Amie
Sugarman
Chief of Staff
Organizational force. Cross-functional structure-builder. Wine and cheese lover.
Where It All Started
Amie has appreciated the importance of education and storytelling from a young age. She grew up reading The New York Times over breakfast every morning—dividing up the sections across her family—and discussing their perspectives on the news over dinner. Amie always loved school and planned ahead—she regularly turned in drafts of assignments to teachers for feedback weeks ahead of due dates. She wanted everyone to love school as much as she did. Amie was destined to plan for a group of education storytellers.
In the Early Days
Amie has spent her career transforming systems in the education sector. She discovered the world of education reform in her first job after college as a management consultant working on talent strategy projects for large urban school districts. Once she saw the tremendous need in urban school systems firsthand and realized the value that she could add with a consulting skillset, she fully transitioned into the education sector and has not looked back.
What She Brings to the Table
Amie thrives on building structure out of chaos to improve efficiency and effectiveness. She has a deep knowledge of the K-12 education sector from 15 years of experience working in different sides of education. She spent a number of years in the charter school sector, first developing a large-scale charter-district professional development partnership for hundreds of educators at Uncommon Schools in New York, then building Alliance College-Ready Public Schools’ first recruitment team to hire and prepare >300 teachers and school leaders annually. She has also spent time in the start-up education world, early in her career at the Achievement Network as it grew from 15 to 70 employees, and later as the Chief Operating Officer of Prepared Parents. Most recently, Amie led the academic team at and managed a region of schools across four states for an early childhood Montessori school system, Higher Ground Education.
What Gets Her Up in the Morning
Amie cares passionately about dramatically improving education systems nationally so that all children have the kinds of educational opportunities that she had. She also wants to get everyone organized and with an optimal prepared environment to set up them up for success, so that we can maximize our collective impact.
In Her Spare Time
Amie lives in Southern California with her husband and two young children. She loves going to beach, spending time outside running and hiking, wine tasting, visiting her family in New York, and exploring new restaurants. Once upon a time Amie used to love to travel, and she looks forward to the day when her children are old enough to enjoy it with her.
Amie has a B.A. summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in Economics, an M.B.A from Yale University, and a Masters of Education Leadership from The Broad Center.