Kelly Pierce

KELLY PIERCE, Founder and CEO of PIERCE Plan, brings over 15 years of experience working in education with student-athletes at both the high school and collegiate levels. Her passion for education has fueled her path from an academic advisor, to teacher and coach, to an innovator of education, and now an entrepreneur.

Kelly was born and raised in northeast Ohio but similar to Lebron James, she decided to take her talents to South Beach earning both her B.S.Ed. and M.S.Ed. from the University of Miami.

Kelly first served as an Athletic Academic Advisor to the football team at the University of Miami from 2008-2013, graduating 100% of the football players under her advisement. She ran the tutoring program, managing over 100 tutors and mentors to support approximately 450 student-athletes. To help the tutoring program run more efficiently, Kelly developed a Learning Management System (LMS) that was used up until this year.

After her time working in college athletics, she went back into the classroom to teach algebra and coach boys basketball at SLAM! Academy, a charter school in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood.

It did not take long for her to realize the power sports have to engage kids in the learning process and drive student achievement. In pursuit of providing a quality education through an innovative curriculum to more children, she left the classroom in 2015 to open additional SLAM! charter schools across the nation. She led a team that was successful in getting the first elementary charter school ever approved in the state of Alabama. Her latest efforts have been in Atlanta, Georgia, where the first K-5 model for the SLAM! network opened its doors in August.

Now, Kelly serves as the Founder and CEO of PIERCE Plan, the solution she came up with for the problem that had been keeping her up at night for years.

Kelly is also proud to sit on the Governing Board of HEART, a non-profit committed to empowering frontline professionals in the healthcare and education fields with the training and resources needed to support survivors of human trafficking.