Speaking of Education Series: The State of Education

Kunjan Narechania is the CEO of Watershed Advisors, working with states across the country to realize their most ambitious goals — from early childhood to K-12 education and the workforce. Under Narechania’s leadership, Watershed has grown substantially in size and impact. She leads a team of 35 people working across more than 15 states to envision, plan, and implement education policies that will materially impact the lives of young people. 

A key architect of one of America’s most powerful school improvement stories, Narechania sharpened her leadership in large-system and government agency management and operations, instruction, and education policy. Before founding Watershed Advisors, she served as a top leader at the Louisiana Department of Education and as CEO of the Louisiana Recovery School District (RSD). As CEO of the RSD, an urban school system of 45,000 students, she led the design and execution of the state-run district’s strategy in New Orleans, including a first-of-its-kind reunification with the local school system. During her tenure, a Stanford University study listed New Orleans among the top 10 cities nationwide for student growth from 2012-2017. 

As the Assistant State Superintendent of School Improvement at the Louisiana Department of Education (LDE), Narechania designed and oversaw Louisiana’s statewide plan to grow student achievement in its 500 lowest-performing schools under the Every Student Succeeds Act. As part of this work, she developed the SuperApp, one of the nation’s first systems for local school districts to simplify and leverage all state and federal grant funding to support state instructional priorities. 

Narechania has been published by The 74, and numerous times by the Fordham Institute, writing on instructional coherence and workforce funding. 

Narechania began her career as a sixth-grade math and science teacher and also served in leadership roles at Teach For America, including Vice President of Teacher Support and Development. She is based in New Orleans, where she proudly serves on the board of LiveOak Wilderness Camp.

Christopher Morphew, dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Education since August 2017, concentrates his research on issues of institutional diversity in higher education, including those related to state higher education policy and the ways in which colleges and universities communicate to constituent groups.

His work has appeared in many journals, including the Review of Higher Education; Research in Higher Education; The Journal of Higher Education; Educational Finance; Higher Education Policy; and Studies in Higher Education. 

Morphew has held leadership positions in the Association for the Study of Higher Education and American Educational Research Association, and he has made invited and refereed presentations in more than two dozen countries. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, Lumina Foundation, Research Council of Norway, and Ford Foundation. His most recent book, co-edited with John Braxton, The Challenges of Independent Colleges, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2017. 

Prior to joining the Johns Hopkins School of Education, he was professor and executive associate dean in the College of Education at the University of Iowa. He also has held tenured positions at the University of Georgia and University of Kansas, and served as a visiting professor and Leiv Eiriksson Scholar at the University of Oslo. He holds a Ph.D. in social sciences and education from Stanford University, as well as degrees from Harvard University and the University of Notre Dame.