Learn About the
Reinvention Lab

What We Do

We build new offerings for TFA that reinvent education. Learn more about our current work here.

We share what we learn from our R&D work to shape both TFA and the field of education.

How We Do It

We work directly with the org and the field to co-design and co-learn with those most impacted by the education system.

We work in community and reciprocal relationship with innovati leaders and young folks, understanding that innovation thrives in partnership and co-learning.

Reinvention Lab Team

Meet the team shaping the future of education.
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Aditi Garg
SMD, Product Studio

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Former Teammate

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Adriana Abundis
Director, Facilitation (FutureShock)

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Former Teammate

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Amy Jacobs
Manager

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Former Teammate

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Ana Mendoza
Manager, Operations (FutureShock)

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Former Teammate

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Anna Kual
Reinventor

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Former Teammate

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Annie Falcon
Reinventor

true

Former Teammate

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Ariam Mogos
AI Lead

Contractor

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Former Teammate

all

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Armando Somoza
VP, Learning Reinvention & Resident Riff-Raff

true

Former Teammate

all

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Arnav Dharmagadda
Reinventor

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Former Teammate

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Bria Murray
Manager, Facilitation (FutureShock)

true

Former Teammate

all

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Bria Ross
Manager, Facilitation (FutureShock)

true

Former Teammate

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Cheyenne Crane Smith
Reinventor

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Former Teammate

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Colleen Keating-Crawford
SMD, Chief of Staff

Full Time

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Former Teammate

all

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David Boone
Builder of Things

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Former Teammate

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Donnell Cannon
SMD, Senior Designer

Full Time

false

Former Teammate

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Donovan Dais
Reinventor

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Former Teammate

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Ebony Welch
Content Creator

Contractor

false

Former Teammate

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Elisabeth Booze
SMD, Story and Brand

Full Time

false

Former Teammate

all

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Evelyn Hernandez
Director, Facilitation (FutureShock)

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Former Teammate

all

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Feyishola Ogunko

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Former Teammate

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Goutham Marimuthu
Design Researcher

Contractor

false

Former Teammate

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Haley Valdez

true

Former Teammate

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Helen Huynh
Reinventor

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Former Teammate

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Izzy Fitzgerald
Community Engagement Lead

Part Time

false

Former Teammate

all

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Izzy Fitzgerald
Manager, Facilitation (FutureShock)

true

Former Teammate

all

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Jasmine Jiménez
Operations Manager

Full Time

false

Former Teammate

all

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Jasmine Maze
SMD, Senior Designer

Full Time

false

Former Teammate

all

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KJ Jack
Executive Assistant

Contractor

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Former Teammate

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Leonne Chang
Seasonal Storytelling Design Lead

Part Time

false

Former Teammate

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Lila Shroff

true

Former Teammate

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Malliron Hodge
Senior Managing Director

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Former Teammate

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Michelle Culver
Founder, Reinvention Lab

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Former Teammate

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Michelle Jia
Design Practice Coach

Contractor

false

Former Teammate

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Mikala Streeter
Curriculum

true

Former Teammate

all

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Mike Yates
SMD, Product Studio

Full Time

false

Former Teammate

all

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Noah Salem
Video Producer/Editor

true

Former Teammate

all

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Olivia Vagelos
Experience, community, and learning designer

true

Former Teammate

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Oluchi Igbokwe

Contractor

false

Former Teammate

all

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Ortello Hamilton
Reinventor

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Former Teammate

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Oscar Mendez
Reinventor

true

Former Teammate

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Peggy Yin
Futures Designer

Part Time

false

Former Teammate

all

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Peyton Klein
New Roles & Mental Health

true

Former Teammate

all

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Phil Riddick
Director, Facilitation (FutureShock)

true

Former Teammate

all

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Rajan Patel

true

Former Teammate

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Rhonda Glover
Manager, Operations (FutureShock)

true

Former Teammate

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Riley Nunley
Reinventor

true

Former Teammate

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Rob Strain
Strategist + Experience Designer

true

Former Teammate

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Rosie Molina

true

Former Teammate

all

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Samanta Asante-Bio
SMD, Senior Designer

Full Time

false

Former Teammate

all

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Seth Trudeau
Expert Generalist

Contractor

false

Former Teammate

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Stephanie Hay
Manager, Data, Operations, Communications

true

Former Teammate

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Sunanna Chand
Executive Director

Full Time

false

Former Teammate

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Sydney Tweedley
Seasonal Storytelling Content Lead

Part Time

false

Former Teammate

all

An orange profile placeholder
Sydney Tweedley
Manager, Operations (FutureShock)

true

Former Teammate

all

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Tatyana Rashid
Reinventor Collective

true

Former Teammate

all

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Teal Dodrill
Managing Director, Early Talent (TFA Recruitment Team)

Part Time

false

Former Teammate

all

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Thomas Clapper
Web Designer

Contractor

false

Former Teammate

all

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Veronica Mulhall
Partner Acquisition Contractor

Contractor

false

Former Teammate

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Yodit Ghebrezgabiher
Reinventor

true

Former Teammate

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Yusuf Ahmad
VP Product Studio

true

Former Teammate

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How We Show Up

These are the values that guide how we create, collaborate, and authentically pursue reinvention.

At the Reinvention Lab we know:

Reinvention happens in an ecosystem.

So we:

  1. work in community instead of in isolation.
  2. seek out perspectives and work that can both challenge and accelerate ours.
  3. intentionally build and nurture community.
  4. acknowledge history and harm, and move towards building a better and different future.
  5. prioritize intergenerational co-creation.
Illustration of a group of students learning from a man sitting and studying in a park.
Icon - Elements Webflow Library - BRIX Templates

Reinvention calls for our full humanity.

So we:

  1. show care and give grace in moments of challenge.
  2. live and celebrate full lives as multi-faceted people.
  3. celebrate each other with care and love.
  4. insistently cultivate and seek out joy.
  5. know innovation and learning starts from a place of creativity, passion, and curiosity. We make space for these things.
  6. show up as our full and authentic selves.
  7. believe in the importance of passion and play when taking on emergent work. We start from a place of joy and passion, always holding tight to our purpose.
An overhead illustration of group of young people sitting around a table studying.
Icon - Elements Webflow Library - BRIX Templates

Reinvention calls for our full humanity.

So we:

  1. show care and give grace in moments of challenge.
  2. live and celebrate full lives as multi-faceted people.
  3. celebrate each other with care and love.
  4. insistently cultivate and seek out joy.
  5. know innovation and learning starts from a place of creativity, passion, and curiosity. We make space for these things.
  6. show up as our full and authentic selves.
  7. believe in the importance of passion and play when taking on emergent work. We start from a place of joy and passion, always holding tight to our purpose.
An overhead illustration of group of young people sitting around a table studying.
Icon - Elements Webflow Library - BRIX Templates

Reinvention demands risk-taking and action.

So we:

  1. look years and decades into the future, moving with intention towards the future of learning.
  2. show early work before it’s perfect, knowing our work is iterative and eschews perfectionism.
  3. jump in. We are action-oriented in emergent work vs. depending entirely on a backwards plan.
  4. question rules and authority to learn their purpose instead of following them blindly.

Illustration of two woman working on a robotic arm.
Icon - Elements Webflow Library - BRIX Templates

Reinvention requires realness.

So we:

  1. speak directly, even when it is difficult, and we recognize that sometimes multiple truths exist in tension.
  2. are transparent and honest with ourselves and our people, and seek alignment before action.
  3. give feedback early and often, and don’t take it personally - it’s about making the work better.
  4. hold space for real conversations, even when challenging, and for the honest expression of pain, difficulty, fatigue, and grief, as well as celebration, joy, and wonder—and everything in between.
  5. while stewarding our charge and resources well, we take risks we believe can lead to the future of learning that young people deserve.
  6. don't just talk about it, we make sure we be about it.
  7. know the limits of our resources. We are real about what work we are and aren’t resourced or positioned to do well.

Illustration of two young woman standing around a 3D printer
Icon - Elements Webflow Library - BRIX Templates

Reinvention requires holding tension.

So we:

  1. push and pause. know that the work requires periods of heavy work and periods of rest. We structure these rhythms into how we work as a team.
  2. think big and start small. We know that reinvention happens first on a small scale and then reverberates on the large.
  3. test and explore our way through emerging work while still setting clear goals and methods.

Illustration of a group of students learning from a man sitting and studying in a park.
Icon - Elements Webflow Library - BRIX Templates

Our Connection to
Teach For America

Teach For America seeks to ensure all children have access to an excellent education. But the definition of excellent is not fixed— instead, it is constantly evolving to meet the needs of young people and the rapidly changing world.

If we are to remain a powerful and relevant force in the education discussion, we must also evolve. We must be in deep partnership with those forging a new future, constantly interrogating the implications for our work. We must acknowledge both the brilliance and harm of our history, zeroing in on the unique assets we have to bring to this moment. We must be willing to imagine and test bold ideas and commit to ways of being that enable us to be nimble.

The Reinvention Lab aims to be an exploratory space in which TFA can lean into this evolution — to look ahead to where the education sector must go and identify tactics, insights, and modes of operating that can catalyze this future.

Visit Teach For America

What is Innovative
Learning?

The majority of students today are going to schools that were designed for yesterday. That system - built for the assembly-line era - prioritizes rote memorization and assumes a one-size-fits-all solution.

And yet the world is changing beneath our feet. An automation economy demands new skills and births new industries. Our country’s institutions are under threat from misinformation and division. We must ask: will our current education system prepare the next generation to thrive in and transform these realities?

Our answer is a clear no. We must co-create something different, that interrogates and redefines the why, the what, and the how of learning across our country.

Reinvention doesn’t always mean new.

But it does mean a radical departure from the status quo.