Kristin Grimme (she/her/hers)

As Chief Strategy Officer, Kristin Grimme is a member of The Mind Trust’s leadership team and leads implementation of its strategic plan by ensuring strategic coherence across the organization. She manages The Mind Trust’s efforts to expand the organization’s impact, with a focus on both programmatic and geographic expansion. In addition, Grimme oversees The Mind Trust’s school incubation, leadership development, research, and policy priorities.

Prior to this role, she oversaw all aspects of The Mind Trust’s work supporting the launch of new, high-quality schools in Indianapolis and led the The Mind Trust’s groundbreaking Innovation School Fellowship partnership with Indianapolis Public Schools and The Mayor’s Office to support the growth of new Innovation Network Schools.

Kristin came to The Mind Trust after serving as the City of Indianapolis’ charter schools director under Mayor Greg Ballard and continuing into Mayor Joe Hogsett’s term. In this role, she oversaw 39 charter schools, serving about 13,000 students and also was the city’s liaison to the United Way of Central Indiana for the Indianapolis Preschool Program. Grimme is the third former Indianapolis charter schools director on The Mind Trust’s staff.

Before joining the Mayor’s Office, Kristin was a school improvement and turnaround specialist for the Indiana Department of Education, where she coached principals in 56 schools on effective school improvement planning and intervention. Kristin previously was a Teach For America (TFA) corps member, Spanish teacher, and ESL administrator in Dallas. She graduated from Purdue University and earned teaching certifications from Southern Methodist University.