Dr. Diarese George

                                 Founder and Executive Director

​Dr. Diarese George is the founder and executive director of the Tennessee Educators of Color Alliance (TECA), an organization focused on developing, supporting, and connecting educators of color with decision-making power who shape, create, and influence policy. Recently, TECA was instrumental in advocating for the unanimous adoption of Tennessee’s statewide Educator Diversity policy requiring districts establish recruitment and retention goals. Previously, he served as the Director of Recruitment for the Nashville Teacher Residency where his primary focus was recruiting more people of color to the education profession. Prior to that, he taught for five years as a high school teacher. Additionally, he has completed several education leadership fellowships focused on the intersection of policy and advocacy, and serves on several councils, boards, and committees statewide.

                        Oklicia René Dillard

                                   Director, Leadership Development 

René Dillard most recently served as Manager, Early Literacy at United Way of Greater Nashville where she facilitated collective impact work for the Blueprint for Early Childhood Success. In this role, she oversaw a key partnership with The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee to revamp the website ChildcareNashville.com, led the development of high-quality standards for early childhood educators, and built a partnership between Nashville State and Metro Schools to develop new early childhood educators. She also lent her research skills to gather the data necessary to ensure her four workgroups made smart, informed decisions. In her spare time, René works on various freelance research projects and provides supportive services for Tennessee Charitable Care Network, believing that health and educational outcomes are intimately connected.  Ms. Dillard currently holds the following: MPP, Education Policy (Vanderbilt); and B.A. Anthropology (University of Chicago).

Her interests are in education research, policy development, access to early childhood education opportunities, teacher development, multi-generational educational opportunities, and empowering parents as partners in schools. She is a proud former public school teacher