Sydney Morris is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Educators For Excellence (E4E), a teacher-led organization that seeks to ensure teachers’ voices are meaningfully included in the policy decisions that impact their classrooms and professions. Launched in 2010, E4E has grown into a national movement of 25,000 educators with chapters in Boston, Chicago, Connecticut, Los Angeles, Minnesota and New York. E4E teachers are connecting with like-minded colleagues, taking on leadership positions, and developing and recommending policy changes that expand opportunities for students.

Research shows that classroom teachers are the single most important in-school factor in improving student achievement. Yet, as conversations across America intensified about how to ensure that we have great teachers in every classroom, the diverse voices of educators were being left out of those conversations. That’s where E4E comes in. Prior to co-founding E4E with her colleague, Evan Stone, Morris spent three years teaching second and third grade at a high-needs elementary school in the Bronx, NY. She led her students to average gains of 1.5 years of academic growth in both reading and math and 100% passing rates on the statewide ELA and Math exams. While teaching, she also earned her master’s degree from Pace University.

Sydney served as a corps member after graduating from Tulane University with a B.A. in political science and a concentration in international relations. Following Hurricane Katrina, she developed after-school dance programs for low-income students in the New Orleans Public School system with the nonprofit New Orleans Outreach. Morris has been named one of City & State’s 40 Under 40 Rising Political Stars, Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Education and has completed the Exponential Fundraising for Nonprofit Leaders course at Harvard University.