MARKETING & RECRUITMENT DURING COVID-19

Tamani Anderson Powell is an educator by training but a people person at heart. She enjoyed teaching in the middle school setting for 9 years before serving as an assistant principal for 2 years. In her position as the Director of Marketing and Communication for Wake County Schools’ Office of Magnet and Curriculum Enhancement Programs, she has combined her passion for people with her desire to see all students succeed. She welcomes the opportunity to assist families as they explore varied educational choices in WCPSS and models excellent customer service as one strategy to attract families to magnet schools. She works closely with the office of student assignment on selection priorities that allow WCPSS’s magnet schools to achieve the goal of integrated student populations; with the office of communications to ensure that the message about WCPSS’s magnets reaches the target market; and with the office of transportation to find solutions to the challenges of bringing students to magnet schools.

Tamani was raised to give back to her community and donates time and energy to better her local community through her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, and St. Ambrose Episcopal Church. She loves time spent with her husband, children, and extended family; the sound of the ocean as well as a great baseball game; and opportunities to see the world.

Jon Wren serves as the Magnet Coordinator for Warner Arts Magnet Elementary, an MSAP Grant funded Elementary School with the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. As the Magnet Lead, he has launched a comprehensive initiative to successfully re-brand Warner as a magnet school while incorporating teacher and student efficacy models at the core of school culture and climate. During his time at Warner, the school has moved from level 1 to level 5 on the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) scale. In cooperation with a community non-profit, the school has adopted a non-traditional approach to address student discipline and suspension rates by incorporating mindfulness, breathing, and childhood yoga, which helped to decrease student discipline referrals by 80% and out-of-school suspensions by 90%. Warner has seen a steady increase in diversity thanks to creative and community partner-based outreach including the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, Amazon, & Tennessee Governor Bill Lee. Currently Warner is the subject of the 2^nd season of the NPR Podcast “The Promise” highlighting the work of diversity and equity challenges in gentrified neighborhoods. Jon holds a B.S. from Kansas State and an M.A. from the University of Nottingham. He is a below average skier, has been bitten by a penguin, and once got a ticket for driving too slow.