Norman Atkins

Relay Graduate School of Education, Co-Founder and President; Uncommon Schools, Founder and Board Chair

Norman Atkins is the Co-Founder and President of Relay GSE, a path-breaking institution of higher education that trains more than 3,500 public school teachers and principals nationwide. Atkins is also the Founder, Board Chair, and former CEO of Uncommon Schools, one of the nation’s highest-performing nonprofit charter management organizations with 50 schools serving 18,000 students. In 1997, Atkins co-founded and co-led North Star Academy of Newark, one of New Jersey’s first and most celebrated charter schools. From 1989 to 1994, he was the Co-Executive Director of the Robin Hood Foundation in New York City. In recent years, Atkins has helped found several other education organizations, including Zearn, which produces comprehensive digital math lessons serving close to two million K-5 students. Atkins is a board member of The One World Network of Schools and served on the board of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls. He is a Pahara-Aspen Education Fellow, an Ashoka Fellow, and a Wexner Heritage Alum. He has been recognized as a technology innovator by Forbes and has been inducted into the Charter School Hall of Fame. Atkins began his career as a journalist, writing about education, poverty, politics, culture, and social issues for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe. He earned an A.B. in History from Brown University and an M.A. in Educational Administration from Columbia University Teachers College. Atkins and his wife, Angie, live in New York City and are the parents of three adult children.