Primary Job Title Co-Founder & Executive Director Primary Organization Brooklyn Lab Charter School
Location Brooklyn, New York, United States Regions Greater New York Area, East Coast, Northeastern US Gender Male
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Eric Tucker is the co-founder and CEO of the Design Innovation Factory, where he leads the education practice area. He has built, consulted with, or evaluated social sector organizations and urban school systems in over 32 states and on four continents. Eric serves as a mentor for Working Examples, a project funded by the MacArthur and Gates
Foundations that is housed at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. He is also a MacArthur Foundation / ETS Gordon Fellow at Arizona State University and conducts research for the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop.
Eric recently served as Director in the Communications Group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he supported the development of CCSS–aligned digital learning resources and established more than 45 distribution partnerships with firms who together reach over 10 million students. Before that, he served as president and managing director of Catalyst Strategy, a consultancy that supports not-for-profits, technology companies, and school systems reach their strategic goals. Representative clients include: Ascend Learning (a high performing network sustained and scaled on public revenue); Building Excellent Schools (national effort to scale the highest performing No Excuses charters); Democracy Prep Public Schools (one of the highest ELA value-add within the charter sector); Excel Academy (the number one middle school in Massachusetts); and the Harlem Prep Charter School (which achieved the highest proficiency growth scores in ELA in New York State).
As co-founder, Chief Academic Officer, and interim Executive Director of the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues, Eric helped build and grow a network of Urban Debate Leagues serving over 20 metropolitan areas and 450 schools. He drafted and led the implementation of a business plan that grew the network by 150 schools and 10 cities over three years. Eric managed partnerships, including investments from major urban school systems, businesses, professional service firms, and foundations. He partnered with The Weinstein Company surrounding the launch of Denzel Washington’s The Great Debaters.
