Darrell Allison, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina has announced that they have retained the services of Christopher Gergen as a public charter school consultant. Gergen is the founding CEO of Forward ventures and a veteran of the education reform movement. He co-founded Smarthinking, an online tutoring provider which helps over 200,000 students.

Allison was enthused by their new hire:

“Simply put, PEFNC has hit a homerun by retaining Christopher Gergen as this is not the time in North Carolina to have a novice helping us lead this critical work,” Allison said. “We look forward to Christopher utilizing his experiences as a successful businessman, non-profit leader and educational choice advocate to help more potential school leaders across this state open more quality, sustainable public charter schools.”

Gergen was a founding board member at the E.L. Haynes Public Charter School in Washington D.C. and was formerly the vice president of new market development for K12 Inc. He is ‘Innovator in Residence’ at the Center for Creative Leadership and writes a column on social innovation for the News & Observer and Charlotte Observer. He is also a co-author of the book, ‘Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives’.

Gergen will help PEFNC enhance its public charter school work through, in part, assisting in the development of the organization’s role in North Carolina’s growing public charter landscape. He will also help develop training workshops and a strong support network for potential public charter school leaders that assists them in the public charter application process.