Tammi Sutton is the Founder of KIPP Eastern North Carolina (ENC) Public Schools, which includes KIPP Schools in Gaston, Halifax, and Durham Counties.  She currently serves as KIPP ENC’s Director of Leadership Development.

In 2001, Tammi co-founded KIPP Gaston College Preparatory (GCP), where she served as the Co-Principal and taught English, History, and Pre-Algebra. During her time at GCP, she was a recipient of the Kinder Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2005, she founded GCP’s high school, where 100% of the first twelve senior classes have earned acceptance to a four-year college or university, and over 70% of these students will be first-generation college graduates. 

Before co-founding GCP, she taught middle school language arts and social studies in Northampton County for five years and was named the Sallie Mae New Teacher of the Year as well as twice named Teacher of the Year. The success of her students has been featured in Wendy Kopp’s book, One Day, All Children and Richard Whitmire’s book, The B.A. Breakthrough: How Ending Diploma Disparities Can Change the Face of America, as well as on Fox News, ABC News and twice in The New York Times. 

Tammi was appointed by the Governor to serve on the NC Charter School Advisory Board and was also a member of the North Carolina Leadership Forum.  In addition, Tammi was also a Fall 2016 Pahara-Aspen Fellow.

Tammi, a first-generation college graduate and the only person in her family to earn a degree, earned her BA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with degrees in English and Political Science. She earned her Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from National-Louis University.