E: hello@innovationequity.org
Dr. Rahesha S. Amon is a respected education executive with over 25 years of leadership and management experience in complex organizations. She has exceptional strategic decision-making skills and leadership expertise – contributing extensively to education domestically and internationally. Preceding her current role as Senior Executive Director with the New York City Department of Education, Rahesha served as an award-winning classroom teacher, Educational Coach, Academic Director, Principal, and Assistant Principal. She became the founding Principal of Frederick Douglass Academy III in the Bronx, New York, then served as Deputy Superintendent and later Superintendent of Community School District 16 in Brooklyn, New York. Under Rahesha's leadership, District 16 received accolades from the New York City Mayor and School Chancellor for achieving the highest gains in English Language Arts and Mathematics for the 2018 - 2019 school year. She is credited in 2020 with creating and implementing the Superintendent Support and Evaluation System (SSES) to onboard, cultivate, and support while monitoring the effectiveness of the 45 superintendents in New York City. The SSES is still in use today.
Rahesha has demonstrated outcomes-based experience as a forward-thinking educator with research-based strategies to drive mission-aligned impact on schools, students, families, and communities. She cultivates relationships and increases impact through a cross-sectoral approach with partners such as elected officials, advisory boards, and community-based organizations, fostering collaboration and driving success. Her comprehensive approach to cultivating leadership from recruitment to retention directly accelerates and grows district and school-based leadership practices to support further building solid instructional results-driven leadership. With a strategic focus on coherent and relevant leadership, Rahesha ensures greater alignment between policy and practice.
Rahesha has received numerous awards and accolades. This past May, she was selected for New York University Steinhardt's doctorate in Leadership and Innovation commencement celebration as the student speaker. In 2020 Rahesha was chosen to serve as an International Advisor with The Ministry of Education (MOE), the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC), and ALEF education, where she supported the organizations with forming a new charter management organization, New Century Education, Abu Dhabi (NCE). NCE currently serves over 6000 students across six campuses.
Rahesha holds a doctoral degree from New York University, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. She has a Master's Degree in Educational Leadership from Fordham University and a Bachelor of Arts from North Carolina Central University. She participated in the distinguished Cahn Fellowship program at Teachers College, Harvard University Principal's Institute, is an Aspen Scholar and is currently a member of the Sterling Network. The Network is a diverse group of leaders from the public, private, and non-profit sectors working together to increase economic mobility across the five boroughs in New York City, with racial equity as a central guiding value.
Rahesha is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and Jack and Jill of America, Inc. Her family and those she loves are the cornerstone of all she does. She is the proud mother of Savannah. When her daughter, Savannah, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, she started "Savannah's Heartbeats," a foundation that supports newly diagnosed family members. Rahesha lives by Belle Hook's quote, “What we do is more important than what we say or what we say we believe.”
