Andrea is a former school principal of a high-performing elementary school in the city of Chicago. Andrea worked to create a strong instructional environment that supported the growth of a Golden Apple Award winner. Andrea worked to create a strong instructional environment that supported the growth of a Golden Apple Award winner. Her career began in Atlanta, GA, as a Teach for America corps member. Her content knowledge, instructional aptitude, leadership dexterity, and commitment to excellence for all scholars, regardless of perceived deficits, quickly led her to aspirations beyond the classroom. Andrea values learning and professional growth, and sought our personal learning opportunities to continue to grow via fellowships with the Surge Institute, Cambiar, and Accelerate Institute. Her leadership mantra is, “If you base your decisions on what’s best for kids, you will never have to question your decision.”

Susan Garcia Jones (she/they) is the Academy Program Director at Surge Institute. Her passion for education equity developed when she was an undergrad at Dartmouth College. The experience of going from a majority Latinx community to an Ivy League in New Hampshire made them realize the deep structural inequities in their own education. This experience led her to education and justice work. Susan has spent 10 years working in various educational settings from supporting after-school programs at the Boys & Girls Club in her hometown of Oxnard to most recently leading Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives at KIPP Northern California. Along with a passion for K-12 education, they are a lifelong learner, recently earning their MA from the Graduate Theological Union. Their research focuses on how Black sci-fi literature offers radical lessons for dreaming justice movement work.

Kevin graduated from Baruch College at the City University of New York in 2020, earning his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. Born in Canada and raised in St.Lucia and the United States, he has enrolled in 11 schools across two countries. The constant moving equipped Kevin with the ability to adapt quickly sharpened his interpersonal and communication skills and allowed him to experience education in multiple cities and countries. Kevin enjoys coaching and playing in table tennis tournaments in his free time. His love for the game came about when a non-profit organization donated three tables to his middle school, where he went on to lead his team to second place in the 2012 NYC middle school championships. It wasn’t until Kevin’s sophomore year in college that he realized the impact the donation had on his life. He realized that having access to those tables led to travel, network, and exposure that he would have never even dreamt of having. This realization set Kevin on a mission to help in the effort to provide students of color access and exposure to opportunities, networks, and activities that they’ve been deprived of.