep moving forward with an unwavering belief in what’s possible when people come together for a common cause and put students first.

RESOURCES

• Illinois Board of Higher Education- Commission on Equitable Public University Funding 
• Illinois Commission on Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care Funding-Report of Findings & Recommendations
• From The Desk- In The Face Of Uncertainty
• IWERC Advisory Board
• Advance Illinois 15-Year
• Op-Ed: How Do We Address The Educator Shortage In Illinois

Nominated by: Advance Illinois, The Chicago Public Education Fund, E4E Chicago, Illinois Network of Charter Schools, Kids First Chicago, Stand for Children Illinois, and Teach Plus Illinois