Meet Cindy, a fellow at Imaginable Futures. She supports the U.S. education team across its two-generation investment portfolio. A former second grade teacher, Cindy joined Imaginable Futures so that her former students and their families could access education systems that center around their needs and dreams.
Previously, Cindy supported strategic planning at a Washington, DC family foundation and worked on the Schools and Talent team at Education Forward DC, a grantmaking organization focused on improving education outcomes in DC. There, she evaluated grantmaking opportunities and supported organizations that train and develop educators or improve talent management practices. Cindy started her career in education and strategy consulting, where her work highlighted the inequities across public and private education systems.
I spend my days meeting and talking to people who truly believe they can change the world and have committed themselves to making other people’s lives better. What could be more energizing than that?
My greatest success and biggest failure came together. Being a classroom teacher was some of the most challenging work I’ve ever done – mentally, emotionally, physically. Although my first year of teaching was challenging, discovering Miss Minn, connecting with my students, and building a classroom culture where students truly felt part of a loving community were deeply rewarding.
Find mentors to learn from– those people you want to be like when you grow up.
I love being surrounded by passionate and thoughtful people who push me to think differently and are always finding ways to elevate the voices and perspectives of the families we hope to serve.
Laughing so hard with a loved one that you can’t breathe.
“When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.” – Toni Morrison
A world in which every person can define happiness and prosperity for themselves, and has the space, resources, and support to pursue their definition.