National education leader & Indy native Kevin Chavous elected to The Mind Trust board

Indianapolis – The Mind Trust’s board of directors has elected former Washington D.C. city council member and national education leader Kevin P. Chavous as its newest board member. Chavous, who was born and raised in Indianapolis, is a founding board member and executive counsel for the American Federation for Children and the Alliance for School Choice and a noted author and speaker on innovation in public education.

"Kevin Chavous is one of the nation’s most effective and dedicated education leaders, and we are extremely fortunate to have him join The Mind Trust team," said Bart Peterson, senior vice president of Eli Lilly and Company and The Mind Trust’s founding board chair. "Kevin’s knowledge and experience with innovation efforts across the country is second to none, and Indianapolis students will benefit from his wise counsel and fresh, new ideas."

As a former member of the Council of the District of Columbia and chair of its Education Committee, Chavous was at the forefront of promoting innovation and change within the D.C. public school system. His efforts led to more than $500 million new dollars being made available to educate children in D.C.

A leading national advocate for educational choice, Chavous helped shepherd the charter school movement into the nation’s capital. Under his leadership, D.C. became the most prolific charter school jurisdiction in the country, with now nearly half of D.C.’s public school children attending charter schools.

In recent years, Chavous has worked to advance charter school and parental choice programs in a host of communities around the country. A prolific writer, his opinion editorials have appeared in many major newspapers, and he is the author of Serving Our Children: Charter Schools and the Reform of American Public Education and Voices of Determination: Children that Defy the Odds.

Chavous is involved with many education innovation organizations and is a founder and chair emeritus of Democrats for Education Reform and former chair of the Black Alliance for Educational Options.

Chavous was born and raised in Indianapolis and graduated from Wabash College. He also graduated from the Howard University School of Law, where he was president of his graduating class. He now lives in Washington D.C.

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