TNTP Announces Leadership Transition and Growth Plans

Veteran TNTP Leaders Daniel Weisberg and Karolyn Belcher to Be Named New CEO and President

BROOKLYN, NY – TNTP, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to improving educational quality, today announced plans for CEO Ariela Rozman and President Timothy Daly to step down as part of a long-term growth strategy. Two widely respected TNTP veterans, Daniel Weisberg and Karolyn Belcher, will become the organization’s new leaders by summer 2015.

Rozman and Daly have both served at TNTP for 14 years. They assumed their current leadership roles in 2007, after the departure of Michelle Rhee, and subsequently led TNTP through seven years of growth that positioned the organization as a leading voice on building teacher capability and effectiveness.

During their tenure, TNTP became one of the first teacher training providers in the country to make success in the classroom a prerequisite to certification, dramatically expanded the range of support it offered school systems and states on teacher workforce development and management, and published some of the most influential education policy studies of the past decade, including The Widget Effect (2009) and The Irreplaceables (2012). Today, TNTP has a staff of 370 people, an annual operating budget of $61 million, and active partnerships with more than 50 school systems and states.

Helping school systems build and support effective teams of talented educators has always been and will continue to be TNTP’s core focus. Going forward, however, TNTP will build on its expertise in this area by offering analysis, advice and hands-on support to school systems on other factors that support excellence in teaching and learning, such as strong instructional strategies and supportive school environments. This evolution supports TNTP’s deep commitment to creating more classrooms where teachers and students thrive and to helping school systems diagnose and solve their most urgent student achievement challenges.

Two senior TNTP executives, Daniel Weisberg and Karolyn Belcher, will lead TNTP going forward. Weisberg will become the organization’s CEO, overseeing its executive team. Belcher will report to Weisberg as President, overseeing TNTP's projects and programs.

• Daniel Weisberg has been with TNTP for six years and currently serves as Executive Vice President for TNTP’s Performance Management group, a 130-person team that supports the efforts of 45 school systems and states nationwide to recruit, develop and retain effective teachers and principals. Before joining TNTP, he served as Chief Executive of Labor Policy and Implementation for the New York City Department of Education, the country’s largest public school system, where he led a number of labor and talent initiatives and served on the senior leadership team. He holds a J.D. from New York University Law School and a B.A. in Political Science from Columbia College.

• Karolyn Belcher was one of TNTP’s first employees after its founding in 1997. After leaving for several years to found the John A. Reisenbach Charter School, one of the first three charter schools in New York State, she returned to TNTP in 2007. Since then she has served in a variety of senior leadership roles, including Vice President for Human Capital and Executive Vice President for Talent & Operations. For the past two years she has been Executive Vice President for New Teacher Effectiveness, leading 150 staff members who recruit more than 1,600 teachers each year for high-need schools and pioneer new ways of preparing those teachers to be effective in the classroom. Karolyn has a degree in Biological Science from Mount Holyoke College, and a Master’s of Education in Education Leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University. She began her career teaching science in New Orleans as a charter corps member of Teach For America.

“Tim and I are incredibly honored to have had the opportunity to lead TNTP,” said Rozman. “It has been our passion for the past seven years. But this is the right time for fresh perspectives and new voices. Dan and Karolyn are exactly the people to lead TNTP to success not only in the next few years but in the next era, as it continues to broaden its work and increase the number of children who learn from excellent teachers in vibrant schools.”

Rozman and Daly will remain in their current roles until summer 2015, coordinating TNTP’s strategic planning and restructuring process as Weisberg and Belcher transition into their new positions. This timing will allow for a smooth and orderly transition, with the full support of its 16-person leadership team and Board of Directors. After leaving TNTP, Rozman and Daly plan to launch a new organization to help families navigate the public education system.

“I applaud Ari and Tim for the extraordinary impact they have had on TNTP and public education over the last seven years,” said TNTP Board Chairman Dr. C. Kent McGuire, President of the Southern Education Foundation. “They leave behind a rock-solid foundation for Dan and Karolyn, two extraordinary leaders whose talents and vision make them more than ready to take the organization forward.”