Educators for Excellence Announces Leadership Transition

NEW YORK, NY – Educators for Excellence (E4E), a national nonprofit organization that ensures teachers have a leading voice in the policies that impact their students and profession, today announced plans for Co-Founder and Co-CEO Sydney Morris to step down at the end of the 2023 calendar year as part of a deliberate leadership transition. Co-Founder and Co-CEO Evan Stone will lead the organization as the sole CEO beginning in January 2024.

Morris and Stone founded the organization together in 2010 when they were public school teachers in the Bronx. Faced with growing frustrations over the ways in which change was happening to them and not with them, they wondered if teachers beyond their school building also felt that the system needed to change. The answer, they found, was a resounding yes and Educators for Excellence was born.

The two have served as the organization’s co-leaders for the last 13+ years and have scaled their idea to a nationwide teacher-led movement with chapters in six states. E4E works to identify issues that impact our schools, create solutions to these challenges, and advocate for policies and programs that give all students access to a quality education.

During their tenure as co-leaders, E4E:

Grew to a membership of over 36,000 educators nationwide with thousands of trained teacher leaders who have advocated for change in their districts, at their state capitals, to Congress and the White HouseElevated a forward-looking vision for student-focused, anti-racist, democratic, and solutions-oriented teachers’ unions as critical levers for educational changeWon dozens of landmark district, state, and federal policy changes, including the recent New York City Public Schools’ announcement to end the current free-for-all curricula selection process in the nation’s largest school district, historic increases in funding and funding equity in CT, improvements to teacher evaluations and teacher tenure processes, and many more.Became a leading voice for teachers through their annual national polling effort, Voices from the Classroom: A Survey of America’s Educators and thousands of media stories .in outlets such as The New York Times, WSJ, The Washington Post, CNN, Time Magazine, and more Raised nearly $150MM in philanthropic revenue to support teacher leadership, making E4E one of the fastest-growing education advocacy organizations in the U.S.

Sydney Morris has been recognized on Forbes’ 30 Under 30, City and State’s 40 Under 40 Rising Political Stars, and as a Finalist for the Peter Jennings Award for Civic Leadership. She has been a regular contributor to various media outlets on education issues and a frequent speaker at conferences including Forbes Women’s Summit, SXSWedu, and Imagine Solutions.

Evan Stone will lead E4E going forward, overseeing its executive team and programmatic function. Before founding E4E with Morris, he was a sixth-grade teacher in the Bronx and a community organizer. Stone has been named to Forbes’ 30 under 30, a Finalist for the Peter Jennings Award for Civic Leadership, and is a leading national voice on education policy and the teaching profession. He serves as a member of E4E’s Board of Directors, the Board Chair of The Policy Innovators in Education (PIE) Network, and on several other non-profit advisory boards.

“Founding and leading this organization alongside Evan has been the privilege of a lifetime,” said Morris. “I have a deep respect for and commitment to E4E’s work, and my love for our staff, educators, partners and donors is boundless. Our Leadership Team, staff, and incredible members are well poised to lead E4E through its next phase of impact.”

E4E is committed to a seamless transition, with the full support of its 10-person leadership team and Board of Directors. Morris will remain in her current role through December 2023, and will be focused on ensuring a smooth succession during her remaining months.

“I commend Sydney for the extraordinary work she has led over the last 13 years,” said E4E teacher and National Board of Directors member Mike Loeb, who is a middle school science teacher in the Bronx. “She has not only created a foundation for thousands of educators to organize and advocate for student-centered policies, she’s also helped to galvanize the philanthropic community around this work.”

Loeb continued, “E4E’s emergence as a national thought leader on teachers’ voices, teachers’ unions, and teachers’ contracts is coming at a ripe moment of post-pandemic reimagining of schools and of the teaching profession. This was a thoughtful and planned transition, and the Board and staff are deeply committed to the next evolution of the organization under Evan’s leadership.”

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About Educators for Excellence (E4E)

Founded by public school teachers, Educators for Excellence is a growing movement of more than 36,000 educators, united around a common set of values and principles for improving student learning and elevating the teaching profession. We work together to identify issues that impact our schools, create solutions to these challenges, and advocate for policies and programs that give all students access to a quality education.

For more information about E4E, visit www.e4e.org.

Read Sydney Morris’s departure letter here.