Pahara Institute

Background

Kim Smith founded Pahara Institute in 2007. She had previously worked on the founding team of Teach For America and co-founded the NewSchools Venture Fund. Pahara began as the Aspen-NewSchools Fellowship in partnership with the Aspen Institute. This initial program targeted senior education leaders for seminars on leadership and values in public education. By 2012, it had evolved into a standalone entity, emphasizing entrepreneurial approaches to educational change. ¹

Fellowship

The Pahara Fellowship is a one-year program launched in its current form after consolidating earlier initiatives like the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellowship, Pahara-NextGen Fellowship, and Teacher Leader Fellows. Participants engage in nine months of sessions to reflect on personal identity, racial dynamics, and leadership sustainability. ²

Recent cohorts have included superintendents from Aspire Public Schools, executives from OneGoal, and policy directors from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Post-fellowship, alumni can access ongoing network events, such as the Reimagining Race, Power, and Affinity program, which explores U.S. racial history with a focus on Native American and Black experiences. ^{1  3}

Financials

In 2023, the Pahara Institute reported total revenue of $7,692,422. Contributions formed 98.5 percent of total revenue at $7,575,442. Total expenses were $6,733,878, resulting in net income of $958,544. Other salaries and wages accounted for 41.9 percent of total expenses at $2,824,084. Executive compensation totaled $482,965, or 7.2 percent. Total assets stood at $9,233,689, with total liabilities of $320,695 and net assets of $8,912,994. ⁴

In 2023, the Walton Family Foundation, the main charity of the Walton family, the heirs of Sam Walton’s Walmart fortune, gave a $400,000 grant to the Pahara Institute to “diversify the educator workforce by supporting diverse sector leaders in the Pahara Fellowship, designing and launching an organizational impact pilot, and facilitating an evaluation collaborative.” ⁵

In 2023, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation (BRAF) gave a $223,000 grant to the Pahara Institute. ⁶ The Baton Rouge Area Foundation is left-of-center grantmaking foundation focused on education and “clean energy communities” across Louisiana. ⁷

People

As of September 2015, Kriste Dragon is president of The Pahara Institute at Lone Rock. She previously co-founded and led Citizens of the World, a network of free schools promoting diversity nationwide. With a background as a middle school teacher and UCLA instructor, she has also held leadership roles including vice president of regional operations at Teach For America, and board positions at EdNavigator, the National Charter Collaborative, Promise54, and the National Association for Charter School Authorizers. ⁸

Kim Smith founded Pahara after roles in education startups and Teach For America. ^{1  9}

The board includes Reed Hastings, co-founder and executive chairman of Netflix, who joined to support education-focused initiatives. ¹⁰

Notable fellows include Rick Cruz, a former Teach For America executive and president of Arabella Advisors, a consulting firm managing left-leaning nonprofits like the Sixteen Thirty Fund. Cruz also chaired the DC Public Charter School Board. ¹¹

Desmond K. Blackburn, president and CEO of Facing History and Ourselves, a group that provides history-based curricula promoting left-wing narratives, participated as a fellow. ¹²