As Executive Vice President of Central Operations, Dr. Tonya Horton oversees TNTP’s internal business functions including legal, finance, human resources, organizational learning and technology infrastructure and enterprise systems and ensures that the organization has the systems and structures that support its employees to end educational inequity.
Before joining TNTP, Tonya served as the President of Teaching Trust, a leadership development nonprofit in Dallas, Texas. In 2008, Tonya joined the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s District and School Transformation Division where she served as a High School Portfolio Manager supporting 16 turnaround high schools and then as a District Transformation Coach for superintendents. Prior to her work in North Carolina, Tonya was a teacher and administrator in Plano, Texas.
In her professional and personal life, Tonya is focused on ending systemic inequities. To this end she serves as a Patient Advocate with the Arthritis Foundation, a member of the Arthritis Foundation’s Patient Leadership Council and the New Jersey Arthritis Foundation Leadership Board. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc where she serves on the South Jersey Alumnae Chapter’s Executive Board and participates in local and national engagements focused on social justice. Tonya is also the designer and lead instructor for the Rutgers University’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Certificate Program for Public Managers. This program won the 2021 University Professional and Continuing Education Association’s (UPCEA) Mid-Atlantic Region’s Outstanding Program Award.
Tonya began her career as a teacher in the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools in Charlotte, North Carolina. She holds a BA in history education and MA in history from North Carolina Central University; an MEd and EdD in educational leadership from the University of North Texas. Most recently, Tonya completed a Master’s in Public Administration from Rutgers University where her capstone project was titled Mitigating Disparities in Health Care for Black Women: An Analysis of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion in the Curriculum Frameworks of New Jersey Medical Schools.