Norman Atkins is the Co-Founder and President of Relay Graduate School of Education (formerly known as Teacher U), a ground-breaking institution of higher education designed specifically to train and develop urban public school teachers. Since 2008, under Atkins’ leadership, Teacher U and Relay Graduate School of Education have trained more than 600 charter and district public school teachers in New York City. Atkins is the Founder, Board Chair, and former CEO of Uncommon Schools, a nonprofit charter management organization recognized for starting and operating among the highest performing urban schools in the nation. In 1997, he co-founded and co-led North Star Academy Charter School of Newark. From 1989 to 1994, he was the co-executive director of the Robin Hood Foundation in New York City. As a journalist, he has written about education, poverty, politics, culture, and social issues for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Parenting, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and the Boston Globe. Atkins earned a B.A. in History from Brown University and an M.A. in Educational Administration from Columbia University Teachers College.
