Kevin Huffman

Kevin Huffman is the founding CEO of Accelerate, a national initiative that seeks to embed high-impact tutoring and personalized learning in public schools. Prior to helping launch Accelerate, Kevin was a partner with City Fund. Kevin is the former Tennessee commissioner of education, where he managed the state department of education in its effort to advance the academic progress of nearly one million students. During his tenure, Tennessee had the nation's largest gains on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Kevin began his career as a first- and second-grade bilingual teacher in the Houston Independent School District. After attending law school, Kevin represented school districts, state departments of education and universities at the Washington D.C. law firm of Hogan & Hartson. He then joined the senior management of Teach For America in 2000, serving as the general counsel, the senior vice president of growth strategy, and the executive vice president of public affairs. Kevin has written opinion columns for a range of publications including as a regular contributor to the Washington Post. He won the Post’s national writing competition to find “America’s Next Great Pundit” in 2009. In 2014, Kevin was awarded the Peter Jennings Award, Teach For America's highest alumni honor. Kevin graduated from Swarthmore College with a B.A. in English Literature, and from the NYU School of Law.