Dr. Russell Booker Appointed Joint Senior Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Education Initiatives
As an EdRedesign Lab and Initiative on Superintendent as Civic Leader Joint Senior Fellow, Dr. Booker will share his expertise with the Harvard community and explore how superintendents can strengthen their role as community leaders
Dr. Russell W. Booker will serves as a Joint Senior Fellow for the EdRedesign Lab and Initiative on Superintendent as a Civic Leader.
CAMBRIDGE, MA — May 12, 2026 — Today, The EdRedesign Lab (EdRedesign) and The Initiative on Superintendent as Civic Leader (ISCL) at Harvard Graduate School of Education announced the appointment of Dr. Russell Booker, a Joint Senior Fellow.
Over the course of two years, Dr. Booker, a former superintendent and current CEO of the Spartanburg Academic Movement, will engage with the Harvard community and explore how we can build the leadership capacity of superintendents to address pressing issues of public education and civic life in partnership with community members.
About Dr. Russell Booker
Dr. Russell Booker is CEO of the Spartanburg Academic Movement in Spartanburg where he champions education as a pathway to leadership, service, and opportunity for every child. He previously served as Superintendent of Spartanburg County School District Seven and York School District One, leading major district transformation efforts including structural reform, digital immersion, and a comprehensive capital plan.
A widely recognized education leader, Dr. Booker has held numerous state and national leadership roles and has been honored with distinctions including South Carolina Superintendent of the Year and the Order of the Palmetto, the state’s highest civilian honor. He served as the Chair of the StriveTogether Board of Directors and is currently a board member of Purpose Built Communities and served on South Carolina’s Education Oversight Committee. He holds a B.S. degree from Wingate University and a Ph.D. from University of South Carolina. He has been awarded two honorary doctorates and remains deeply engaged in civic and community leadership across Spartanburg and beyond.
Dr. Booker previously spent time as a 2023-2025 By All Means Senior Fellow with EdRedesign, where he made valuable contributions to the Harvard community by engaging with students, faculty, staff, and fellows across campus on topics ranging from place-based partnerships to the role religious organizations can play as partners on tackling child poverty and educational inequity.
“Dr. Russell Booker has demonstrated extraordinary local and national-level leadership as both a superintendent, now as CEO of Spartanburg Academic Movement, and board member of leading national organizations. He exemplifies what cross-sector leadership can achieve by connecting K–12 education with cradle-to-career place-based solutions,” says Rob Watson, Executive Director of EdRedesign and Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
“Thanks in large part to his leadership, Spartanburg has made significant progress for children and families, attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in public and private resources to advance economic mobility— from expanding housing, to building new community centers and preschools, to more than doubling third-grade reading proficiency in high-poverty schools. His work offers an important model for communities across the country and our Harvard University community.”
A Fellowship to Advance Civic Leadership and Learning
In his role as a Joint Senior Fellow, Dr. Booker will undertake a project at the intersection of the superintendency and place-based, cross-sector collaboration, examining how system leaders can more effectively engage community partners to improve outcomes for children and families from cradle to career. Developed in partnership with EdRedesign and ISCL, this project will inform practice, policy, and public understanding. Dr. Booker will also serve as a strategic advisor to both EdRedesign and ISCL, offering insight and guidance to support their shared efforts to strengthen civic leadership in education.
“The role of superintendents has fundamentally changed in the past few decades,” notes ISCL Lead Jennifer Cheatham, Senior Lecturer and Faculty Chair of Field Engagement at Harvard Graduate School of Education. “They now play a leadership role in stewarding their communities through transformative change by cultivating the public will to engage, adapt, and co-create the future of learning. This takes the kind of leadership skills Russell has modeled, skills we are eager to teach and share with more superintendents across the country.”
“Public leaders, especially superintendents, have a critical role to play in building and executing on a vision for a better future for children and families – in and outside of school,” added Paul Reville, EdRedesign Founder and Faculty Director, Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration at Harvard Graduate School of Education. “This joint appointment is an important step to showcasing just how powerful the role of a superintendent can be in ensuring all children can thrive when they share power and embrace approaches that enroll key community stakeholders to meet the needs of the whole child.”
“My most impactful experience as a superintendent came about through my partnership with the Spartanburg Academic Movement, the organization I now lead,” Dr. Booker noted. “It was during this time that our community aligned around a shared agenda for student success. Together, we began to build an ecosystem where education was a shared responsibility and alignment was key to moving the needle, strengthening the social fabric along the way. This is the path forward, and I look forward to supporting other superintendents in building this kind of civic infrastructure, where improving outcomes for children and strengthening the connections go hand in hand.”
Dr. Booker’s appointment will begin in July 2026 and extends through June 2028.
About The EdRedesign Lab
Founded in 2014 by Paul Reville, Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, EdRedesign provides catalytic support to the cradle-to-career place-based partnership field to drive systems-level change and open personalized pathways to well-being, educational attainment, civic engagement, and upward mobility. To support this growing field to effect transformational change that serves the needs and talents of individual children and youth, our work focuses on talent development, actionable research, our Institute for Success Planning, and our By All Means initiatives. Our mission is to ensure the social, emotional, physical, and academic development and well-being of all children and youth, especially those affected by racism, poverty, and disinvestment.
About The Initiative on Superintendent as Civic Leader
The Initiative on the Superintendent as Civic Leader (ISCL) at Harvard Graduate School of Education transforms how superintendents and their teams and boards are prepared and supported so they can steward the future of public education with civic imagination, democratic purpose, and political skill. As a field catalyst for superintendent civic leadership, ISCL focuses on three mutually reinforcing strategies: offering direct professional learning experiences for superintendents and those who support them, creating and disseminating new research-based tools and resources for teaching and supporting superintendents, and building a community of practice to advance the field.