Empowering the North Central

Brett Brenton serves as Regional Impact Manager at myFutureNC, serving the North Central regions of the state. Brett started his career as a high school social studies teacher near Baltimore, MD, where he taught ten classes over seven years there, including AP US History and AP Government. After relocating to North Carolina in 2007, he spent six years with Wake County Schools, four as a middle school teacher and administrator, and two as an assistant principal at an elementary school.

Brett then joined the Research Triangle Foundation as the founding director of the STEM in the Park (now STEM RTP) program in 2014, which aimed to diversify the STEM fields through mentoring, outreach, and events. The program engaged students and teachers in the Triangle area and beyond in experiences with area companies to better inform participants about the benefits of STEM learning and expose them to STEM career paths. Brett then applied the programmatic elements of this work to the emerging Frontier coworking space, leading programming and partnerships for the Foundation and supporting entrepreneurs who helped activate the space.

In 2018, Brett joined the Durham-based national nonprofit Forward Cities, where he worked with over 30 communities across the country in support of their efforts to grow entrepreneurial ecosystems with an equity lens. He led a number of community engagements there and helped to develop the organization’s national learning network through a webinar series and various communities of practice.

Brett earned a BA in History from the University of Arizona and a Masters in School Administration from NC State University. He calls Wake Forest home where he lives with his wife Alison and two daughters Olivia (14) and Sienna (11). He enjoys travel and can be found on the many mountain bike trails across the Triangle on most days.