Over the course of two years, Booker, a former superintendent and current CEO of the Spartanburg Academic Movement, will engage with the Harvard community and explore how we can build the leadership capacity of superintendents to address pressing issues of public education and civic life in partnership with community members.
About Russell Booker
Booker is CEO of the Spartanburg Academic Movement in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he champions education as a pathway to leadership, service, and opportunity for every child. He previously served as superintendent of Spartanburg County School District Seven and York School District One, leading major district transformation efforts including structural reform, digital immersion, and a comprehensive capital plan.
A widely recognized education leader, Booker has held numerous state and national leadership roles and has been honored with distinctions including South Carolina Superintendent of the Year and the Order of the Palmetto, the state’s highest civilian honor. He is the former chair of the StriveTogether Board of Directors, a current board member of Purpose Built Communities, and has served on South Carolina’s Education Oversight Committee. He holds a B.S. degree from Wingate University and a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina, and has been awarded two honorary doctorates.
Booker previously served as a 2023–2025 By All Means Senior Fellow with EdRedesign, engaging students, faculty, staff, and fellows across the University.
“Dr. Russell Booker has demonstrated extraordinary local and national-level leadership as both a superintendent, now as CEO of Spartanburg Academic Movement, and board member of leading national organizations. He exemplifies what cross-sector leadership can achieve by connecting K–12 education with cradle-to-career place-based solutions,” says Rob Watson, executive director of EdRedesign and Lecturer on Education at HGSE. “Thanks in large part to his leadership, Spartanburg has made significant progress for children and families, attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in public and private resources to advance economic mobility — from expanding housing, to building new community centers and preschools, to more than doubling third-grade reading proficiency in high-poverty schools. His work offers an important model for communities across the country and our Harvard University community.”
A fellowship to advance civic leadership and learning
In his role as a Joint Senior Fellow, Booker will undertake a project at the intersection of the superintendency and place-based, cross-sector collaboration, examining how system leaders can more effectively engage community partners to improve outcomes for children and families from cradle to career. Developed in partnership with EdRedesign and ISCL, this project will inform practice, policy, and public understanding.
Booker will also serve as a strategic adviser to both EdRedesign and ISCL, offering insight and guidance to support their shared efforts to strengthen civic leadership in education.
“The role of superintendents has fundamentally changed in the past few decades,” notes ISCL Lead Jennifer Cheatham, senior lecturer and faculty chair of Field Engagement at HGSE. “They now play a leadership role in stewarding their communities through transformative change by cultivating the public will to engage, adapt, and co-create the future of learning. This takes the kind of leadership skills Russell has modeled, skills we are eager to teach and share with more superintendents across the country.”
“Public leaders, especially superintendents, have a critical role to play in building and executing on a vision for a better future for children and families — in and outside of school,” added Paul Reville, EdRedesign founder and faculty director, Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration at HGSE. “This joint appointment showcases just how powerful a superintendent can be in ensuring all children can thrive when they share power and embrace approaches that enroll key community stakeholders.”
“My most impactful experience as a superintendent came about through my partnership with the Spartanburg Academic Movement, the organization I now lead,” Booker noted. “It was during this time that our community aligned around a shared agenda for student success. Together, we began to build an ecosystem where education was a shared responsibility and alignment was key to moving the needle, strengthening the social fabric along the way. This is the path forward, and I look forward to supporting other superintendents in building this kind of civic infrastructure, where improving outcomes for children and strengthening the connections go hand in hand.”
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