Press Releases | January 29, 2021

The Mind Trust promotes Sonja Peters to Senior Director of School Incubation

INDIANAPOLIS — (January 29, 2021) — The Mind Trust today announced it has promoted Sonja Peters to Senior Director of School Incubation. In this expanded role, she will manage the Innovation and Charter School Fellowships, Education Empowerment Awards and all other investments that support the launch of high-quality public schools in Indianapolis.

“The Mind Trust is thrilled to promote Sonja to this expanded role,” said Brandon Brown, CEO of The Mind Trust. “Since joining our team, Sonja’s commitment to our mission, deep knowledge of the school development process, and expert counsel to our School Fellows has been instrumental in the successful launch of many high-quality public schools.”

In this expanded role, Peters will refine and implement a strategic plan for the growth of high-quality schools, oversee The Mind Trust’s School Fellowships and pathways, directly manage Fellows during the school development phase, and collaborate with local and national stakeholders to provide best-in-class support for all school launch activities.

During Peters’ time with The Mind Trust, she has been instrumental in supporting the organization’s School Fellows as they launch high-quality public schools in Indianapolis. Notably, she has helped integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion into all areas of Fellowship programming to help school leaders integrate these priorities into academics, operations, staff recruitment, and school culture. She has also provided expert coaching on start-up business operations and nonprofit board recruitment to Fellows.

Before joining The Mind Trust in 2016, Peters was a community impact coordinator at United Way of Central Indiana, where she managed and coordinated education initiative special projects and provided administrative support to the education team. She also previously served as resource coordinator at United Way of Dekalb County and as a case manager with the YWCA of Northeast Indiana.

Peters holds a bachelor’s degree in human services from Purdue University and a master’s degree in public management from Indiana University.

###

About The Mind Trust

The Mind Trust is an Indianapolis-based education nonprofit that works to build a system of schools that gives every student in Indianapolis, no exceptions, access to a high-quality education. The Mind Trust does this by building a supportive environment for schools through policy and community engagement, empowering talented, diverse educators to launch new schools, and providing existing schools with the support they need to hire world-class talent and achieve excellence. Since 2006, The Mind Trust has supported the launch of 38 schools, 14 education nonprofit organizations, and has helped place more than 1,600 teachers and school leaders in Indianapolis classrooms. More information can be found at themindtrust.org.