February 2022 Tiara Wheatley

Tiara Wheatley (CHI’20) has accepted the role of Vice President, Alumni Impact at the Surge Institute. In her new role, Tiara will be responsible for developing the strategy and ensuring successful execution and measurement of Surge Alumni programming. Furthermore, this role is aligned with the second pillar of the Surge Ahead, the organization’s three-year Strategic Plan. Learn…

Surge Welcomes new Vice President of Alumni Impact

(Chicago, IL – February 18, 2022) The Surge Institute is excited to welcome Surge Alumna, Tiara Wheatley (CHI’20), as the new Vice President of Alumni Impact. An educator, mentor, equity advocate and lifelong Chicagoan, Tiara has dedicated her career to serving Chicago’s youth, and it was at Chicago Tech Academy where she discovered her lifelong…

February 2022 Lateshia Woodley

Dr. Lateshia Woodley (KC’20) was featured in EdWeek’s 2022 Leaders to Learn From. The honorees are innovative district leaders who have showed resiliency and fortitude as they found ways to support students and families during a year of continued disruption. Lateshia was recognized for Leadership in Whole-Child Supports. Learn more about Lateshia’s work as featured…

Claudia Montes Salinas

Claudia Montes Salinas is the Mosaic Center Special Projects Manager at Indiana University Health. “In the words of Colosio- I see my community with hunger and thirst for justice. With the collective consciousness built within the Surge Institute, small steps towards achieving justice become essential towards building a movement with prepared leaders to dismantle structural…

Sarah Terrell

Sarah Terrell is a First Grade Teacher at Matchbook Learning at Wendell Phillips School #63 “Surge is an opportunity for me to join with like-minded individuals that recognize the opportunities for change within our educational systems. It is the chance to strengthen my platform as a leader and become a change agent for those often…

Tia Taylor

Tia Taylor is the Elementary Assistant Principal at The PATH School “Surge is transformative, disruptive, and will have a lasting impact. Surge is assisting leaders in disrupting and shaking up the current state of education. They are helping fellows think about this work differently. We can’t do what we’ve always done in hopes of success, we…

Tylie Mendoza-Robertson

Tylie Mendoza-Robertson is the Coordinator for Linguistically Diverse Scholars and Spanish Teacher at KIPP Indy Legacy High “My experiences as a Black Woman in education teaching Black, Brown, and Indigenous children while simultaneously raising my own have amplified both my passion for educational equity and my drive to be a force in closing the achievement gap.…