Leading Educators Appoints First Chief Growth Officer and Chief Innovation Officer 

Accomplished K-12 Education Leaders, Karolyn Belcher and Albert Kim, to Spearhead a New Era of Growth and Innovation for the Instructional Improvement Organization

Chicago, Ill. (June 2, 2025) – Signaling a significant strategic expansion, Leading Educators today announced the appointment of Karolyn Belcher as its first Chief Growth Officer and Albert Kim as its first Chief Innovation Officer. CEO Chong-Hao Fu and Board Chair Kara Helander shared that Belcher and Kim will spearhead ambitious portfolios focused on scaling the organization’s evidence-based approach to instructional improvement to reach more educators and students, and bringing cutting-edge solutions, including AI-enhanced instruction and innovative teaching and learning models to market.

As Chief Growth Officer, Karolyn Belcher will lead efforts to extend the reach of Leading Educators’ high-impact instructional services, helping school systems maximize their increasingly scarce resources to reimagine teaching and learning for a rapidly changing world. This appointment underscores Leading Educators’ commitment to scaling its proven impact nationwide and building relationships across school systems leaders and the philanthropic funding community.

Belcher most recently served as interim superintendent at Achievement First, a nationally recognized charter network of over forty schools in Connecticut, New York, and Rhode Island, and chief academic officer at Charleston County School District (CCSD), where she initiated systemic investments that positioned CCSD to post significant gains on NAEP between 2019 and 2024 despite pandemic disruptions—a testament to her ability to drive meaningful, measurable student outcomes. Before that, she was the president of TNTP, guiding the organization through a period of remarkable growth that expanded its reach sixfold.

Fu shares:

Karolyn knows the transformative power of excellent teaching, and she has devoted her career to building a public education system that is nimble, bold, and innovative. These appointments are critical as we embark on our next phase of growth. She is a fierce advocate for what students deserve, and I’m honored to have her leading this important expansion.”

In a move highlighting Leading Educators’ commitment to embracing new levers for systemic impact, Albert Kim has been promoted as the organization’s first Chief Innovation Officer. In this role, he will identify future trends, incubate new instructional models, and set an agenda for systemic transformation. This charge builds on his previous work as managing director of innovation to pioneer the exploration of AI-enhanced and technology-enabled instructional practice, demonstrating his forward-thinking approach to education.

Before joining Leading Educators, Albert served as the program director for The Broad Residency, where he was responsible for the strategy, design, and execution of the learning experiences for K-12 leaders. Previous to that role, he was the deputy director of operations and program expansion for Ramapo for Children, managing director of program design for iMentor, and national director of education for YouthBuild USA.

Fu says:

Albert has been a driving force behind building our innovation team and advancing our groundbreaking work on AI-enabled instruction. His leadership has not only deepened our capacity to explore new ideas but also to offer meaningful solutions at a time of rapid change. These appointments reflect our deep commitment to innovation, and I’m excited for what is next.”

Building on its strong foundation in cultivating exceptional teacher practice, Leading Educators is strategically leveraging its expertise at the intersection of excellent teaching, talent, and technology to offer nimble, sustainable support to school systems around pressing needs in literacy, math, and science. The appointments of Belcher and Kim will be instrumental in advancing this work, including initiatives like the first-of-its-kind School Teams AI Collaborative, which is garnering national attention for working alongside educator teams to surface and codify promising practices for AI-enabled instruction. Leading Educators aims to directly support 266,000 students each year by 2027.

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About Leading Educators

Leading Educators is a national nonprofit focused on making excellent teaching the norm, not the exception. We help school systems and states use research-based instructional support to reinforce visionary leadership, develop excellent real-world teaching in every classroom, and reach greater student success.

Working at the intersection of teaching, talent, and technology, we provide targeted solutions to persistent instructional challenges to enable schools where all students and educators achieve greatly together. Teachers reach new professional heights, and more students thrive. Learn how our contextualized partnerships come to life at leadingeducators.org.

Media Contact:
Adan Garcia, Senior Director of Communications
media@leadingeducators.org
(202) 510-0827