Clyde Cole (he/him/his)

Senior Associate

Clyde Cole is a career educator who has dedicated his life to improving the lives of children and families in urban communities. He is a co-founder of both a Catholic middle school for boys in Harlem, NY, and a charter middle school in New Haven, CT. He was also the founding executive director of a year-round youth center in Brooklyn and the founding assistant director of a city-wide academic enrichment and leadership development program for academically gifted middle school boys in New York City.

In 2005, Mr. Cole made history as the founding principal of the first all-boys public school serving grades 6-12 in the United States, located in Brooklyn, NY, where he had double-digit student achievement gains for 3 consecutive years while maintaining an attendance rate of 90% for 5 years.

In recognition of his professional achievements, Mr. Cole has been given a Leadership Development Award by the Archdiocese of New York, selected as one of the NYC Department of Education’s Very Best First-Year Principals, listed as a member of The Network Journal business magazine’s “Forty Under 40,” named Man of the Year 11 times by Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, honored as a Distinguished Alumnus of New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education, given special designation at the prestigious Urban School Leaders Program of the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Principals Center, and given a Mayoral Service Award in 2020 for his community service work during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in New York City.

While working at New Leaders, an award-winning national education non-profit that specializes in training public school leaders, Mr. Cole has trained and coached emerging leaders (teacher-leaders), aspiring principals, principals, and principal supervisors in urban school systems around the country. He was an adjunct professor at the City University of New York teaching educational leadership, school building leadership, organizational leadership, and education policy. He also taught at Long Island University in the NYC Teaching Fellows Program. He is currently an adjunct professor at Grand Canyon University, supervising student teachers and school leadership students in the College of Education. Mr. Cole worked as a district leader in both Syracuse, NY, and New York City, leading the Syracuse principal evaluation system and both districts’ teacher evaluation systems.

Mr. Cole has a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University, a master's degree from New York University, and a school district leader certification program from Bank Street Graduate School of Education. He is also an active member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. He has Panamanian and Jamaican roots and is a proud native and resident of Brooklyn, NY.