Doctoral Student Selected for Notre Dame’s Reform Leaders Summit

Troy K. Weaver, a doctoral student in educational administration and supervision at the NC State College of Education, has been selected as a fellow in the University of Notre Dame’s 2017-18 Reform Leaders Summit.

A prestigious education policy leadership formation program, the summit selects between 30 to 35 leaders each year to participate in three two-day seminars over 11 months. These seminars are led by moderators that include policy makers, school leaders, researchers, and education entrepreneurs and funders.

A native of Long Island, New York, Weaver attended Duke University for his undergraduate degree. He planned to enroll in medical school. But after volunteering as a tutor and then substitute teaching in the Durham Public Schools, “I was bitten by the teaching bug,” he said.

He completed a Master of Arts in Teaching at UNC-Chapel Hill as a Lyndhurst Fellow and went on to teach in public schools, in a juvenile detention center, and today is a biology instructor at Cary Academy. He has also served as the inaugural headmaster for two start-up schools in Durham for under-served populations.

He was awarded the Cary Chamber of Commerce’s 2014 Michael G. Curran Leadership in Teaching Award and was named Durham Public School’s Teacher of the Year in 1994.

He chose to pursue a Doctor of Education degree in NC State’s Department of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development because “it will give me a greater practitioner flexibility within the many field options of education,” he said.

As a Reform Leaders Summit fellow, Weaver will attend three seminars held in June 2017, January 2018 and May 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana; Tampa, Florida; and Indianapolis, Indiana. The fellowship covers travel, lodging and meals.

Now in its eighth year, the summit’s purpose is to form a new generation of leaders to advance and implement public policy that helps expand the accessibility of high-performing faith-based schools to underrepresented students.