Joshua Smith

About Joshua Smith

Joshua Smith is the Executive Director and founder of Galvanized Education Partners, which works with schools, districts, and CMOs to support school improvement and school leader development. He also serves as a part-time Director of School Partnerships with TNTP. In these roles, Josh partners with schools and districts to design and implement improvement strategies across all 4 Domains of Rapid School Improvement, with an emphasis on driving Instructional Transformation. Specifically, Josh’s coaching often focuses on supporting school leaders to develop clarity, coherence, and capacity (both for themselves and the teachers they support) around 1) Planning and Implementation of High-Quality Instructional Materials (HQIM), 2) Strengthening the quality and consistency or Instruction, and 3) Analyzing and responding to student data/work. Coaching is designed to build school leaders’ capacity to implement 4 primary Instructional Leadership Key Drivers (Professional Development, Collaborative Planning, Instructional Coaching, and Collaborative Data Analysis), which can be leveraged to foster student academic success and ensure that all students are seen, valued, challenged, and supported. Prior to this role, Josh served as Associate Dean of Instructional Leadership Programs with Relay GSE, supporting the design of professional learning for Relay’s National Principal Academy Fellowship (NPAF) and providing coaching and professional development to school- and system-leaders throughout Colorado. From 2012 to 2017, Josh served as Chief Academic Officer and Chief Schools Officer for a network of 11 schools spanning grades K through 12. He was the founding Principal of West Denver Prep’s Harvey Park Campus (opened as part of district-led turnaround effort in 2009), leading the school to achieve the highest academic growth of any middle school in Colorado and earning the status of #1 (of approximately 160 schools) on Denver Public School’s School Performance Framework. Josh began his career in education as a TFA 2001 Corps Member and 8th grade Social Studies teacher in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, where he was recognized as Campus Teacher of the Year and Walmart Community Teacher of the Year in 2004. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a master’s degree from Georgetown University. He lives with his wife and two kiddos (Diego, 12, and Charly, 10) in Arvada, Colorado.

Experience

1. Director

   TNTP

   May 2025 — Present

   Design and lead school and district transformation partnerships, including strategic planning, on-site coaching, professional development, and progress monitoring.

Education

• Relay Graduate School of Education

  Principal Supervisor Academy

  2013 — 2013

• Georgetown University

  Master of Arts - MA

  2004 — 2006

• University of Colorado Boulder

  Bachelor of Arts - BA, International Relations and Affairs / Anthropology (Double Major)

  1995 — 2001