Kunjan Narechania

Kunjan Narechania is a proven systems leader who has devoted her 20-year career to offering all children the high-quality education they deserve, with a focus on children from underserved communities. As CEO of Watershed Advisors, Narechania focuses on growing the organization to increase its support of government leaders, advocacy organizations, high-quality vendors, and funders as they scale promising ideas in the education sector. A key architect of one of America’s most powerful school improvement stories, she sharpened her leadership in a range of areas including large-system and government agency management and operations, instruction, and education policy.

Prior to founding Watershed Advisors, Narechania 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 time, a Stanford University study listed New Orleans among the top 10 cities nationwide for student growth from 2012-2017. Later, she served as the Assistant State Superintendent of School Improvement at the Louisiana Department of Education (LDE) where she designed and managed Louisiana’s statewide plan to grow student achievement in its 500 lowest-performing schools under the Every Student Succeeds Act. This included the development of SuperApp, one of the nation’s first systems for local school districts to consolidate and leverage all state and federal grant funding in support of state instructional priorities.

Narechania was previously Vice President of Teacher Support and Development at Teach For America after serving in leadership capacities in Teach for America Chicago-Northwest Indiana and Teach for America Eastern North Carolina. She began her career as a sixth grade math and science teacher in Durham, North Carolina.  She currently resides in New Orleans.