About Forward Arkansas
Forward Arkansas (‘Forward’) is committed to reimagining learning to improve all students’ outcomes. By supporting great teachers and leaders in developing and scaling innovative practices, Forward aims to help all kids achieve success in the classroom, career, and life.
As a statewide education nonprofit, Forward works to accelerate the transformation of Arkansas’s PreK–12 system, helping partners bridge the gap between policy and implementation to ensure excellent outcomes for every student. Founded in 2014 as a public-private partnership between the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and the Arkansas State Board of Education, Forward recognizes that lasting educational change must be built alongside, not just for, the educators, families, and communities across the state.
Over the past several years, Forward Arkansas has grown its credibility, sharpened its strategic focus, and established itself as a trusted, nonpartisan partner to the Arkansas Department of Education, state leaders, school districts, educator preparation programs, and philanthropy. Forward Arkansas operates as a nimble, high-impact intermediary with a focused core team augmented by project leads, fellows, coaches, and national consulting partners, successfully harnessing grassroots innovation to deliver statewide systems change.
Impact and Momentum
Through its work, Forward Arkansas has demonstrated the ability to drive impact at scale:
- Educator Workforce: Through the Educator Preparation Design Collaborative and Teach Arkansas, Forward engaged all 19 university-based educator preparation programs, catalyzing deep transformation at 8 programs. Its work informed Arkansas’s statewide year-long teacher residency policy, effective 2027. Teach Arkansas reached nearly 90,000 website visitors and connected over 3,000 individuals with career coaches.
- Community Voice and Policy: The 2023 State of Education study reached 3,500 Arkansans across every region of the state, directly informing key components of the LEARNS Act.
- Innovation Programs & Initiatives, including:
- The LeARner Collective, launched in 2024, which supports educator-led innovation in 16 schools across 8 districts, reaching 7,285 students with 538 teachers engaged and over 300 hours of personalized coaching delivered. With Forward’s support, transformation pathway participants continue to elevate best practices, including through interactive site visits, for other schools and districts to adapt to their local contexts.
- Forward is supporting state-based cohorts of Arkansas districts in implementing an innovative district-provider model—outcomes based contracting—that connects payments directly to student growth metrics, positioning Arkansas as a national model.
- Early Childhood: Forward recently secured $3.4 million to launch the Center for Early Learning Solutions, establishing a new programmatic pillar focused on strengthening birth-to-five systems and expanding families’ access to affordable, high-quality child care and education.
Read more about Forward’s recent news and progress HERE.
How Forward Works: Strategic Pillars
The result of recent efforts to refine and clarify its approach has resulted in focusing Forward’s work around three strategic pillars:
- Invest in Local Leadership: Identifying, supporting, and empowering educators, schools, and communities to design and test bold solutions.
- Innovative Approaches in Schools, Districts, and Communities: Partnering with schools, districts, and early childhood providers to design and implement locally-led solutions aligned to community needs.
- Measure, Elevate, and Scale Effective Solutions: Evaluating impact, gathering insights, and elevating local successes as proof points for systems-level change, connecting those examples to research and data to inform statewide policy.
Strategic Priorities and Goals through 2028
Forward’s strategy is anchored in four core priorities that reflect both the urgent challenges Arkansas must confront and the opportunities for meaningful, scalable change:
- Great Teachers and Leaders
- Drive statewide educator recruitment, preparation, development, & retention (including Teach Arkansas expansion)
- Strengthen pipelines to reflect Arkansas's cultural, geographic & economic diversity
- Support early childhood professionals through targeted partnerships and pilot programs
- Early Learning Systems that Work for Families
- Incubate a new statewide shared-services organization for early childhood providers
- Create innovative birth-to-five systems as models for broader adoption
- Expand early learning access in rural & under-resourced regions
- Rigorous, Whole-Child, Career-Connected Learning
- Expand locally responsive school models via the LeARner Collective
- Engage a range of districts across the state.
- Transparent, Student-Centered Systems & Funding
- Lead redesign of the state's education funding model
- Scale outcomes-based funding strategies (e.g., Outcomes Based Contracting)
- Elevate local data & insights to inform policy and improve implementation
Growth and Financial Sustainability
Forward’s growth strategy is rooted in long-term sustainability. Support from anchor partners, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation and Walton Family Foundation, over the next three years will be essential in providing the runway to build Forward’s team, strengthen infrastructure, expand impact, and develop additional revenue streams. This critical investment enables Forward to pursue a bold strategy while building toward a more diversified and durable financial model.
In the years ahead, Forward will:
- Secure new philanthropic partnerships by deepening relationships with regional foundations aligned to Forward’s work in local communities and by cultivating new national funders committed to education innovation, effective implementation, and systems change.
- Grow earned revenue streams through competitive state and federal funding opportunities that align with Forward’s work in implementation support, system design, and outcomes-driven reform.
- Expand district co-investment and cost-sharing by embedding sustainability into local partnerships—using models like Outcomes-Based Contracting and shared funding for innovation and technical assistance.
The Next Chapter
Forward Arkansas enters its next chapter with strong momentum, a solid financial foundation, and a highly engaged Board of Directors. The organization is navigating an important leadership transition while the broader education policy landscape continues to evolve rapidly—and the opportunity ahead is significant. The next chapter is a chance to accelerate impact, expand reach, and cement Forward Arkansas’s role as an indispensable catalyst for educational excellence across the state.
The Opportunity
Forward Arkansas is seeking a visionary, bold, and action-oriented Chief Executive Officer to lead the organization into its next phase of growth and impact.
This is a rare opportunity to help influence the future of education in Arkansas—and to demonstrate what is possible when locally driven innovation is successfully translated into systems-level change. The next CEO will inherit a respected platform, strong partnerships, and a clear strategic direction, with the opportunity to further define the organization’s role, expand its influence, and ensure long-term sustainability.
Reporting to the Board of Directors, the CEO will be responsible for the overall strategic, programmatic, financial, and cultural leadership of Forward Arkansas. Leading a lean but high-performing team, the CEO will have the opportunity to make key early hires and investments that strengthen organizational capacity and position Forward for its next stage of impact.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Vision and Leadership
- Develop and lead implementation of a comprehensive strategic plan that builds on Forward’s momentum, sharpens programmatic focus, and positions the organization for long-term impact and sustainability.
- Serve as the primary thought leader and public face of Forward Arkansas, representing the organization with state leaders, educators, funders, and community partners across the state.
- Provide visionary leadership that inspires the board, staff, and stakeholders around a clear, ambitious, and achievable direction for the organization.
External Relationships and Advocacy
- Build and steward deep, trust-based relationships across Forward’s diverse stakeholder ecosystem: the Arkansas Department of Education, the Governor’s office, state legislators, school superintendents, educator preparation programs, early childhood providers, university leaders, business partners, community organizations, and beyond.
- Navigate Arkansas’s complex and politically sensitive education landscape with skill, maintaining Forward’s reputation as a credible, bipartisan, student-centered intermediary.
- Serve as a convener and coalition-builder, bringing the right stakeholders together around shared priorities and building statewide alignment that accelerates impact.
- Advocate for evidence-based education policy at the state and, where appropriate, national level.
Fundraising and Financial Sustainability
- Lead Forward’s fundraising strategy, serving as the organization’s primary development officer and cultivating relationships with existing and prospective funders.
- Diversify the funding base beyond the current anchor funders, attracting regional and national philanthropic investment and exploring earned revenue opportunities.
- Partner with the Board and finance staff to ensure sound fiscal management, appropriate budget allocation, and long-term financial health.
- Navigate the transition from unrestricted grant funding to a more project-based model, ensuring sustainability of the organization’s core operations and staff.
Organizational Leadership and Management
- Lead, develop, and retain a talented, mission-driven staff, fostering a culture of trust, accountability, collaboration, and continuous learning.
- Make key early hires to build organizational capacity in alignment with organizational strategy.
- Operate openly and transparently with staff and the Board, communicating clearly about organizational priorities, challenges, and opportunities.
- In partnership with team members, use data and evidence to drive decision-making and hold the organization and its partners accountable to outcomes.
- Support Forward’s programmatic leaders as they execute active initiatives including the LeARner Collective, Center for Early Learning Solutions, Outcomes-Based Contracting, and Teach Arkansas.
- Build and maintain organizational infrastructure, systems, and processes that enable a lean team to operate effectively across a complex, multi-initiative portfolio.
- Make disciplined decisions about organizational priorities, protecting Forward from scope creep and ensuring resources are concentrated where they can have the greatest impact.
Board Partnership
- Cultivate a strong, productive partnership with the Board of Directors, providing regular, candid updates and engaging the Board as a strategic resource.
- Support the Board in its own development, including recruitment of new members, to ensure governance capacity keeps pace with organizational growth.
Candidate Profile
While it is understood that no candidate will offer every desired skill, quality, and characteristic, the following offers a detailed, aspirational view of the ideal candidate profile:
A Mission-Driven Leader with Deep Commitment to Students throughout the State of Arkansas
- Genuinely and authentically passionate about improving educational outcomes for Arkansas students — especially those in rural, high-poverty, and historically underserved communities.
- Expertise with K–12 education systems, state policy, and implementation realities. Understands the early childhood education space or demonstrates a genuine readiness and capacity to learn it quickly.
- Committed to ensuring every strategic decision traces back to a commitment to the students and families who need the most support. Understands structural barriers and translates that understanding into actionable strategy.
- Embodies the values of Forward Arkansas: student-centered, data-driven, community-responsive, and politically independent.
- Brings a long-term orientation — understanding that systems change is slow and remaining energized and committed through that reality.
A Trusted Navigator and Skilled Relationship Builder
- Highly skilled at building authentic relationships across the full stakeholder ecosystem: state legislators, the Department of Education, school superintendents, teachers, early childhood providers, university presidents, philanthropic partners, and community leaders.
- Politically savvy without being partisan — able to work constructively across the political spectrum while maintaining Forward’s trusted, non-partisan positioning.
- Understands that in Arkansas, credibility is earned through presence, consistency, and follow-through — not credentials alone. Builds trust deliberately and patiently across diverse stakeholders.
- Either brings existing Arkansas relationships or demonstrates the commitment and capacity to build them rapidly.
- Energized by the opportunity to serve as a visible, statewide leader — embracing the external-facing nature of the role and building trust-based relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders across Arkansas.
A Collaborative, Humble, and Culturally Attuned People Leader
- Leads with genuine humility, understanding that credibility in Arkansas is built through demonstrated commitment to the community.
- Fosters a culture of trust, collaboration, and shared purpose within a lean, talented team navigating significant transition.
- Brings a strong commitment to people - with an ability to lead, build, and sustain the Forward team
- Accessible and present — both within the organization and across the state — modeling the relational approach that defines Forward’s work.
- Understands and respects the cultural and geographic diversity of Arkansas, from Northwest Arkansas to the Delta, and demonstrates a genuine commitment to serving the whole state.
- Committed to living in and being a present and highly visible leader in Arkansas.
A Bold Thought Leader and Strategic Systems Thinker
- Understands how policy is made in Arkansas and how to influence it effectively, without tipping into partisan advocacy.
- Is willing to approach and discuss difficult issues utilizing grounded data and research while maintaining Forward's credibility as a nonpartisan, student-centered organization.
- Connects the dots across K–12, early childhood, higher education, and workforce — seeing and articulating how these systems must align to produce real outcomes for students.
- Capable of serving as a genuine thought leader who can convene, inspire, and elevate the conversation around education reform — positioning Forward Arkansas as the state’s intellectual and strategic hub.
- Brings a long-term, systems-level perspective — thinking not just about today’s programs but about what Arkansas’s education system will need a decade from now.
A Dynamic Fundraiser and Entrepreneurial Revenue Builder
- A skilled and energized fundraiser — someone who genuinely enjoys building donor relationships and making a compelling case for investment.
- Has the vision and ability to diversify Forward’s funding base beyond current anchor funders — attracting national philanthropic attention, regional foundations, and exploring earned revenue and government funding opportunities.
- Brings entrepreneurial thinking to financial sustainability, understanding that the long-term health of the organization depends on developing new revenue streams.
- Financially literate, understanding nonprofit finance, budget management, and the implications of a shift to project-based funding.
An Action-Oriented Executor Who Delivers Results
- A hands-on, proven “doer” with a demonstrable track record of getting things done. Someone who moves from vision to implementation and builds a culture of accountability and follow-through within the organization.
- Able to hit the ground running at a moment of significant organizational transition — quickly orienting to the landscape, building trust with staff, board, and partners, and sustaining momentum.
- Brings discipline and focus, making clear decisions about what Forward will, and will not, prioritize, protecting the organization from scope creep.
- Data-driven, using evidence to drive strategy and holding the organization and its partners accountable to measurable outcomes for students.
- Comfortable managing complexity: the simultaneous launch of multiple initiatives, a lean team, and evolving funder relationships. Has prior experience thriving in lean, startup-like environments, and the stamina to sustain high-impact work in that context.
Compensation and Benefits
Compensation for this role is expected to range from $190,000 - $210,000. Final compensation will be competitive and commensurate with experience. The position also includes a comprehensive benefits package.
Location & Travel
The successful candidate must be based in or relocate to the state of Arkansas. The role requires extensive presence and relationship-building across the state, including in rural communities and the Delta.
Contact
DSG | Koya has been exclusively retained for this engagement, which is being led by Cheryl Stevens and Claire Hunt. Express interest in this role by filling out our Talent Profile emailing the search team directly at [email protected]. All inquiries and discussions are strictly confidential.
DSG | Koya is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals living with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual living with a disability and need assistance expressing interest online, please email [email protected]. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.