TEAM Charter Schools

Ryan Hill

Founder and Executive Director, TEAM Charter Schools
Before founding TEAM Academy, Ryan Hill taught sixth grade at I.S. 164 in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, where he also founded basketball and tutoring programs. After completing the KIPP School Leadership Program, Ryan founded TEAM Academy, which has experienced dramatic academic success in its first three years, and has grown from a fifth grade with 80 students to a middle school serving 320 students in grades five through eight. The classes Ryan has taught have risen from an average of the 33rd percentile to an average of the 90th percentile in just one year. Ryan was the winner of the Bank of America Local Heroes Award. He received his BA from the University of Wisconsin and is a graduate of the KIPP School Leadership Program.

Shawadeim Reagans

School Leader, TEAM Academy Middle School
Sha Reagans was a founding TEAM Teacher when the school opened in 2002. Sha joined the founding team after teaching in Harlem as a Teach for America corps member. As a TEAM teacher, Sha won the U.S. Department of Education’s American Star of Teaching Award for the state of New Jersey in 2005. Sha teaches seventh grade urban education and is the Director of the first TEAM Academy Middle School. Sha is in his tenth year of teaching in Harlem and Newark. He is a graduate of Syracuse University, 1999 and completed his Masters in Early Childhood Education at Bank Street in 2001.

Drew Martin

School Leader, Rise Academy Middle School
Drew Martin came to TEAM from New York City where he taught in a public school as a Teach For America corps member. As a teacher, he raised over $5,000 in grants and materials for his classroom, and was the lab site teacher for over 30 teachers and administrators in his school. Drew interned at TEAM Academy in the summer of 2003 in order to orient himself to the school’s culture and practices, which he replicated in his classroom the following year. As a math teacher at TEAM Academy, Drew was responsible for some of the highest test scores in the KIPP network. Drew trained for school leadership through the KIPP School Leadership program, an intense educational residency that has produced some of the highest performing charter schools in the country. Drew received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia.

Nathan Smalley

School Leader, Newark Collegiate Academy High School
Nathan Smalley joined TEAM after serving as a high school English teacher in Jersey City as part of Teach For America. At the close of his Teach for America commitment, Nate worked for Talent Development High Schools, where he served as a curriculum coach and school reform facilitator in high schools throughout the East Coast. At TEAM Academy, he served as English Language Arts Teacher and Grade Level Chair before continuing on to complete the KIPP School Leadership fellowship year in preparation to open TEAM’s first high school. Nate currently serves of as the School Leader of Newark Collegiate Academy, now in its second year of operation. He received his BA from Rutgers University and his Master’s degree from National Louis University.

Joanna Belcher

School Leader, SPARK Academy Elementary School
Joanna Belcher earned her M.Ed. & Principal Licensure from Harvard University in 2008 while working in an administrative role at an elementary school in Dorchester, MA. Previously, she taught fourth grade at Ralph Bunche Elementary School, the first California Distinguished School in Compton, California, where she also served as the GATE Lead Teacher, on her school’s leadership team. Prior to teaching at Bunche, Joanna was a Teach for America corps member in San Jose, California where she earned the 2004 Symantec Excellence in Teaching Award (Bay Area Corps Member Teacher of the Year Award). Originally from Pennsylvania, Joanna received her BA in psychology and Justice and Peace Studies and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Georgetown University in 2003.

Ben Cope

Development Director
Ben taught third grade for two years in the Bronx with Teach for America. He later worked for U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy in the Education Policy Office and served as the Chief of Staff for a State Delegate in Maryland. Ben received his MBA from the University of Maryland. He has worked as a consultant and volunteer with a number of KIPP schools and interned with the KIPP Foundation before coming to TEAM.

Tia Morris

Director of TEAM through College and Community Partnerships
Teach For America alum, Tia Morris, came to TEAM as a Founding Teacher after teaching in Harlem for four years. A Kinder Excellence in Teaching Award winner, Tia designed the curriculum for Liberation Arts, a class that develops critical thinking, speaking, and writing skills. This class is now used throughout the KIPP network at schools across the US. In her seven years at TEAM, Tia has been a classroom teacher, Grade Level Chair, and High School Placement Coordinator. She now serves as the Director of TEAM through College and Community Partnerships. Tia completed her undergraduate studies at Seton Hall University, and holds a Master’s degree from The Bank Street Graduate School of Education.

Hannah Richman

Director, Friends of TEAM
Ms. Richman joined TEAM in June 2003. As the Director for Charter School Development in the Massachusetts Department of Education’s nationally-acclaimed Charter Schools Office, Ms. Richman authored a revised charter school application, managed the charter application process, and worked to assist the startup of successful charter schools throughout Massachusetts. After that, Ms. Richman obtained her Master’s Degree in Public Administration from New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service, where she worked as a Research Assistant for Professors and education experts, Diane Ravitch and Joseph P. Viteritti. For Friends of TEAM Schools, Hannah is responsible for board development, as well as acquiring, financing, renovating, and constructing facilities. Ms. Richman received her BA from Oberlin College, and received her MPA from New York University. She is also a graduate of Leadership Newark.

Steve Small

Chief Operating Officer
In his role as COO, Steve oversees finance and operations for TEAM Schools. Steve joined TEAM full-time in March of 2007 after working there as an intern the previous summer and then returning to the University of Michigan to complete his M.B.A. and M.Ed. degrees. Prior to graduate school, he spent six years at JP Morgan in New York City, including two years as an internal consultant, one as a banking analyst, and three as an associate sales trader in the Private Bank.