Dana Foughty

About Dana Foughty

When I believe in the purpose behind our work, I’m all in, committed to partnering through to the finish.I got my start in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and quickly learned and aligned that an excellent education can be a cycle-disrupter and systemically change the lives of students, families, and communities. After two years of teaching in Edcouch-Elsa, I relocated to San Antonio to serve as a Founding Teacher, Team Leader, and 7th grade Asst. Principal at a new KIPP Middle School campus.We moved our family to Indiana for my husband\'s medical schooling, and my interests and skills shifted to system-level strategic initiative planning and implementation. I developed security and administration procedures for 5 formative and all Indiana summative state assessments, and created and facilitated a year-long scope and sequence of PK-12 job-embedded Professional Development sessions driving the use of formative and summative assessment data to inform daily instruction. Upon returning to Texas, I joined the YES Prep Public Schools team and continued to lead org-wide change. I led our system work to redesign and implement a new teacher evaluation framework, and led a team to design a new evaluation process that drives growth and rewards excellence in teaching. In ultimate service of our students, I drove the creation of a values-aligned system that communicates our belief that teachers are a key lever to student growth and achievement. Additionally, I\'ve led as the Managing Director of Program and School Initiatives and collaborated across our central office and campus leadership teams to launch systems initiatives driven by the impact of COVID, ESSER federal funding, and education legislation like House Bill 4545 and HB 3.And as the Chief of Staff, I hustle to ensure the what-we\'re-doing and who-is-doing-it aligns to our mission and vision for students. Clearing the path for our Executive team to make decisions, effectively plan, and successfully execute programming and operations across the org is the sweet spot of my daily work.

Experience

1. Chief of Staff

   YES Prep Public Schools

   Aug 2022 — Present · Houston, TX, US

   Lead a committee of 6 to design and implement pay-for-performance compensation unlocking 10% additional state funding• Foster Board engagement and strong governance as primary liaison to the Board of Directors• Structure and facilitate the use of Executive Team strategic time to achieve all annual and 5-year strategic plan goals• Managed a 12-month grant submission engaging teams across the system resulting in a $8.5MM reinvestment• Designed a 3-year cycle to launch new schools to result in 11 new schools and capacity for total students in the system

Education

• The University of Texas at San Antonio

  Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Educational Policy and Leadership Studies

  2012 — 2013

• Texas Tech University

  Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Human Development and Family Studies

  2004 — 2007

Skills

• Educational Leadership
• Professional Learning
• Public Speaking
• Curriculum Development
• Teacher Training
• Staff Development
• Teaching