David Jernigan, Executive Director for KIPP Metro Atlanta, to Speak at Buckhead Business Association Weekly Breakfast

ATLANTA (March 4, 2013) – The Buckhead Business Association (BBA) is pleased to announce that David Jernigan, Executive Director for KIPP Metro Atlanta, will speak at the Buckhead Business Association Weekly Breakfast on March 7, 2013 at the City Club of Buckhead. Jernigan’s presentation will focus on KIPP’s recent achievements as well as a discussion on how charter schools fit into the greater Atlanta public education landscape.

“David Jernigan has played an integral role in the success of the KIPP schools in metro Atlanta” notes Brian Daughdrill, 2013 President of the BBA. “At a time when there are significant concerns about the public school systems in metro Atlanta, the average impact of KIPP on student achievement is positive, statistically significant, and educationally substantial, according to a recent study by Mathematica Policy Research.”

David Jernigan is the Executive Director for KIPP Metro Atlanta, overseeing the network of six KIPP schools in metro Atlanta. Prior to assuming the role of Executive Director, he was the Founding Principal of KIPP WAYS (West Atlanta Young Scholars) Academy from 2003 to 2008. Under his leadership, KIPP WAYS Academy was consistently one of Atlanta’s highest performing middle schools, and in 2008 it was named the #1 “No Excuses School” in Georgia by the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. David came to Atlanta in 2000 through the Teach For America program, where he taught at M. Agnes Jones Elementary School in the West End of Atlanta.

David is a Morehead Scholar and graduate of the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School and is the recipient of the Business School’s 2003 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award. In 2011, David was also honored with the University’s Distinguished Young Alumnus Award. He received his teaching certification through Georgia State University and his Masters in Educational Administration from National Louis University in Chicago. David also completed executive training at the Harvard Business School in 2012.

David was honored with one of ten Outstanding Atlanta awards in 2007. He is also the recipient of the 2011 Dr. Joseph Draper Service Award from the Atlanta Metro Chapter of the Morehouse College National Alumni Association. In the same year, David was selected by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as one of Atlanta’s rising community leaders with its annual “40 Under 40” award. In 2012, David was

named the Georgia Charter Leader of the Year by the Georgia Charter Schools Association. Most recently, David was named as one of the 100 Most Influential Georgians by Georgia Trend Magazine.

David completed the LEAD Atlanta program for emerging leaders in 2007, and he is a member of the 2013 Leadership Atlanta class. David was appointed in 2008 to the State Charter Advisory Committee for Georgia, and he is also a member of the Georgia Charter Schools Association Board of Directors and serves on the Teach For America Atlanta Alumni Board of Directors. He is passionate about improving the educational opportunities for students in Atlanta and looks forward to broadening the scope of KIPP’s impact in Atlanta by helping to open additional KIPP schools in the near future.