Kira Orange Jones
Executive Director and Senior Vice President, Teach For America
Kira serves as the executive director of Teach For America-New Orleans and she serves as an elected member on the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Kira was a 2000 corps member in Baton Rouge, where she taught fourth grade at Eden Park Elementary. She went on to serve as school director for Teach For America’s summer institute and, as vice president of new site development, leading the organization’s efforts to expand to three new regions.
Kira is also a moderator for the Pahara fellowship, a 2010 fellow of the Aspen-New Schools cohort, and a member of the Aspen Global Network. In 2015 Kira was named to TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.
She holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University, an M.Ed. in school leadership from Harvard University, and is an elected member of the statewide education policy-making board, the Louisiana Board of Elementary & Secondary Education, advocating for policies to advance meaningful change for children throughout the state.