In 2011, I founded Nashville Prep, a middle school for low-income students in North Nashville, an area with the country's highest Black male incarceration rate. Our mission: provide college prep education for the underserved. Nashville Prep became Tennessee's academically top-performing charter school.

Nashville Prep’s success led to launching RePublic Schools, a network of six schools in TN and MS. Under my leadership, RePublic's schools consistently ranked among the state's top public schools. Our two flagship schools were the first and only charter schools in TN's top 5% for growth and performance. Each year, our students routinely outperformed the district and state averages in core subjects and often even out-performed Williamson County, the state’s most affluent and highest performing school district.

Our work earned a $9.4M federal grant and $3.2M from Charter School Growth Fund for further expansion carried out by my successor.