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Announcing Our Newest Board Member, Mark Baxter, Partner at Bellwether

Deans for Impact

Category: Organization

Meetmarkbaxterparteratbellwether

Deans for Impact is excited to announce that Mark Baxter, partner at Bellwether, will join our board of directors, adding a valuable voice to DFI’s strategic leadership.

With 20 years of experience in the public and nonprofit sectors, and long-time partnership with DFI, Baxter brings deep working knowledge of K-12 education systems and policy to his board leadership role.

Prior to joining Bellwether, Baxter served as a vice president at Rodel, a nonprofit working to strengthen Delaware’s public education system and expand career opportunities for youth. At Rodel, Baxter focused on strategy, partnerships, technical assistance, and talent systems for the organization. He helped to grow Rodel’s technical assistance team focused on expanding career pathways and teacher diversity strategies across Delaware.

Baxter shares more about his lifelong passion for education and why he’s excited to make an impact at DFI.

Why did you decide to join DFI’s board?

I have been honored to work with DFI as a partner, funder, and thought partner since their founding. It was a no-brainer for me when the board invited me to join this amazing organization. My former colleague at Texas Education Agency, Ryan Franklin said it best: "Everything else the state invests in for public education is a Band-Aid when we don’t have the supply of well-trained teachers." DFI sits at the center of ensuring we are building systems that train teachers in science-backed practices to improve outcomes for kids.

What is one pivotal moment in your career that helped shape how you view your own role in supporting instructional quality?

My time at the Texas Education Agency was transformational in my thinking about what is needed to shift student outcomes. Policies, systems, and programs are critical to ensuring we get resources and data into the hands of educators, but how they use those data and resources is the secret sauce to success. Learning from amazing colleagues like Tim Regal as we worked to build new evaluation and support systems for teachers and principals was critical for me to understand better how policy translated into classroom practice.

"If we are serious about ensuring every student has a well-trained, impactful teacher then we have to think differently about how we recruit and train our next generation of teachers. DFI sits at the center of that transformation which is why I am excited to be a part of this organization."

Describe a teacher or student who made a lasting impact in your life.

My 7th-grade social studies teacher, Mr. Gaffney, was transformative in helping me understand the connection between what we were learning in the classroom and events we were experiencing every day. He helped form my understanding of critical thinking and digging deeper to not just find the "right" answer but to understand its implications for other events.

What most excites you about the work of transforming educator preparation?

This is a difficult moment for our sector. Fewer people are choosing teaching as a profession at the same time we are continuing to build back from COVID. If we are serious about ensuring every student has a well-trained, impactful teacher then we have to think differently about how we recruit and train our next generation of teachers. DFI sits at the center of that transformation which is why I am excited to be a part of this organization.