20/20 Architect Jeremy Del Rio Now Executive Director

Posted on January 2, 2010

20/20 Vision for Schools proudly announces the hire of its lead architect and visionary Jeremy Del Rio, Esq., as its first executive director, effective January 1, 2010. Jeremy previously served 20/20 as a strategic planning, organizational development, marketing, and program design consultant since its inception in 2007, and has championed the movement through our September 2008 launch and first academic year.

This decision to hire Jeremy aligns with the Action Plan crafted with the input of 120 multi-sector leaders convened on September 18, 2008, for “An Urgent Appeal to Engage a Generation at Risk: Helping Everyone Reach their Highest Potential.”

Executives from the business, government, religious, education, and social sectors – including Newark Mayor Cory Booker; former congressman and pastor of Allen Cathedral Rev. Dr. Floyd Flake; former president of the Girl Scouts of America and founding chair of the Leader-to-Leader Institute Francis Hesselbein, Former Philadelphia Mayor and Amachi founder Dr. Wilson Goode, Service Master founder William Pollard, and many more – gathered explicitly “to initiate an actionable plan and model to help New York City school-aged youth reach their highest potential.” Organizations represented included the United Federation of Teachers, Teach For America, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Cornell University, New York University, Deutsche Bank, M&T Bank, WMCA Radio/Salem Communications, Dow Corning Corp., Princeton Theological Seminary, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, American Express Business Travel, The West Paces Hotel Group, World Vision, Latino Pastoral Action Center, Pomeroy Capital Hedge Fund, and others.

Together, they concluded that America’s crisis in public schools is first and foremost a crisis of leadership. A systematic refusal to accept accountability for chronic underperformance has permitted decades of institutional failure, which has placed current and future generations at risk of social unrest and decay. Comprehensive reform requires multi-sector, collaborative strategies led by men and women willing to commit, as Geoffrey Canada of Harlem Children’s Zone says, “to fix this problem … to put politics aside and do what’s right for America’s children.”

Students who began first grade in September 2008 are the high school graduating class of 2020 – the generation for whom 20/20 intends to make good on the promise of public education. But to manifest sustainable, systemic change requires catalytic and creative leaders who are empowered to champion the movement moving forward. The consensus of 20/20 Vision’s founding partners, The New York City Leadership Center and The Coalition of Urban Youth Workers, is that Jeremy Del Rio is such a leader, and we welcome him into his new role.

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