Maggie Runyan-Shefa

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT MAGGIE RUNYAN-SHEFA

Maggie Runyan-Shefa brings a unique blend of non-profit leadership experience and deep schools knowledge to her consulting clients. She has two decades of experience leading and working with high-performing charter schools and systems and in coaching and developing non-profit and school leaders. Prior to launching a consulting practice, Maggie was on the executive team at New Schools for New Orleans (NSNO,) where she served as Co-CEO, Chief Innovation Officer, and Chief Schools Officer during her decade with the organization. Maggie oversaw NSNO’s school investment, school support, human capital investments, internal operations and organizational culture. In her time at NSNO Maggie helped to fund or launch over 30 schools, doubled the size of NSNO’s talent development portfolio, and was a chief architect of the Common Core programming offered to 66% of the city’s schools, contributing to the effort that saw New Orleans exponentially increase high-quality public school options. Before arriving at NSNO, Maggie founded and led KIPP STAR College Prep Charter School in Harlem, New York City after successful completion of the KIPP School Leadership Program. As the founding principal of KIPP STAR, Maggie developed a deep bench of aspiring school leaders, including many who would go on to found and lead high-performing schools of their own. Under her leadership, KIPP STAR became the highest-performing public middle school in Harlem’s District 5. Maggie was elected by her peers throughout KIPP’s national network to serve as a member of the KIPP Foundation’s School Leader Advisory Board and was selected to launch programming to improve writing within KIPP schools across the country.Maggie was recognized by the Robin Hood Foundation with its Hero’s Award in 2004 and is a member of the 11th cohort of the Pahara-Aspen Fellowship in Education. She is a former Teach For America corps member (Mississippi Delta ’97) and has been a faculty member of both the KIPP School Leadership Program and Relay Graduate School of Education’s National Principals Academy Fellowship. She earned a BA in International Affairs from the George Washington University and a MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School. Maggie lives in New Orleans with her husband, two children, and very friendly dog.