Nakia Towns
Dr. Nakia Towns is the Chief Operating Officer at Accelerate - The National Collaborative for Accelerated Learning, where she supports the program, operations, and research functions. With extensive experience as Deputy and Interim Superintendent in large school districts, including Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia and Hamilton County Schools in Tennessee, Dr. Towns has been instrumental in closing opportunity gaps and increasing postsecondary readiness for students. She has also served as Assistant Commissioner of Data and Research at the Tennessee Department of Education and Chief Accountability Officer in the Knox County Schools.
Assuming roles of increasing responsibility at IBM, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo Bank, Dr. Towns began her career in the fields of technology and finance. While in the private sector, she co-founded a nonprofit after-school tutoring and intervention program in rural south Georgia, continuing her lifelong commitment to public education. Her work as a volunteer teacher in the Saturday-school program inspired her to pursue the field of education as her full-time passion and profession.
Dr. Towns is respected nationally for her educational leadership. She was selected for the Future Chiefs program by Chiefs for Change, as well as the Broad Residency in Urban Education by the Broad Center. Towns serves as an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University, as well as an expert peer reviewer, keynote speaker, facilitator, and panelist for numerous conferences and initiatives to support the work of educators across the country.
At Duke University, Dr. Towns completed a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering and an M.B.A. from the Fuqua School of Business. She also earned an M.Ed. in educational leadership from The Broad Center for Education Management (now at the Yale University School of Management) and a doctorate of education in K-12 leadership and policy from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. She is a Georgia native, where she attended public schools and graduated from Clarke Central High School in Athens.