James Ford (Educator)

This is an absolute dream episode with someone we deeply admire and love. We were very tempted to title this episode "James Ford (Future President of the United States)". 

James E. Ford is an award-winning educator and consultant on issues of equity in education. He was recently appointed by Gov. Cooper to serve as a member of the North Carolina State Board of Education, representing the Southwest Region. He is the former Program Director at the Public School Forum of North Carolina, an education think-tank and policy advocacy organization. Prior to this, he served as the 2014-15 North Carolina Teacher of the Year and the representative for 95,000 public school teachers throughout the state. For a full year, he traveled the state and country speaking before thousands of teachers, students, business leaders and policymakers about the importance of education.

In Spring 2015, He, along with 54 other state teachers were invited to the White House to be honored by President Obama in the Rose Garden during Teacher Appreciation Week. Ford taught World History at Garinger High School in Charlotte, NC starting in 2010.

He is a civic leader in Charlotte, serving as the co-chair for the Leading on Opportunity Council, an effort change the systemic barriers to economic mobility in the city. He also is the Principal at Filling the Gap Educational Consultants, LLC.

We know you're going to love this episode.