OUR COLLABORATORS

Mindy Fernandez-Sheinbaum

SCHOOL LEADERSHIP, POLICY, ADVOCACY

Mindy started her career teaching K-5 special education in South Louisiana, outside of New Orleans. Upon leaving the classroom, she pursued a master’s in social work, focused on youth development, advocacy, policy and community organizing. Before returning to the classroom to teach middle school special education in an international school in the Dominican Republic, Mindy worked for the Children’s Defense Fund as a student organizer and running a statewide coalition supporting middle and low income families throughout New York State.

In addition, Mindy worked as a founding member of the alumni team at Teach For America, building partnerships and supporting TFA alumni in teacher and school leadership, policy, and advocacy, and general leadership development in New Jersey and Greater Philadelphia. Mindy has spent the last decade building and implementing inclusive and equitable processes and systems as a founding member of the Talent, Learning, and Culture team at Leadership for Educational Equity, as a consultant at EdFuel, and independently, specializing in organizational strategy, stakeholder engagement, performance management, employee relations, DEI, learning and development, culture building, and management capacity-building in educational nonprofits and institutions. 

In her spare time, Mindy has been heavily involved as a board and academic committee member of Foundation Academies, a high-achieving charter school in Trenton, NJ, and board member of an arts and youth development nonprofit in Philadelphia. Additionally, she is the proud mom of a 9th and a 12th grader in Philadelphia public schools, and partner to a Philly public school assistant principal. She is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Hunter College School of Social Work in NYC, and is a longtime fighter for educational equity and human-centered, impact-driven practitioner.