Tulsa, Okla. –– Mayor G.T. Bynum will join ImpactTulsa on Oct. 30 as the new Leadership Council Chair. The ImpactTulsa Leadership Council is a group of innovative leaders from various groups that participate in strategic discussion to actualize these education solutions and remove potential barriers. Among this council are representatives from education, non-profit, business, civil and faith-based Tulsa-area organizations.
“ImpactTulsa is an organization that uses data, evidence, and evaluation to improve education outcomes for Tulsa children,” Mayor Bynum said. “Having sought the office of mayor out of a desire to make this a city where every child has an equal shot at a great life, I am honored and excited by this opportunity to continue the work of a great leader like Kathy Taylor as ImpactTulsa Leadership Council Chair.”
Bynum succeeds ImpactTulsa founder and current Leadership Council Chair Kathy Taylor, who helped found the organization for five years ago.
“Helping launch ImpactTulsa has been one of my greatest public service journeys,” said Taylor. “The passionate commitment of a diverse group of community members to join together for a common goal of insuring every child, regardless of zip code, race or family income, has access to a high-quality education has been amazing. I close this chapter of my involvement with ImpactTulsa knowing that this unprecedented collective work will continue to make an impact for kids in Tulsa.”
Through its unprecedented web of partnerships that connects more than 300 organizations in the Tulsa region, ImpactTulsa seeks to positively impact the city’s education system by guaranteeing a quality education for all students.
The organization’s initiatives align data with real-time solutions focusing on the following six education outcomes: kindergarten readiness, third-grade reading, middle school mathematics proficiency, high school graduation and post-secondary entry and completion. The organization drives collaborative community action in support of students from cradle to career by measuring what matters, aligning resources and sharing best practices to create systems level change, advance outcomes, and increase economic mobility of Tulsa students.
In his time serving as the Mayor of Tulsa, Bynum has pioneered and executed an equal-opportunity platform, establishing the Tulsa Equality Indicators Report, the Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Equity, and the New Tulsans Initiative, all of which use data to measure various forms of inequality and provide innovative solutions to combat them. In addition, Mayor Bynum takes education seriously and earlier in his term signed an executive order giving City employees the opportunity to participate in Reading Partners. His Administration is also implementing Vision Tulsa, the largest economic development capital improvements program in Tulsa history.
“Mayor Bynum provides a unique perspective on the landscape of opportunity for our city to collaborate in support of public education,” said Carlisha Williams Bradley, executive director of ImpactTulsa. “By working with ImpactTulsa’s powerful data tools, the City can understand disparities in new ways. We are looking forward to having bold, data-driven problem-solving discussions about the systemic inequities currently impacting student outcomes.”
Earlier this year, the collective impact organization unveiled the Child Equity Index, which has the potential to quantify the impact of neighborhood characteristics such as local crime rates, poverty, life expectancy or infant mortality on student achievement. The goal of this research is to align and support partner organizations in closing opportunity gaps.
Tulsa is one of the few cities across the country that has embarked on this type of cross-sector inquiry and implementation, and Bynum will serve as the program’s public service champion. Furthermore, Bynum’s efforts in spearheading continued research will provide practical ways that the city’s current work can drive toward future student success.