Vernon Riley

Vernon-James Riley is currently a doctoral candidate in Education Leadership at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. As an education leadership consultant, Vernon-James trains, coaches, and supports school and system-level leaders with strengthening their mindsets, skills, habits, and systems for transformative instructional leadership in service of teacher development and student growth and achievement.

Most recently, Vernon-James served as Vice Provost of National Leadership Programs on the Professional Education Team at the Relay Graduate School of Education. In this role, Vernon-James provided professional development and on-the ground coaching in the areas of school culture, instructional planning, observation-feedback, data-driven instruction, and strategic planning to principals, assistant principals, and instructional coaches in public, private, and charter school settings across the country spanning PK-12 grade.

Previously, Vernon-James served as Principal at North Star Academy Charter School in Newark, New Jersey, a National Blue Ribbon School and part of the Uncommon Schools network. During his tenure as principal, Vernon-James led the West Side Park Middle School campus to strong academic gains, with all grades outperforming the state average in Math and all grades outperforming the state’s non-economically disadvantaged students in ELA. Vernon-James has also served as a teacher, Dean of Students and Director of Operations.

Vernon-James earned a B.A. in American Studies from Yale University, M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction from the College of Education at Michigan State University, Ed.M. in Organizational Leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an Ed.M. from Relay Graduate School of Education. He is an alumnus of the Education Pioneers Fellowship and the Leverage Leadership Institute.