Lydia Freeman Kumar Email & Phone Number

Carrboro, North Carolina, United States

I lead an incredible team to provide high-quality professional learning for educators. My work ensures that we're aligned with other firm-wide initiatives, and I interface with various leaders to create systems and structures that help us work effectively internally as well as externally. I'm also collaborating with the innovation team, as well as supporting the design and construction of our new customer platform on SalesForce Experience Cloud. I've flexed my technical skills in areas of budgeting, strategic planning, and project management while remaining people-focused through relationship-building, purposeful questioning, and influence to meet an ambitious vision.

I was driven to improve and build upon the professional learning services we offered to Opportunity Culture educators, and so I stepped into a role managing all our professional learning services. I developed a Theory of Action and strove to ensure PL services aligned with firm-wide vision. I developed systems of centralizing communication with 10+ districts and their assigned consultants. I emphasized community-based learning, and I led a large team to build that community. I planned an in-person conference-style summer training for newly hired educators. This year was also marked by change. My manager resigned. Our online management system was retired, and I worked closely with an external consultant to move professional learning services to SalesForce Experience Cloud. I developed systems to train the team on various new processes and PL services that could support OC educators.

Notable for me this year was working on a federal study to measure the impacts of teacher leadership and supporting small rural districts and large urban districts with designing and implementing Opportunity Culture models. I worked closely with four different states. This year was also significant because of the work I did to support a positive, team culture. I joined the DEI policy team, provided feedback to various leaders and colleagues that was well-received and implemented, and I leaned into connection and understanding with my colleagues.

I developed a series of PD sessions on Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies and coaching, supported schools through the design and change management process, and conducted interviews that led to data-based recommendations. I was also able to develop and sell a community of practice series to a two districts.

Gaston, Nc

Moving into an instructional coach role allowed me to lead and coach adults, and it laid the groundwork for my next experience with Public Impact. I led a small team of English teachers, and I engaged in coaching cycles with each member of my team using frameworks from Get Better Faster and Leverage Leadership. My role also involved relationship-building, observing classrooms, and meeting to debrief and coach toward actionable goals. As a team, we analyzed student data, and lesson planned horizontally as individuals and vertically as a team. I worked closely with the administrative team to norm and support excellence in all teachers. During this time I was also pulling groups of students for remediation and managing our school library and AR system. Halfway through the school year, Covid-19 changed the way school happened, and I played a critical role operationalizing our move to virtual school.

Gaston, North Carolina

After two years teaching at Gaston Middle School, I moved to the nearby KIPP Charter school. School culture was completely different - my first taste of company culture shock! I taught sixth grade English, and my students excelled academically. Every year, I had my students participate in the YES! essay contest. I understood the importance of writing as a tool to communicate confidently, and I knew my students needed to connect their work to something real. This allowed me to invite parents, other educators on campus, community members into the school to hear my students read their essays aloud and share their experiences. (It was a team experience because I needed the support of my grade level team to make this happen with 100 students!) I was intentional about creating community and opportunity for my students, and my students learned and grew as individuals, as scholars, and as communicators.

Richmond, Virginia Area

If you'd ask me what I wanted to be from the ages of 14-23, I would have said "writer." Working with David Bailey Associates started as an internship and continued for years as a freelance writer for the firm. What I love about writing is the same thing I love about many other jobs I've had. The opportunity to connect with others, communicate a message, and turn an idea into reality.

Gaston Middle School

My first school year was full of hope and defeat. My fifth grade students brought in baby pictures and school photos that I taped around my desk. We built a map of the United States using the floor tiles to ensure it was to scale. I took a mental health day that year and imagined the adult that each of my students might grow into, and I came back and worked with renewed purpose. I wrote articles for TFA's TeacherPop blog each Sunday night, which allowed me to craft the highs and lows of that experience into something meaningful. I was vision-building.

Eastern North Carolina

When I became a TFA corps member, I joined a group of other bright, justice-oriented young people. We imagined a world where students had access to great education, and we experienced how complex that is to turn into a reality. My program began with a training in the Mississippi Delta followed by a two year commitment to teaching in eastern North Carolina. I grew up in Appalachia, which is often rural, poor, and specularly beautiful, and while the Delta and ENC had these in common with my home, it was all new and all different.

As an RA, I had two office duty nights per week. Sometimes, I sat in the small room doing homework. Usually, someone was with me. I spent hours talking with different students, asking questions and sharing stories. Looking back, I strove to embody compassionate listening and worked to create an environment of belonging.

Bluefield, Va

My first job in college was as a work study in the admissions office. Some days I entered information from interest cards in the chicken-scratch handwriting of high-schoolers. (I was fast, but I was bored.) Other days, I answered the phone, sat at the front desk, and invited people in.

Executive Mba

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), English And Communications, 3.95

Activities and Societies: President of Student Union Board, Student Ambassadors, Honors Program, Alpha Chi Honors Society, Phi Beta.