Charles E. Wright, Jr.
Charles Wright, Jr. is the Founder and Managing Director of Wright Associates, an independent consulting practice that provides process improvement, advisory, outreach, planning, and project management services to school districts and non-profit organizations. Through Wright Associates, Charles is in the early stages of launching the K-12 System Transformation Accelerator, a new offering that strengthens the capacity of leaders and stakeholders to transform the systems supporting public K-12 students.
Charles is sought for his deep strategy, systems improvement, and transformation experience; and is valued for having a calm, steady presence with a relentless focus on results. He has 25 years of interdisciplinary experience helping leaders of complex multi-site organizations achieve transformational results that have a social impact.
This commitment to transformation is also reflected in his writing. Charles is the author of two impactful books:
- The Education Imperative (for Leaders Working in and with Central Office): A Tool for Transforming your District Community into a Thriving Ecosystem, and
- The Education Imperative (for Parents, Educators, and Community Members): Ensuring Your Child Thrives in School and Life.
These books paint a picture of what is possible for students, staff, and families when a community comes together to redesign their school systems to ensure they are meeting the needs of all students. Charles was inspired to write these books by the many personal and professional experiences he’s had over the years with fellow parents and professionals working desperately to meet the needs of children in their lives. He has noted some growing skepticism about the notion that it is even possible to transform public K-12 school systems.
His optimism for the future is based on his experience in several significant roles. Charles served as Vice President for Strategy, Finance & Operations for the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In this role, Charles worked closely with the new CEO and leadership team to shift the organization to meet new strategic priorities. He oversaw the design and implementation of technology initiatives aimed at increasing budget managers’ access to their financial data and led an effort to increase clarity of the organization’s financial reports to the Board. He was instrumental in strengthening strategy development, project management, and business development processes. Charles enjoyed leading a team responsible for planning and executing a national hybrid convening with over 1,800 attendees.
A highlight for Charles was his time as Deputy Superintendent of Seattle Public Schools. He provided administrative leadership for daily responsibilities across the school district and oversaw the implementation of the district’s strategic plan, working collaboratively with individuals through the system and community to solve challenges and achieve strategic goals. He led and co-led several initiatives: the implementation of a new annual budget planning process; the oversight of a customer service initiative that used school leader feedback to drive continuous improvement within 33 central office departments; an initiative to improve start of school processes including enrollment planning; and a levy campaign that doubled the amount of funding raised to support key technology priorities.
Charles’ diverse background also called him to serve as Program Officer for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Chief Strategy Officer for the Denver Public Schools, and Assistant Superintendent for Accountability for the Duval County Public Schools.
Charles holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Arts in Elementary Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Finance from Morehouse College.
At home, Charles and his wife Stephanie are adjusting to an empty nest with their daughter moving away to begin college this year. Charles has more time to enjoy cycling, swimming, and running, and creating the elaborate scavenger hunts he loves to design.
Rachelle Hunt
Rachelle Hunt has focused her career on helping bring about change for the better by honoring people as the greatest resource in our processes.
Rachelle is sought not just for her expertise in non-profit improvement strategy, but for her flexible style, authenticity, and action-orientation. She brings this balance of head, heart, and hands to organizations seeking to improve their systems. In early 2024, Rachelle learned about the System Transformation Accelerator and was drawn to the mission. She has been both excited and humbled to work with Wright Associates to join public school systems on their journeys.
Leading up to her current endeavors were twenty two years in non-profit healthcare at Kaiser Permanente of Washington. Her tenure at Kaiser gave her deep experience in processes across the enterprise – from sales, to membership, to enrollment, to care delivery, to claims, to call centers, to IT, to compliance and more. She worked at every level of the organization from the front line to senior leadership.
Rachelle is most proud of her 7 years as Director of the Improvement Promotion Office at Kaiser. She led the development and execution of improvement strategies across divisions, collaborating with leaders at all levels to address business challenges and meet strategic goals. She led her own team’s transformation, achieving a sixfold increase in output while simultaneously improving quality, client satisfaction, and work-life balance. Rachelle was instrumental in launching COVID testing and vaccination services, ensuring safety and efficiency, and co-developed a Lean production line to produce pandemic masks when they were unavailable in the supply chain. Rachelle was long-standing chair of the Cross-Functional Resource Committee focused on unfolding strategic work and embedding quality from project start. She has used her skill and humor to organize, lead and facilitate executive retreats, problem solving sessions, classes, improvement workshops and more.
Additionally, Rachelle served as Director of Portfolio Management, partnering with strategic program sponsors to translate organizational strategy into actionable plans. She oversaw processes that ensured projects delivered the results patients, members, and staff deserve. As Director of Enterprise Project Management, Rachelle managed the Project Management Office, guiding project and program managers in the execution of best practices and ensuring quality.
Throughout these roles and others, Rachelle has valued fostering partnerships with external organizations, along with organizing training programs to advance improvement principles both internally and externally. This led her to very rewarding work with food banks, manufacturing, state and county government, construction, and even a zoo.
Rachelle continues to study Systems Thinking and Confirmation Bias as a means to bring her transformation practice to the next level. When she’s not geeking out on people and process, Rachelle can be found trying to get her two kids to school in the morning, or gardening until the sun sets.
Rachelle holds a Bachelor of the Arts with a dual concentration in Literature and Visual Arts from Sarah Lawrence College. Most recently, Rachelle became a Certified Master Gardener of King County, Washington.