Sondra Samuels

Sondra Samuels serves as the President and CEO of the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ). She is leading a revolutionary culture shift in North Minneapolis, focused on ending multigenerational poverty through education. Ms. Samuels is a national leader and tireless education reformer who advocates for evidence-based cradle-to-career solutions to the issues of concentrated poverty that plague low income communities and leave far too many children of color in the center of an egregious achievement gap. Under her leadership, NAZ was named a federal Promise Neighborhood and has become a nationally recognized model for comprehensive community development and systems change. Sondra served in AmeriCorps in 1994 as part of the Justice Department’s Weed-n-Seed Initiative and is also a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer. She recently received an AmeriCorps Alums National Leadership Award in recognition of her commitment to a lifetime of service.