The Mind Trust - History

History

The Mind Trust was founded in 2006 by Bart Peterson, the former Mayor of Indianapolis, and David Harris, Mayor Peterson’s former charter schools director. Bart Peterson is now chair of The Mind Trust’s Board of Directors2 and David Harris is the President and CEO. The Mind Trust is an outgrowth of the Mayor Peterson’s charter schools initiative. In 2001, the Mayor of Indianapolis became the nation’s only mayor with the authority to charter schools. In July 2006, the initiative won Harvard University’s Innovations in American Government Award.

The summer 2007 issue of Education Next, a publication of the Hoover Institution described The Mind Trust’s formation in an article by David Skinner:

“In January, David Harris left the mayor’s office to work on another side of the charter school problem: ‘stimulating supply,’ as he puts it. If Indianapolis is going to continue being a leader in school innovation, it must, Harris reasons, become the place to develop new ideas. So he has built a nonprofit—IPS superintendent White, among others, sits on the board—to fund highly paid fellowships for education entrepreneurs. It is called Mind Trust, and along with trying to find the next Michael Feinberg (a co-founder of KIPP or the next Wendy Kopp (founder of Teach For America, Harris will be trying to draw the cream of education reform organizations to establish a presence in Indianapolis.”