Nonprofit aims to diversify education leadership in Las Vegas

Surge Institute is seeking applications until March 1 from emerging education leaders who are Black, Latinx or Native American.

The nonprofit points to a lack of educator diversity in the Clark County School District as a reason for expanding to Las Vegas. About 63 percent of licensed employees are white, but only around 21 percent of students are.

“For us, that idea of representation is important,” Andrea Black Evans, executive director of Surge Academy, said Thursday.

Evans said the organization doesn’t want to send the message that white educators can’t support Black and brown students, but “for us, it’s about empowering those Black and brown voices.”

She said she knows the school district has been doing work around the topic, but “it’s still not showing relative to the student body.”

The school district didn’t respond to a request for comment by deadline Friday.

The six-month Surge Academy fellowship will begin in late April or early May. The organization is looking for 15 to 20 local participants.

Those who work in youth-serving positions — including at schools and nonprofit organizations — can apply. Applicants must have at least a bachelor’s degree and a minimum of six years of work experience.

Through the fellowship, participants will receive executive skill-building learning opportunities and executive coaching, and will learn from leaders of color from within the region and nationwide, Evans said.

Sponsoring organizations pay tuition of $2,500 per fellow, but scholarships are available for those who have financial need.

Opportunity 180 partnered with Surge Institute to support bringing the fellowship program to Las Vegas.

“Southern Nevada’s population — including its students — reflects a rich diversity of backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives,” Opportunity 180 CEO Jana Wilcox Lavin said in a Friday statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “That diversity, however, has not been historically represented in school leadership.”

“The community needs a pool of well-developed education leaders of color with high expectations for every kid to ensure the future of school leadership mirrors the community and its needs,” she said.

It’s the second cohort in Las Vegas, and last year’s group included 11 people. The cohort will have formal meetings once a month — three in person and three virtually.

Evans, a Surge alumna who completed a fellowship in 2017 in Chicago, was a school principal for about a decade for Chicago Public Schools.

She said it shifted her entire approach to leadership, and her school went from being underperforming to one of the top performing in the city.

“I owe a lot of my understanding and leverage of leadership to my Surge experience,” Evans said.

She said it empowered her to lead from love and self-authenticity, not from a prescribed way.

Evans said she learned that she couldn’t discount her own understanding of leadership and culture, and her own authentic experience as a Black woman.

For more information about the fellowship or to apply, visit surgeinstitute.org.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com. Follow @julieswootton on X.