Dr. Terrance Ruth received his PhD in Public Affairs from the University of Central Florida. He received his Master in Education from Nova Southeastern University and his BA from Oglethorpe University. He completed a national fellowship through Boston College with a certification in nonprofit leadership.  Dr. Ruth is an advocate for public education, once serving as a teacher, principal and the parent of a son who attends public schools in Wake County. As a former Administrator for Wake county Public Schools who now serves as an Education Consultant to numerous nonprofits, he sits on several state wide boards.

Additionally, he led social justice organizations at the national, state and local levels with a reputation for being the implementation expert. He served as the NC NAACP Executive Director under Dr. Barber and Dr. Spearman and has served as National Director of Programming for the Repairers of the Breach. Recently he partnered with United Way of the Triangle to launch a community investment fund for local community organizers.

Dr. Ruth has work in K-12 schools across Florida and in Wake County. Currently, Terrance is a Professor at NCSU and is the former President of the Justice Love Foundation. He is deeply engaged in diversity, equity and inclusion work across the city of Raleigh and the Triangle. Dr. Ruth was a Raleigh Mayoral Candidate for November 2022.

Also, Terrance’s podcast recently reached the top 10% of podcasts globally with only 3 episodes out!

Dr. Ruth is leading a coalition of leaders to engage in local solutions through impact investing, design thinking, and creative collaborations. Right now he is facilitating a process to increase the use of faith based assets in improving the affordable housing stock. He is also working with United Way of the Triangle to offering a human centered design lens to the philanthropic network in the Triangle.

Terrance is a Raleigh, NC-based educator, community activist, podcast host, and dad. Son of two veterans, he has an amazing family story to share as well as how he balances being a dad with his busy career. Additional topics he loves to speak about are elementary education, social work, social justice, affordable housing, and how to make a big impact at a local level in your community. In 2022, Terrance ran for Mayor of Raleigh and sadly lost to the incumbent mayor. He’s happy to chat about that experience as well. Since ending the race, he has doubled down on his commitment to the Raleigh area and the causes he is passionate about.

Trench story: His background is in alternative edu. Educators and st’s coming from difficult background. Joined org where they train educators on ACIS- t’s are at intersection of quality learning environments. He’s a part of Public Schools NC in N. Carolina. Provides resiliency training for educators. In N Carolina, there are deep fears around bans on book for next year. Not so much CRT, but politicizing of the classroom. Shrinking of educator’s autonomy. He’s had several different roles in public ed. They’re seeing  Many educators in NC have a voice. There’s a difficult season on the horizon. Was an evaluator for Race to the Top. Urban vs. suburban. A victory we’ll see politically is a state supt who’ll serve t’s more. Governor will be elected too. Many educators are going for school board seats. Local school board meetings are packed. Push for school board members who understand the context of schools.

Education Funding & the priorities. In NC they’re reengaging how their funding public. Leandro case- legal case over 20 yrs. old. Legislators want to stop flooding of charters in NC. Funding is decreasing, esp in rural areas. Oct. count, etc. His district is one of the largest in the country-Wade County is trying to retain st’s. They’re loosing $ to charters. There’s a different pressure than before. Sharp line. It’s happening at the state level. Very tenacious line. Will be #1 policy issue for governor & state supt. 2 organizations birthed out of the org that was taking over failing schools/districts. In response to that, another org tried to rescue-Spark NC, innovative to connect kids to future tech jobs. Created coalitions.

Inclusive Education- Most schools he supported in alt. ed were 95% in Black communities. Families are fighting w/ public schools, going to charters, losing hope in public ed. His district is one of fastest growing in country. What does it mean for public ed to serve Black & Brown community well? Definitely not unique to NC. They’ve zoomed in on IEP criteria. Racial & income disparities. Raleigh-low income, single parent, high crime, st’s of color. His passion has been around those types of schools. HighTech high- CEO of school, friend of his- innovative thinking school. Created hubs where communities designed together. Human-centered design model. Support community-designed hubs. Public schools can support alt. ways such as design thinking. They’re done some pilot testing where he’s at. They’re being rewarded for their thinking. Sort of like Black Wall Street. Disparities existed back during segregation. Prevention strategy. Organization called Recity-located in Durham, NC. Co-working space for non-profits. Instead of co-worked, they co-designed. Raw community members, ppl aren’t from colleges or are Ph.d’s. ReCity Labs- represents 22 organizations- design experience where they wrestled w/ challenges in their city. Leaned on org to think thru gun violence, literacy rates, etc.

Social work research – he’s a professor at the school of social work. He teaches research & evaluation & policy work. When he ran for mayor, was asked why an educator would run for office. When he was a principal, was schooled by a social worker. Worked through tenacious relationships. We need more human-centered ppl (educators & social workers) running for office. Powerful lens when you start to create policy. F.ex. Race to the Top policy he was a part of. Frameworks: Ella Baker (advisor for Dr. Martin Luther King)-if we create strong ppl, we don’t need a strong leader. How do we create strong st’s? Just leadership-desire is to allow authority to be decentralized. Many communities operate out of need. These help political candidates

Resiliency & Educating post-pandemic: this is a great opportunity to unleash innovation. How can educators rethink how a CR should look? Rethink NC looked at that. Model that’s customized to st- CTE certification. Rethink the difference b/w learning & being job-ready. Moment to understand role of mental health in learning. At his univ. there are mental health days. Rethink what a school day should be. AI tutor f. ex. How can we improve a learning landscape? he’s working w/ org’s where they have to convince public school districts. If educators are policy makers, there will be more changes in the future.

Out of everything:  Quote: Do justice, do us right, love mercy, live humbly. Click To Tweet. Doing what’s right may be hard, being humble is also hard- we forget what progress looks like- not taking yourself too seriously.

Where can ppl find you? @truthforraleigh on FB, X, IG. His podcast-Illogical by Truth.

View this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1c1PvFrjVAk