Muna Olaniyi is currently  a BES Fellow, a national nonprofit that identifies and prepares excellent leaders to transform education in their communities. She brings almost 20 years of experience as an educator. She began her career as an Elementary School Teacher  and has since worked both in the classroom and as part of the instructional leadership team in various organizations. She is excited about creating opportunities for family engagement and support at Empower Memphis Career and College Prep, the school she is proposing to found in Memphis, TN.

Meagan Tate is a native Memphian from South Memphis,  with a deep-rooted passion for educational equity. This passion for equal access began while she was studying to become a lawyer at Christian Brothers University. However, after completing a service-learning project that involved tutoring the youth at various community centers, she found that the fight for justice did not have to start in the courts, but in the classrooms. I want our students to be living proof that equitable education produces dynamic results.”

Marian Kelley has been an educator for 13 years in both the public and charter sectors of urban and rural districts in Tennessee.   Dr.Kelley specializes in advocacy for students and families by developing and overseeing the implementation of appropriate instructional and behavioral practices to ensure student success. She brings with her extensive knowledge of policies, procedures, and law as it relates to students with disabilities including gifted students and English Language Learners.

Tim is a commercial real estate expert with a sub-specialty in strategic planning and serves as a Director at Cushman Wakefield Commercial Advisors where he leads their development consulting with a focus on nonprofits and small businesses. He earned a bachelor’s in real estate from Georgia State University and a master’s in accounting from Western University. After college, he joined the US Army as an engineer officer doing community development work in Kabul, Afghanistan. Post service, he worked for a subsidiary of a Fortune 500 company doing asset management and troubleshooting of challenged real estate. 

Dr. Eric Bailey is the Assistant Vice President of the Division of Student Success at the University of Memphis. He has over ten years of collegiate experience having served as a Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and an Assistant Dean for Nursing Students. He has helped to secure several grants including a 3.24 million dollar grant for nurse retention. Dr. Bailey has a doctorate from the University of Memphis and an MBA from Keller Graduate School orf Management.

Curtis Weathers is a native Memphian from South Memphis. He is an experienced leader having served in multiple school leadership roles such as a School Principal and School Director. He has skills in leadership development, strategic planning and Public Speaking. He earned a Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Union University. He currently is the founder and director of The Brotherhood, a non-profit organization that focuses on increasing resources and attention on the role of men in our community and the importance of fatherhood. 

 Susan has worked in education for over a decade, serving students in Memphis. She was a founding teacher at Memphis College Prep, a BES Fellow-founded school. As an educator, Susan’s students demonstrated exceptional performance on normed assessments. She also has extensive experience as a teacher trainer, ensuring that all staff were equipped to teach high-quality phonics lessons. She looks forward to supporting the mission of Empower Prep. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Rhodes College and a Master of Arts from Christian Brothers University.

Scarlet Crain is the Manager of School Based Therapy for Lebonheur Hospital. As a certified language and speech-pathologist, she understands the interrelationships of student literacy achievement with the language processes of listening, speaking, reading and writing. After working as a Speech Pathologist with adults at the Inova Mount Vernon Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia, she recognized the impact early intervention can have on patients. As a result, she transitioned to becoming a school based speech pathologist, and has spent over twenty years working with students across grades K-12. She is fluent in Spanish and believes that Empower Memphis is the steppingstone for students to dream about their future.this person’s role and responsibilities, or add a short bio.

Brian Burnett is, a native Memphian, who has over ten years of financial experience. He has held several leadership positions including Senior Manager of Financial Operations of CBRE, where he balanced a 45,000,000 budget. Currently, he is the Finance Manager for the Global Workplace Solutions Department of CBRE.