Change Agents will focus on improving postsecondary opportunities for students in their schools
Jackson, Mississippi, March 17, 2025—Teach Plus Mississippi has launched the second cohort of the Delta Change Agent Network, an 18-month program that brings together 11 highly effective educators from across the districts in the Delta region to focus on improving college and career readiness opportunities in their schools. Research shows that having post-secondary opportunities through access to higher education institutions, workforce training programs, and military service is directly connected to unlocking college and career pathways. Change Agents will address this issue through their in-school work to ensure that every child in the Magnolia State has the knowledge and skills necessary to successfully pursue the pathway that aligns with their talents and aspirations.
“This cohort of Change Agents is exclusively focused on Teach Plus Mississippi’s long-term goal of boosting college and career readiness. The Change Agents are poised to test innovative practices in several Delta school districts, such as developing partnerships across districts and between school districts and local businesses and industries. We hope their projects will inform statewide policy changes to benefit all students in Mississippi,” said Teach Plus Mississippi Executive Director Sanford Johnson.
During the program, the Change Agents will collaborate with their principals and teams of colleagues to identify barriers to post-secondary success within their schools. From there, they will build a set of strategies to remove these barriers through collaboration and continuous improvement. Each Change Agent will receive coaching from Teach Plus and access to issue-specific data and best practices to address the needs of their school community in their work.
“I am overjoyed to work with this awesome, diverse group of educators in an effort to improve the education of all students in the great Mississippi Delta,” said Amy Ward, Yazoo City teacher and 2025-26 Mississippi Delta Change Agent.
“I am truly honored and grateful to be selected as a Delta Change Agent. This opportunity empowers me to contribute to meaningful change, and I am excited to work towards a positive transformation in my school,” said Lakima Ross, Greenwood teacher, 2025-26 Mississippi Delta Change Agent, and 2022-23 Policy Fellowship alumna.
The Mississippi Delta Change Agents are:
- Danielle Brown-McPherson, Sunflower County School District
- Javelin Clark, MS Achievement School District (Yazoo City)
- Elizabeth Gibbons, Clarksdale Municipal School District
- VanDetrick Lockhart, MS Achievement School District (Humphreys County)
- Wendy Mann, Sunflower County School District
- Lakima Ross, Leflore Legacy Academy
- Angela Tate, Cleveland School District
- Taylor Taylor, Cleveland School District
- Amy Ward, MS Achievement School District (Yazoo City)
- April Watson, MS Achievement School District (Humphreys County)
- Sherry Wilson, MS Achievement School District (Humphreys County)
About Teach Plus
The mission of Teach Plus is to empower excellent, experienced, and diverse teachers to take leadership over key policy and practice issues that affect their students’ success. Since 2009, Teach Plus has developed thousands of teacher leaders across the country to exercise their leadership in shaping education policy and improving teaching and learning, to create an education system driven by access and excellence for all. Teachplus.org
Contact: Kelly Pearce, kpearce@teachplus.org, 928-925-9236
