Johnathan Williams
Member

         Johnathan Williams is Founder and Co-Director of The Accelerated School, a model public/private partnership charter school organization located in South Central Los Angeles, where he has dramatically begun to change the academic achievement of the students, and the surrounding community. The school was named TIME Magazine's “Elementary School of Year” in 2001 for “having found the most promising approaches to the most pressing challenges in education.” The Accelerated School serves 1050 primarily Latino and African American students, pre-Kindergarten through high school, and has a waiting list of over 5,000 children.

         In developing effective-management and oversight of The Accelerated School Family of Schools*, Johnathan assembled a strong Board of Trustees and Advisory Board from corporate, education and non-profit sectors. And with his leadership, The Accelerated School, in partnership with Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and California State University Los Angeles (CSLA), has secured more than $50 million from public and private sources in order to construct a comprehensive pre-K-12th grade school complex and community service facility, which includes a gym and health clinic.

         Johnathan's leadership and commitment to improving public education have earned him election to the boards of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS), the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) and the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO). In February 2004, he was appointed to the California State Board of Education.

         Johnathan earned his Bachelor's degree from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He and his daughter live in Los Angeles.


*The Accelerated Schools Family of Schools includes:

• The Accelerated School (Kindergarten through 8th grades)
• Accelerated Charter Elementary School (Kindergarten-8th)
• Wallis Annenberg High School (9th -12th)