James Fogarty is the Executive Director of A+ Schools Pittsburgh, a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing the structural inequities that impact student educational outcomes. A+ Schools acts on the core belief that our children's success is bigger than any one of us and that we have everything we need to succeed by our children by leveraging the assets and strengths of our community.

Founded as a watchdog focused on transparency, accountability, and reform, A+ Schools has evolved recently under Fogarty's leadership to working hand in hand with schools and community organizations to address the issues facing Pittsburgh's children and youth coming out of the pandemic. The organization supports and convenes the Pittsburgh Learning Collaborative (PLC), a 90 organization joint effort that is working to ensure every kid is in every school every day by providing families and students community based supports that create an excuse for children to go and remove barriers. Leveraging insights from collective impact and continuous improvement models, the organization has positioned itself as a backbone organization to support the continued ability of the child serving field to solving problems of equity that create disparate outcomes for historically marginalized communities.

The PLC has been recognized by the US Department of Education for the work it has done around connecting children and families to out of school and summer learning opportunities.

In addition, A+ Schools is the fiscal sponsor for the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium, a statewide effort to have classroom teacher diversity reflect that of our student body. Fogarty will serve on its inaugural board when it launches later this year.

Fogarty is deeply committed to improving education in the city of Pittsburgh and is constantly seeking new ways to support students, teachers, and schools. He is an active member of the community and serves on the boards of the Pittsburgh Community Redevelopment Organization, and as an advisory member to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Education Lab of the Institute of Education Sciences.

He credits his time as a Breakthrough Collaborative student and teacher (San Francisco, Sacramento, and Washington, D.C.) as the inspiration for his dedication to ensuring all children having access to high quality educational experiences that both challenge and inspire.

Fogarty was born and raised in San Francisco and is still a dedicated Warriors and Giants fan. He is also an avid reader and enjoys staying up-to-date on the latest research and developments in education.