Equity, Belonging, and Grace: Teach for America's DEI Journey

Teach for America (TFA) is a non-profit organization with a mission to find, develop, and support a diverse network of leaders who work together to end educational inequity. The organization’s teachers, known as “corps members,” commit to teaching for two years in a historically underserved community where they’re employed by local schools. Diversity, equity, and belonging are central to TFA’s culture. The organization actively collaborates with staff, corps members, communities, and external partners to drive more equitable outcomes both within the communities that TFA serves and within the organization itself.

APQC interviewed Dr. Barbara Logan Smith, Chief of Equity and Belonging, and Bonnie Gray, VP, Equity and Belonging Integration about TFA’s approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), sharing insights about their DEI program structure and roles, how they operationalize its DEI commitments, measures of success, and lessons learned from their journey so far. TFA provides a good example of how the whole enterprise should participate in the pursuit of equity and belonging as a collaborative endeavor.