Kareem is the Co-Founder & Executive Director of FULCRUM. He is an award-winning educator and community advocate with extensive experience leading schools and systems in district, juvenile justice, and managed-care settings. His advocacy is featured in the 2023 documentary The Right to Read.
Kareem’s commitment to literacy is deep-rooted. He credits the quality of his education to a program through A Better Chance, a nonprofit that provides high-performing students of color access to the best schools, helping them become the nation’s next leaders. This program was foundational to Kareem’s understanding that education is the greatest equalizer. Kareem became a first-generation college graduate after obtaining a bachelor's degree from Morehouse College and a master’s in clinical-community psychology from the University of South Carolina. At Morehouse, Kareem co-founded Students for the Children of Incarcerated Parents (SCIP), an endeavor that underlined illiteracy’s crushing impact on these families and their communication.
Armed with this knowledge, Kareem began his career in the classroom, rooting his approach in evidence-based methods exemplified by Marva Collins and the American Federation of Teachers—today, these strategies are referred to as the Science of Reading. Kareem taught grades spanning elementary to high school before becoming an administrator and eventually accepting the role of Executive Director—Western Region at New Leaders, an organization committed to developing technical, adaptive, and instructional leadership skills in educators serving high-needs schools.
