Pranati Kumar

Advisor

Pranati “Pranoo” Kumar (aka School Mom) is a career changer from medicine to education.  She began her journey in youth advocacy while working for a nonprofit in Jacksonville, FL.  It was there that she found her passion for equity in education and move to NYC to learn about school systems that were implementing innovative teaching and practice.  She joined a fellowship geared at career changers and began working at Success Academy Charter Network in 2012. While here, she founded, taught, labsite and coached in grades PreK-4th Special Education (including ICT and 12-1-1) in the South Bronx (BX2) and Harlem (H1).  Her love for Early Childhood Education led her to create SA’s founding PreK curriculum. She also led the Assistant Teacher Development Program while at H1 (with a 95% retention rate) and was a two-time recipient of the SA Teacher Excellence Award in the network. From there, she moved across the country in 2017 and continued to work with Success- creating and piloting their 2018 Summer Internship Program for college students, between their junior and senior years, who were interested in teaching and advocacy, yet not currently studying education. 

In 2018, she became a Founding Instructional Leader and Coach at Impact Public Schools- the first elementary charter in the Greater Seattle Area.  While at Impact, she created a culturally relevant Kindergarten PBL curriculum that emphasized student identity and activism. She worked alongside Administration in creating a school design that ensured joyful rigor was at the forefront of learning.   She also held the roles of New Teacher Coach, School Leadership Coach, and Kindergarten Grade Team Leader. During this time, Pranoo had the opportunity to serve as a panelist at The Gates