Fellows will focus on improving early literacy and early childhood education, ensuring equitable school funding and adequate teacher preparation, and building the teacher workforce.
Harrisburg, PA, August 29, 2024 — Teach Plus, a national nonprofit that empowers teachers to lead student-centered improvements in educational policy and instructional practice, has selected a diverse group of 45 outstanding educators from around Pennsylvania for its 2024-25 Policy Fellowship. Building on the work of previous cohorts, the new Fellows will develop policy, advocacy, research, and communications skills to champion innovative policy solutions for Pennsylvania’s students. The Fellows will work to ensure adequate and equitable school funding, advance the science of reading and early childhood education, expand and diversify the teacher pipeline, and reimagine teacher preparation.
Teach Plus Pennsylvania Executive Director Laura Boyce said: “At this critical moment in Pennsylvania, there’s a huge disconnect between the sky-high aspirations of our communities for students’ futures and the current reality of an educational system where only one-third of fourth graders read proficiently. We are also at a moment of great opportunity, with a court mandate to bring our educational system into constitutional compliance and strong bipartisan interest in innovative solutions. Our teacher Fellows will be working to ensure our early childhood system and K-12 system are equitably funded, staffed with well-prepared and diverse teachers, and delivering evidence-based reading instruction as we work to make Pennsylvania the fastest-improving state in the country in early literacy outcomes.”
Past cohorts of Teach Plus Pennsylvania Policy Fellows helped to achieve policy wins including historic, multi-billion-dollar increases in education funding, establishment of a new student teacher stipend program, multiple measures to improve educator workforce data collection, new requirements for teacher training in culturally responsive education and structured literacy, and changes to teacher certification to allow non-citizens to become teachers.
“I’ve experienced firsthand the difference equitably funded schools can make,” said Nelson Suarez, 2024-25 Teach Plus Pennsylvania Policy Fellow and 4th grade teacher in Manheim Township School District. “Growing up in an impoverished neighborhood but attending affluent schools changed the trajectory of my life. Recently, I saw the different opportunities my district was able to provide compared to a nearby underfunded district where close colleagues worked. I look forward to building on the work of past advocates to achieve an equitable funding system where all students, regardless of income, have a level playing field.”
The fellowship kicked off August 23-25 in Harrisburg with an in-person weekend of training and orientation. The cohort was selected through a rigorous application process that evaluated their commitment to equity and dedication to excellence in teaching to prepare all students to achieve their potential. The cohort includes three finalists for Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year, four National Board Certified teachers, several union leaders at the school or district level, and winners of dozens of teaching awards at the local, state, and national levels. With nearly half of the cohort identifying as teachers of color—compared to only 6% of teachers statewide—Teach Plus Pennsylvania Policy Fellows are reflective of the diversity of the state and its students. They hail from urban, rural, and suburban areas and all corners of the Commonwealth, from Bensalem to Beaver Falls and Scranton to Solanco. Coming from a variety of settings, including district schools, charter schools, and early childhood centers, they teach a variety of subjects and age levels from pre-kindergarten to 12th grade.
“In Westmoreland County, we are experiencing the educator shortage crisis; we have a high number of vacancies at my school alone,” said Luann Murtha, 2024-25 Teach Plus Pennsylvania Policy Fellow and high school life skills teacher at Clairview School. “But we are also developing innovative, local grow-your-own pathways for high school students to gain exposure to the profession, earn college credit, and get a head start on becoming educators. I look forward to working with my cohort to find ways to scale and fund these kinds of solutions to expand and diversify the educator workforce statewide.”
The 2024-25 Teach Plus Pennsylvania Policy Fellows are:
- Kaitlin Allsopp, Mastery Charter Schools (Philadelphia)
- Meghan Amayo, North Hills School District
- Lacey Anderson, South Western School District
- Amy Baranowski, School District of Philadelphia
- Mary Caudill, Urban Academy Charter School (Pittsburgh)
- Lesely Crawford, ABK Learning & Development Center (Pittsburgh)
- Diana Durán, School District of Philadelphia
- Isra Elshafei, School District of Philadelphia
- Guy Ferguson, Pan American Charter Schools (Philadelphia)
- Megan King, Mechanicsburg Area School District
- Tarzan MacMood, School District of Philadelphia
- Mark Macyk, School District of Philadelphia
- Jay Mehta, Upper Merion Area School District
- Melissa Moxley, East Penn School District
- Luann Murtha, Westmoreland Intermediate Unit #7
- Thaddaeus Peay, Norristown Area School District
- Christine Persun, Mechanicsburg Area School District
- Alicia Powell, School District of Philadelphia
- Brynn Raub, Solanco School District
- Suzanne Shaffer, Scranton School District
- Danielle Smiley, Propel Schools (Pittsburgh)
- Sara Smith, School District of Philadelphia
- Ciminy St. Clair, Norwin School District
- Nelson Suarez, Manheim Township School District
- Kimberly Tesluk, Scranton School District
- Jasmine Thompson, Penn Hills Charter School of Entrepreneurship (Pittsburgh)
- Melissa Unger, South Fayette Township School District
- Kwesi Vincent, School District of Philadelphia
- Aimee Weaver, Hanover Area School District
- Heather Wells, The Growing Garden Child Care Center LLC (Tarentum)
- Tamaralyn Wilson, Chester County Intermediate Unit
- Alicia Young, Bentworth School District
The 2024-25 Pennsylvania Senior Policy Fellows are:
- Kyle Bender, Tiny Tots Child Development Center (Rochester)
- Donna Ervin, Pittsburgh Public Schools
- Stephanie Everhart, South Fayette School District
- Briana Fitzgerald, Children’s Ark Creative Learning Center (Pittsburgh)
- Eric Hitchner, School DIstrict of Philadelphia
- Ben Hodge, Central York School District
- Cory Hulsizer, Camp Hill School District
- Kristyn Kahalehoe, School District of Philadelphia
- Kaitlin McCann, School District of Philadelphia
- Jill Weller-Reilly, Central Bucks School District
- Chanelle Williams, Mastery Charter Schools (Philadelphia)
- Hollie Woodard, Council Rock School District
- Nicole Wyglendowski, School District of Philadelphia
If interested in interviewing Executive Director Laura Boyce or any of the Fellows, please contact Kelly Pearce at kpearce@teachplus.org or 928-925-9236.
About Teach Plus
Teach Plus is dedicated to the mission of empowering excellent, experienced, and diverse teachers to take leadership over key policy and practice issues that advance equity, opportunity, and student success. In pursuing our mission, Teach Plus is guided by our Student Opportunity Mandate: All students should have the opportunity to achieve their potential in an education system defined by its commitment to equity, its responsiveness to individual needs, and its ability to prepare students for postsecondary 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 for students. Teach Plus PA Regional Website
