Reuben Ogbonna is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of The Marcy Lab School. Born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, his family is split between Imo State, Nigeria and Shreveport, Louisiana. Prior to The Marcy Lab School, Reuben taught middle school math, was a school dean, and coached teachers across New York City as a Director at Teach For America. His experience in the NYC charter school system was pivotal to the founding of Marcy and forced him to reexamine the 'promise' of college that was impressed upon his Black and brown students. With the determination to create a 'better version of college,' he enlisted Maya Bhattacharjee-Marcantonio (his co-worker at Teach for America at the time!) to co-create The Marcy Lab School to better serve New York City's students of color who had been failed by the higher education system. When he is not on campus playing ping pong with our Fellows or leading the best team in NYC, he's smoking briskets on his Big Green Egg grill while his daughter, Anjali, and wife, Rhea, hang in the backyard…And he is STILL listening to African Giant by Burna Boy.