Teach For America has named Nicole Brisbane as director of District and Community Partnerships in Miami-Dade, it was announced recently by Rebecca Fishman Lipsey, executive director of the non-profit organization’s Miami-Dade region.
Teach For America’s mission is to build the movement to eliminate the gap in academic outcomes that exist between children growing up in low-income communities and their peers living in higher-income areas. The organization recruits outstanding recent college graduates who commit two years to teach in urban and rural areas, and become lifelong leaders in pursuing educational equity.
As director of District and Community Partnerships, Brisbane will manage and oversee Teach For America’s outreach and relationships with schools, community leaders, and civic organizations to increase student achievement throughout local schools.
“Nicole is one of our hundreds of Teach For America alumni in South Florida and a native of Miami,” Fishman Lipsey said. “She understands the community’s needs and the many opportunities education can provide to our children for their future.”
Brisbane was a Teach For America Miami-Dade teacher at Allapattah Middle School from 2005 to 2007 where she taught students who entered the grade substantially below grade level. Through relentlessness conviction and use of data in her planning, she increased her students’ academic achievement by 2.5 grade levels during her tenure at Allapattah. She won the “Rookie Teacher of the Year Award” at Allapattah in 2005-06 for her strong performance.
Brisbane attended Florida State University (FSU) where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Communication and graduated cum laude. After her Teach For America teaching commitment, Brisbane went on to Emory University School of Law where she received her Juris Doctor. While at Emory University, she was president of the Black Law Students Association, served as a summer law clerk at the Florida Justice Institute, as well as a student attorney at the Barton Juvenile Defender Clinic, among a host of other honors and distinctions.
Teach For America began placing corps members in Miami-Dade Public Schools in 2003 in order to address disparities in educational achievement between students in the county’s low-income neighborhoods and those in wealthier communities. In the 2010-11 school year, nearly 150 Teach For America corps members will reach more than 10,000 students who are concentrated in the 20 schools where there are the greatest needs in Miami-Dade County.
For more information, visit online at www.teachforamerica.org.
