Winner: Andrew R. Campanella, President, National School Choice Week
Andrew Campanella has served as president of National School Choice Week since 2012, and previously served as Vice President of Public Affairs. Under his leadership, National School Choice Week (NSCW) has grown into the world’s largest annual series of education-related events. Specifically, in January 2015, National School Choice Week featured 11,082 independently planned events, 73 times larger than the inaugural NSCW in 2011, which saw 150 events.
The goal of National School Choice Week, an independent public awareness effort, is to significantly increase public knowledge and understanding of K-12 education options for children and families – including traditional public schools, public charter schools, magnet schools, private schools, online learning and homeschooling. NSCW encourages schools, organizations, and individuals to hold events to raise awareness for, and generate media coverage of, education options in individual communities across the country.
Campanella continually works to create new and innovative campaigns that will increase public awareness of school choice as part of National School Choice Week, which in itself is a public awareness campaign.
Under his leadership, the NSCW team has successfully generated more than 13,000 positive news stories about NSCW events over five years; in 2015, secured proclamations from 160 mayors and county executives and 20 US governors recognizing the effort in their states and localities; recruited 9,600 schools and 1,000 homeschool organizations to hold events in 2015; and successfully worked to unanimously pass a bipartisan resolution in the US Senate recognizing School Choice Week.
Campanella is widely recognized as a leader in education and communications. In addition to managing a dedicated team, he has advanced National School Choice Week’s credibility and focus by maintaining strong and growing partnerships among other education organization leaders, among officials on Capitol Hill, and in the news media. His constant attention to the mission and tone of National School Choice Week as a celebration has created a positive and broadly inclusive national event that has no peer in the world of education.