Achieve Atlanta Names Executive Director

Achieve Atlanta, an independent initiative to dramatically increase the number of Atlanta students completing post-secondary education, will launch this fall under the leadership of Executive Director Tina Fernandez.

Today, less than one in four ninth-graders in Atlanta Public Schools graduates from college within six years of their high school graduation date.

“Achieve Atlanta’s goal is to significantly improve the college graduation rate,” said Bill Rogers, board chair of Achieve Atlanta and Chairman and CEO of SunTrust Banks. “With top-notch leadership from Tina Fernandez and sound partnerships with Atlanta organizations, this initiative is building the foundation for student success and fulfilling the promise of Atlanta’s future.”

Achieve Atlanta was created in 2014 by an innovative partnership among The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, the Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation and Atlanta Public Schools (APS). The initiative will engage and align philanthropic, civic and public resources and programs to support students’ journeys to and through college. Achieve Atlanta is led by a volunteer board, comprised of the following:

• Bill Rogers – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, SunTrust Banks, Inc.
• Claire L. Arnold – Chief Executive Officer, Leapfrog Services
• Mark P. Becker – President, Georgia State University
• Ernest L. Greer – Managing Partner, Greenberg Traurig
• Alicia Philipp – President, The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta
• Beverly Tatum – President, Spelman College

Tina Fernandez was selected to lead Achieve Atlanta after a months-long search. Fernandez graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree and spent two years as a bilingual elementary school teacher in the Bronx, New York City with Teach for America. She earned her law degree from Columbia University in 1999 and practiced law in Austin, Texas for five years before joining the University of Texas (UT) School of Law. At UT, Fernandez served as a clinical professor, oversaw a professional development program that operates the largest public interest law job fair in the state, and launched UT Law’s Pro Bono Program, which engaged students, lawyers and community members to deliver legal services to low-income individuals. Fernandez has also served on Teach for America’s executive team for alumni affairs and was a member of IDEA Public Schools’ national board of directors. She most recently worked as a partner at Bellwether Education Partners, a nonprofit consulting firm that provides policy analysis, talent services and strategic advising for education organizations in order to achieve dramatic impact for kids. In Atlanta, Fernandez sits on the board of the Latin American Association and has been appointed by Governor Deal to Georgia’s Education Reform Commission.

“Tina’s background in education strategy, talent and policy consulting made her the perfect choice for Achieve Atlanta’s extraordinary initiative,” said Alicia Philipp, president of The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.

Fernandez will leverage more than 20 years of education experience to champion college access and persistence for APS students. She will help put in place the systems, support, partnerships and advocacy needed to catalyze long-term student success.

“As a Latina from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, I have experienced firsthand the transformative power of education and the lack of opportunity that so many low-income children face. As a mother of two APS students here in Atlanta, I am personally and professionally committed to ensuring that all of Atlanta’s children get to and through college,” said Fernandez.

Under Fernandez’s leadership, Achieve Atlanta will invest in strategies, technologies and processes that help APS students attain post-secondary success by:

 

• Ensuring students receive consistent, top-quality college advising beginning in the ninth grade that will prepare them for post-secondary education;
• Piloting innovative strategies for mobilizing community and civic support to meet students’ needs;
• Offering financial assistance to help students enroll in and persist through college; and
• Providing academic and social supports to help students succeed in and graduate from college.“Achieve Atlanta is a bold, aggressive plan to help us radically improve our students’ college enrollment and graduation rates, and we have high hopes for our partnership,” said Meria J. Carstarphen, Ed.D., superintendent of APS. “Tina is a transformative innovator, and I am confident that her leadership will help advance our vision of a city where every student graduates ready for college and career.”