Kathleen Zimmermann named Texas Charter School Leader of the Year

Kathleen has served as Executive Director of NYOS Charter School since 2009.  Before joining NYOS, Kathleen spent many years in education, operations, and financial management roles.  Kathleen holds a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

Watch a video of Kathleen’s acceptance speech from the 2018 Texas Charter Schools Conference.

Kathleen has unselfishly served TPCSA and the Texas charter movement in a number of ways, including her past service on the TPCSA Board of Directors, as a former chair of the Member Council, and most recently as the chair of the CEO search committee where she devoted countless hours evaluating resumes, screening candidates, arranging interviews and ensuring that the entire process reached its successful conclusion.   Those who have worked with Kathleen speak of her integrity, humility, skillful leadership, and dedication to the Texas public charter school movement.

As a reminder, TPCSA has set forth the following guidelines to determine eligibility for the Leader of the Year award:

• Create innovative and creative spaces and approaches with the potential to be expanded or replicated either locally or statewide;
• Earn the respect of students, parents and charter colleagues;
• Advocate for the local and state charter movement and serve within their community;
• Serve as a leader within their region, willing to mentor other leaders;
• Have at least five years of experience working in a Texas public charter school;
• Serve on at least one TPCSA member committee or council; and
• Work for a charter that is a current TPCSA member.

Awardees such as Kathleen serve as inspiration and a model for their charter colleagues and their community. They serve as leaders in the improvement of education within the Texas charter school movement. Leaders chosen for this award may be asked to represent public charter schools at state legislative and policy events when needed.

Awardees receive an award of $1,000, one free registration to the annual Texas Charter Schools Conference, a prepared media statement for the awardee’s campus or charter to share, and an opportunity to share ideas quarterly through TPCSA’s newsletter, “Charter Insider”  and the “Texas Charter Exchange” blog.