Q&A with Dr. Terrance Mitchell Get to Know a BES Coach

At BES, coaches are dedicated to supporting leaders throughout their journey in the BES Fellowship. Across their training year(s) and post-authorization years through School Launch Support, our coaches work closely with Fellows and guide them in areas including school design, governance, and finance and operations.

Dr. Terrance Mitchell, BES’s Director of Leadership Development & School Design, is one of those coaches who focuses on helping founders move from vision to execution while developing the leadership capacity needed to sustain impact.

His career in education has spanned classrooms, schools, districts, higher education, and leadership development organizations. He began as an elementary school teacher with Atlanta Public Schools before supporting charter schools in New Orleans and later serving as Head of School for an all-boys public school in Cleveland, Ohio. His leadership journey has also included working alongside the Deputy Commissioner of Education in Rhode Island to support leadership development across Providence schools and partnering with the Superintendent of Cambridge Public Schools to lead student success planning initiatives.

Academically, he is a proud graduate of Morehouse College and earned a master’s degree in Organizational Leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University. He also completed his doctorate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

At BES, he supports school founders across multiple stages of their leadership journey. For Fellows developing their initial charter applications, he provides coaching on both school design and leadership development, helping them transform bold ideas into viable, sustainable school models. For leaders entering Year 0 after approval, he supports implementation efforts by helping them operationalize their vision and bring their key design elements to life. He also partners with school leaders during their first years of operation, helping them strengthen enrollment strategies, expand community partnerships, navigate authorizer expectations, and build the organizational structures necessary for long-term success

Q: What is your why for this work at BES?

Terrance: I believe deeply that student success is built through an ecosystem of people, systems, partnerships, and shared accountability. To fulfill the promises we make to children and families, we must invest in the aspects of schools that students may never directly see but benefit from every day: strong leadership, effective governance, community partnerships, organizational health, and sustainable systems.

My “why” is rooted in helping founders build schools that not only open successfully but endure. When leaders have strong infrastructure and support, schools are better positioned to create lasting opportunities for students, families, and communities.

Q: How would you describe your coaching style?

Terrance: My coaching style is collaborative, strengths-based, and leader-centered. I approach coaching as a partnership that honors the expertise, lived experiences, and vision that founders bring to the work. My coaching does not come from a place of prescription. I work alongside leaders from an asset based perspective to uncover new possibilities. My goal is to support rigorous growth while always preserving the dignity, authenticity, and unique leadership identity of each founder.

Q: What kind of challenges do you most enjoy working through with school founders / leaders?

Terrance: I enjoy helping leaders uncover the confidence and clarity needed to lead transformational work. Founders often enter the journey carrying both enormous vision and significant challenges, and I find fulfillment in helping them realize that many of the technical obstacles they face have solutions that can be learned, adapted, and implemented. Which requires helping them think through complex challenges that require new possibilities, shifts in mindsets, and solutions that haven’t been thought of yet. This is where the enjoyable parts of my work reside. 

Most of all, I enjoy helping leaders grow into the fullest expression of themselves. Sometimes that requires learning new skills. Other times it requires unlearning habits or assumptions that no longer serve their vision. Supporting leaders through that transformation is one of the most meaningful aspects of the work.

Q; What do you wish more school founders knew before starting their journey to build, design, and lead a school?

Terrance: Schools do not succeed in isolation. Lasting impact happens when visionary leaders, strong systems, meaningful partnerships, and empowered communities with a meaningful voice in shaping the school come together around a shared commitment to student thriving.

I wish founders fully understood both the significance of this work and the community that exists around them. Building a school can feel isolating, particularly when so many decisions and responsibilities rest on your shoulders. Yet no founder succeeds alone. I want leaders to know they are part of a broader ecosystem of educators, families, community partners, the governing board they are accountable to, and fellow founders who are all working toward the same goal: creating opportunities for students to thrive. The community helps shape its vision, holds it accountable, and also shares in its success. While the work is undeniably challenging, there is also tremendous support, wisdom, and fellowship available throughout the journey.

Q: What’s one resource or piece of advice you have for leaders who are trying to strengthen their team or skills?

Terrance: One of the most powerful investments a founder can make is developing the ability to assess and strengthen organizational health before focusing exclusively on execution. Great schools are not built solely through strong plans; they are built through strong cultures, aligned teams, and leadership practices that support sustainable change.

As a leadership coach and school design partner, I help founders move beyond simply implementing key design elements to understanding the conditions that make successful implementation possible. This includes examining organizational culture, team readiness, talent selection and socialization, organizational assets, and what researchers often refer to as an organization’s “immunity to change.”

When founders intentionally focus on how people experience leadership, how teams are developed, and how culture is reinforced, they create stronger foundations for execution. The result is greater organizational resilience, stronger returns on talent investments, and a school community better positioned to deliver on its promises to students and families.