Leadership Lesson Learned

As Executive Director, I set a five-year vision for our growth and impact in Indianapolis. From the priorities my team would focus on to the results we would drive toward, I was confident that with a bold vision, our team would achieve great things. Fast forward one year and I feel good about the work we’ve done to lay the foundation for our vision—we’ve made progress developing transformational teachers in Indianapolis classrooms; recruited Teach For America alumni for high-impact leadership roles as principals, policy-makers, and advocates; and diversified our funding base.

Vision was critical to getting here, but I learned that it was people that mattered most.  I look back on this past year and see very clearly that the people on my team are truly exceptional—they have a track record of achieving ambitious goals, operate with a sense of possibility and persevere in the face of great challenges.  They work strategically, think constantly about how to improve their practice, and assume personal responsibility for results. It’s the strength of the people on my team that has enabled our success.

I have since gone to great lengths to hire more exceptional people and to ensure that the people I bring on board to Teach For America – Indianapolis are best suited for their roles. As a result, I trust them to set their own vision for their work and to make the decisions necessary that will produce results.

My second reflection on this past year is that it’s talented individuals working together as a collective and as a team that has put us on the path to making our vision a reality. I’ve learned that it is my job as a leader to help build a strong organizational culture.  Ultimately, I must distribute this leadership so that the team takes ownership for creating a high-performance culture.  We value and care about each other; inspire each other to work hard; challenge and push each other to be at our best; and have fun along the way.

This leadership lesson mirrors what we’re trying to do more broadly at Teach For America—recruit talented individuals and build a strong culture focused on outcomes to ensure an excellent education for all children in Indianapolis.

We’re one year into our five-year plan and I’m looking forward to the rest of the journey. I’m eager to push myself as leader so that Teach For America – Indianapolis maximizes its impact in the city. And I’m excited to continue this work alongside my team as we work together to move the needle in our mission to expand educational opportunity.

Founded in 2008, Teach For America – Indianapolis has 110 corps members reaching nearly 7,000 students in Indianapolis public schools. Additionally, nearly 200 alumni are working in education and in other fields, where they continue to advocate for students and families in low-income communities in order to close the achievement gap in the city.  During his time as executive director, O’Donnell and his team have recruited six Teach For America alumni to work as school leaders in Indianapolis; helped many alumni take on leadership roles in public schools and at organizations like the Indiana Department of Education, The Mind Trust, and Stand for Children; tripled the diversity of the incoming teacher corps; and increased both individual and corporate donations by more than 300%. In order to meet the demand for great talent in Indianapolis public schools, O’Donnell plans to double the size of Teach For America’s teacher corps next year, growing from 50 to 100 incoming corps members, and recruit eight alumni to work as school leaders in the city. O’Donnell first joined Teach For America’s staff in 2005 as a recruitment director, managing Teach For America’s Boston recruitment team. In 2007, he helped train incoming corps members as a school director at the Los Angeles summer training institute. O’Donnell was a 2003 Teach For America corps member and taught 7th and 8th grade English and ESL in Los Angeles.  O’Donnell has a bachelor’s degree from Boston College, a Master in Secondary Education from Loyola Marymount University, and an MBA and a Master in Public Policy from Georgetown University.