Biography
DARREN REED
Executive Leadership/Education Reform
Darren Reed has over three decades of public and private sector teaching and executive leadership experience. He currently serves as SVP/General Manager and founding business leader of Stride Professional Development for Stride, Inc. (Formerly K12, Inc.). Reed developed the e-commerce platform offering on-demand, mobile-friendly courses for educators, establishing Stride as a leading provider of online educator professional development in the growing e-learning market. Darren leads all business operations across product development, customer acquisition, marketing, sales, and GTM strategies.
Reed has served in various leadership capacities within Stride including Senior Vice President of Stride's largest managed schools region, where he spearheaded strategic operations for 19 blended and online K-12 schools spanning 12 states, providing executive leadership to 30 direct reports and regional/field managers, overseeing a distributed workforce of 3,500 employees and managed a revenue portfolio of $600 million, ensuring operational excellence and fiscal accountability. In this role, Darren developed growth strategies for existing schools and expansion into new states. Reed previously held executive roles as Vice President of School Leadership Development and Vice President of Blended Schools at K12, Inc. where he improved school and regional leadership effectiveness and designed innovative school models in Chicago, San Francisco, and San Jose, CA. These early blended school models helped shape school reform and design initiatives, expanding how technology is leveraged to increase learning options to meet the needs of all students. From 2012-2014, Reed served as the Executive Director at New Leaders for New Schools where he led the organization's flagship Aspiring Principals Program (APP) through comprehensive redesign that led to improved leader identification, training, and assessment. Reed's contribution helped expand the nation's next generation of leaders to transform schools in our nation's most under-served communities.
Shaping Public Policy
Darren has been instrumental in advancing policies that expand educational opportunities and access to under-served communities. Darren has testified in various states on the value and relevance of innovative educational models and school choice options. Since 2015, Darren has represented Stride as a member of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators’ Annual Conference as a Corporate Roundtable member and an active participant of its Education Sub-Committee. In this capacity, Darren has worked alongside policy makers to understand and expand innovative education models and develop policies that increase access for student in cities across the nation, including "smart city" technology, increased funding, career readiness, choice options, etc.
Master Teacher and School Leader
Reed’s career foundation is as a teacher and Principal in various school districts where he experienced success at each level. His work as an award-winning teacher in Newport News, VA (1997 Teacher of the Year) has been featured in articles as well as research studies highlighting the impact of his work in transforming student and school outcomes in primarily under-served communities. Reed continued his work as a school principal in Fairfax County and Alexandria City Public School districts, helping to lead schools to consistently high academic performance. Reed has consulted for schools and districts across the country to help improve their outcomes with marginalized students.
Reed's commitment and passion to this work are rooted in his own experience growing up in East Cleveland, Ohio as a first generation college student. He believes that there is untapped potential, talent, genius and resilience in young people in under-resourced communities across our nation. His work helps individuals and organizations of all kind to identify that talent and improve outcomes for all young people.
Reed is guest lecturer at the George Washington University where he holds an Ed.S. in Educational Leadership. He also holds a Masters in Ed Leadership, Policy, and Planning from the College of William and Mary and a B.A. in Elementary Education from Hiram College in Ohio. Reed lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.
