Teach For America announced Armen Hratchian as the new executive director of the organization’s Detroit region. In this role, Hratchian will be responsible for managing the daily operations of the region, building and enriching community and school partnerships, and cultivating private, public and foundation support. Teach For America has been partnering with Detroit district and charter schools since 2010 and has recruited over 600 leaders to teach in some of the city’s highest need classrooms. Today a diverse network of more than 800 corps member teachers and alumni leaders are working together to expand opportunity for Detroit’s children.

A Michigan native, Hratchian was raised by a family of educators, and brings more than ten years of experience in the nonprofit and private sectors to his role as executive director of Teach For America—Detroit. Armen began his career in New York as an administrator at New York University, and then as a ratings analyst in the U.S. Public Finance Division of Standard & Poor’s. In 2009, after witnessing the widespread impact that the Great Recession had on his home state, Armen returned home to contribute to Michigan’s comeback.

“I remember being struck by the differences in my dad’s classroom at Detroit Southeastern High and the classrooms that I was fortunate to grow up in just up the road,” said Hratchian. “My dad’s students had just as much potential as I did, but lacked access to opportunity simply because of the neighborhood they were growing up in, and the systemic discrimination along lines of race and class that continues to plague our schools. The reality that Detroit’s students continue to face incredible inequities inspires the critical and urgent work that I’m now fortunate to do in partnership with Teach For America.”

Hratchian previously served as an education policy consultant with Public Sector Consultants, and then joined Excellent Schools Detroit (ESD), a nonprofit founded by a coalition of Detroit’s education, philanthropic and civic organizations to improve educational outcomes for all of Detroit’s children. At ESD, Hratchian served as vice president for K-12 Education, facilitating citywide initiatives with district, charter and private school leaders focused on school quality, parent engagement, college access and more equitable school choice. He also worked closely with the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren, providing analytical and policy support to Coalition members. Most recently, Hratchian served as the chief operating officer at HighScope Educational Research Foundation, one of the nation’s leading early childhood organizations. Hratchian earned his bachelor’s degree from Saginaw Valley State University and earned his MPA from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. He is entering his final year of the Executive MBA program at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and serves as a member of the Ann Arbor YMCA board of directors.