Nick Gesualdi
Director of Strategic School Support
Ft. Worth, TX
Dr. Nick Gesualdi is a committed advocate for improving and promoting high-quality schooling opportunities for all children. As an educator, Dr. Gesualdi has experience teaching or leading at all grade levels from Kindergarten through Masters.
Dr. Gesualdi started his career as a Teach for America corps member in Houston, where he taught AP US History, AP US Government and US History at KIPP Houston High School. After completing his tenure with TFA, Dr. Gesualdi was recruited to Boston to be part of the team that successfully executed a turnaround strategy at Orchard Gardens K-8 Pilot School, a chronically underperforming Boston Public School in Roxbury, MA. Following his tenure at Orchard Gardens, he spent time as a turnaround school consultant working with an underperforming school in Evansville, IN and subsequently as the Director of Operations at one of Boston’s highest performing public schools, the Eliot K-8 Innovation School. Before moving to the Metroplex, Dr. Gesualdi served as the proud principal of Saltonstall K-8 Public School in Salem, MA. Before joining Fort Worth ISD, Dr. Gesualdi has held an appointment as Lecturer on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, where he served as a Lead Clinical Faculty member at Urban Teachers’ DFW site; he continues to serve on the Johns Hopkins faculty as an adjunct instructor.
Dr. Gesualdi earned a Doctorate in Education from Vanderbilt University's Peabody College of Education & Human Development, a Masters of Public Health from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and he completed his undergraduate work at the College of William and Mary. He lives with his wife, Courtney (herself a former first grade teacher and current tax attorney), and their two (soon to be 3!) children: Madison (4) and Tyler (1).
“Overall, the notion of open systems appeals to me greatly. Principle 5 probably resonates the most with me. I think that education must be a democratic institution that allows for all participants to deeply engage and to be offered the requisite tools to achieve their definition of success. As a system of education, I would argue that we really don't have a unified definition of what the purpose of education really is (knowledge? job preparation? economic? literate citizenry?), so ensuring that there is a small d democratic orientation to the enterprise is important. As a previous school leader, I also am intrigued about pursuing more thought around the notion of leadership within educational organizations.”