The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation is pleased to announce that Jarred Gibson will join the staff of the Foundation as a program officer, overseeing the Advancing Public Education priority area, in early 2022.
The Foundation has made this hire to support its mission and the strategies set forward in its All For NC Framework for Grantmaking and Learning. The role of the program officer includes developing effective strategies for the Foundation to facilitate positive change, analyzing grant applications, helping develop organizational capacity and evaluating the effectiveness of the Foundation’s past grantees. The program officer’s work also helps to inform the final grant decisions made by Foundation Trustees.
Jarred brings more than 15 years of educational experience to this position. He comes to the Foundation most recently as a project director with TNTP, a national education nonprofit that works at every level of the public school system to ensure that all students have access to a high-quality education. As a project director, he worked with districts across the country to ensure teachers and leaders received the training and support they needed to become highly effective. He also worked with school districts to develop teacher coaching programs, implement new literacy curriculum materials and build school leader capacity. From 2013-2016, he led TNTP’s Fort Worth Teaching Fellows program where he partnered with the Fort Worth Independent school district to recruit, train and certify first-year teachers. During his tenure, the program grew by 40% and teacher retention rose from 70% to more than 90%. Prior to TNTP, he served as director of teaching and learning for Teach For America in the South Louisiana region. He previously served as a math and science specialist for Teach For America and a high school science teacher in Helena-West Helena, Arkansas. Jarred is a native of Alamance County.
“We are excited to have Jarred join our team,” said Maurice “Mo” Green, executive director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. “His knowledge of the educational and nonprofit sectors will be a tremendous asset to ZSR. In addition, his direct experience working to promote high-quality public education and break down the structural barriers that have contributed to inequities within the educational sector will be invaluable to us, especially as we continue to support organizations across North Carolina that are working to advance public education. We look forward to introducing Jarred to all of our partners across the state.”
“I have admired the Foundation’s work for years and am honored to join the team,” said Jarred Gibson. “As an educator, I’ve seen firsthand how students with the greatest need often get access to the fewest resources, but when given the resources they deserve, they excel. Our state provides incredible opportunities for many students, but not yet all students, and these inequities often fall along lines of race, class and gender. I am excited to work with the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation to ensure all students in North Carolina receive a high-quality public education.”
The Foundation posted the program officer position in August 2021, which is based in Winston-Salem, NC. It received more than 90 applications for the position.