Charles is the Founder and CEO of the Kansas City Teacher Residency (KCTR), an urban teacher preparation and development program that seeks to increase the number of quality teachers that are teaching in schools across Kansas City, Missouri. KCTR has more than 160 Residents, Graduates, and Alumni that are transforming the lives of students where they are serving in classrooms. Charles’ commitment to ensuring that all students are able to make transformative outcomes in the classrooms was evident in his time as principal at KIPP Spirit College Preparatory, a public charter school that is a part of the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) national network of schools, in Houston, Texas.

As principal Charles’ school consistently outperformed the district averages in state reading and math scores, and in 2015 was rated with distinction by the Texas Education Agency in reading, math, science, social studies, and being top 25% in student progress. Charles attributes this achievement to being a results driven and passionate leader, and understands the positive impact that this has on teacher performance and success in the classroom. Charles began his journey to fight and dismantle the inequities in education when he finished his bachelor’s degree and joined Teach For America. It was during this time that he learned the power that educators have in shaping, empowering, enlightening, and impacting the lives of children in order to prepare them to be change agents in the creation of a better tomorrow. As a middle school social studies teacher in the Houston Independent School District, and later KIPP Academy Middle School in Houston, Texas, Charles was able to motivate and inspire his students to understand the history of our country by unpacking the central recurring themes of our time, to then consider the impact each student can make to positively affect change in our world.

Charles earned an M.Ed. in Education Administration from Houston Baptist University, and a B.A. in Political Science from Morehouse College. Charles has an unyielding commitment to seeing our schools in the urban context succeed and knows that it has to start one classroom at a time, with one teacher at a time. He is the board chair for KIPP Kansas City, an advisory board member for Literacy Lab Kansas City, and is active in the Morehouse College Alumni Chapter in Kansas City. He lives in the Kansas City area with his wife and four children.