DAVID HARDY JR.
Partner/Founder/Executive Coach, NFBLME
Managing Partner, Ed Elements
David Hardy Jr. is currently the Managing Partner at Ed Elements, an equity focused consulting firm based in California. Prior to his role at Ed Elements, he was the Chief Executive Officer for Lorain City School District in Lorain, OH. David Hardy Jr has led the state turnaround efforts of the second lowest-performing district in Ohio since 2017. In his capacity as Chief Executive Officer for Lorain City Schools, he assumed the combined responsibilities of the Superintendent and the school board.
Under his leadership, Lorain City Schools received its highest performance marks in nearly a quarter-century, moving the district from an F grade to a B grade in the Achievement Gap Closing metric, and is touted as being in the top ten percent of the fastest improving school districts of the state of Ohio’s 646 school districts by State Superintendent DeMaria.
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Previously, David was the Deputy Superintendent of Academics for St. Louis Public Schools. He was charged with the mission-critical task of setting and meeting academic standards, which resulted in St. Louis Public Schools receiving full accreditation for the first time since 2000.
Prior to his role as Deputy Superintendent of Academics, he spent a year as a School Systems Leadership Fellow in the School District of Philadelphia as the Chief Academic Support Officer. David also served as the Executive Director
of Regional Achievement in Camden/Burlington, New Jersey after being the founding principal of Achievement First Middle School in Brooklyn, New York. He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics as a scholar-athlete from Colgate University. He has also earned his master’s degree in Urban Education from Teachers’ College, Columbia University and will complete his doctorate from Columbia University in 2020.