Nick Gesualdi

Nick Gesualdi, Ed.D. is the Director of the Aspiring Leaders Program and a Clinical Associate Professor in the Education Policy and Leadership Department. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the College of William and Mary in Virginia, a Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan, and a Doctorate of Education from Vanderbilt University.

Before joining SMU, Nick was the Director of Strategic School Support & Design for Fort Worth ISD where he helped to lead work around SB-1882 partnerships, charter authorization and monitoring, virtual learning response to COVID, as well as strategic planning initiatives around enrollment, budgeting, and school performance.

Nick has also served on the faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education as a Lecturer in collaboration with the Urban Teachers program (now City Teaching Alliance). As a practitioner, Nick served as the Principal of the Saltonstall K-8 School (Salem (MA) Public Schools), the Director of Operations at the Eliot K-8 Innovation School (Boston Public Schools), and a teacher at both Orchard Gardens K-8 Pilot School (BPS) and KIPP Houston High School where he got his start in education as a Teach for America corps member.

He and his wife, a Mustang grad AND current grad student, have three children that keep them both extremely busy. In what little free time exists, Nick enjoys running, cooking, playing softball, and taking care — perhaps more accurately, learning how to take care — of his 1986 Jeep CJ-7.