Leading the Nation in Developing Innovative Educational
Strategies
Believe. Expect. Instill. We Believe our children will go to college. We Expect our children to go to college. We will Instill in our children each and every day that they can and will graduate from college.
The National Coalition for Exemplary Schools is led by its president, Jimmy Garcia
Arispe. Jimmy is a champion for children and has devoted his life to improving the
educational achievement, opportunities and conditions for students in at-risk schools
and environments across our country. He is honored and humbled to be recognized
for his efforts and relentless commitment to improving educational communities by
being presented with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award in 2000.
Jimmy leads this organization while tapping into his experiences as a teacher, principal
and assistant superintendent in both the US and Mexico. His organization has assisted
some of the most challenged educational environments in implementing innovative and
progressive changes that have made generational differences. As the nation’s leading
educational development organization, the Coalition has developed quality relationships
with other partner organizations, business and community leaders, educational consultants,
volunteers, community activists and transformational individuals that share the
same passion and commitment to our children. It is through these relationships that
quality and impactful environments, strategies and tools have been created.
Our President
Our National Leadership Director
Zayra Fosse serves as the Coalition’s National Leadership Director
Zayra works with students across the country to further enhance their leadership skills and abilities so that they can reach their potential. Zayra develops innovative programs such as the Leadership Conferences conducted on college campuses so that students can be involved in environments that raises expectations for them and they begin to set lofty goals for themselves. Zayra has been working with children and adults in various types of leadership capacities in public education and the private sector for the past 20 years. She brings a wealth of knowledge about leadership program development, community and parent engagement. Zayra puts all of her professional and personal skills to great use on a daily basis as an active community leader in the state of Georgia.
Our Student Leadership Coordinator
Colleen Gillis serves as the Coalition’s Student Leadership Coordinator
Colleen is a recent graduate of North Carolina State University. She began working with the Coalition as a volunteer and assisting with recruiting students to be involved in Leadership Conferenceson her campus. Now, Colleen does this on a much greater scale and recruits, hires and trains all of the student leadership coordinators on every single campus hosting a Leadership Conferenceacross the United States. Colleen brings a tremendous amount of motivation, organization and excitement to her position with the Coalition. She uses her experience as a volunteer to improve the quality and success of the Leadership Conferencesso more lives of underserved students can be positively impacted and college will be possible for them.
Colleen’s Picture coming soon.
Our Conference Staff
Jimmy approaches every chance to work with parents, teachers, administrators and students as an opportunity to plant “seeds” of high expectations in their minds. His passion for children is obvious and contagious and he challenges everyone he comes in contact with to do more while developing new solutions to old problems. It is through his words and the motto of The Coalition, “Believe, Expect and Instill” that he communicates the expectation that ALL of our children graduate from high school, go onto college and settle for nothing less!
Other Leadership Team Members
We are in the process of reorganizing our leadership team. Please check back as
we update positions and bios soon.