Ballard’s charter schools chief to become VP at Mind Trust

Brandon Brown, the charter schools director for Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, will leave the city next month to become vice president of education innovation at The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis-based education reform group.

Since Brown joined the Ballard administration in 2012, the city has allowed 15 charter schools to open and assumed oversight of four IPS schools in a state turnaround program. The mayor’s office now has authority over 35 charter schools and four turnaround schools, which enroll nearly 15,000 students. Ballard is not seeking re-election to a third term.

In his new role, Brown will oversee The Mind Trust’s three education incubators. His primary focus will be on the Innovation School Fellowship, a partnership with  Indianapolis Public Schools that allowed Phalen Leadership Academies, a charter school backed by The Mind Trust, to take over management of IPS’ struggling School 103.

Brown will succeed Patrick Herrel, who was named last week as CEO of Cincinnati’s Accelerate Great Schools, a new public-private organization focused on increasing the number and capacity of high-quality schools in Cincinnati's poor neighborhoods.

Brown, 30, holds a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a master’s degree in secondary education from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He was a Teach for America teacher at a St. Louis high school before taking various leadership roles with New York-based Teach for America.