Deans
Chapter 27 The Baret Traveling Team
co-founded Avenues: The World School, now one of the largest private schools in New York City with campuses in São Paulo, Shenzhen, and Silicon Valley as well. Chris also built the two Whittle School & Studios campuses in Shenzhen and Suzhou. He is one of the few entrepreneurs to found not one but two “unicorns,” the Silicon Valley moniker for entities realizing market valuations of over $1B. In addition to his role as Executive Chairman, Chris will be traveling with the Scholars this year. He will bring his passion for education to bear, as well as his the memory and inspiration of his own, yearlong, post-college circuit of the globe. Education: University of Tennessee Languages: English Birthplace: Etowah, Tennessee Lived in: United States Special Book: Magister Ludi , Herman Hesse
Legal Outreach in NYC, she secured substantial funding to support underprivileged high school students’ access to prestigious American universities. Claudia recently established her risk advisory consultancy for investors interested in doing business in Africa. She intends to open her own law firm once she qualifies as a lawyer in Kenya. Claudia’s domestic and global experiences have enriched her perspective. She enjoys travel, podcasts, hot yoga, philosophy, and politics. With her diverse background and commitment to social change, Claudia is eager to mentor the next generation of leaders within the Baret Scholars program. As Associate Dean, Claudia will lead our Scholars alongside Chris Whittle, while also using her legal training to teach in the domains of Innovation and Politics. Education: Wesleyan University (BA), Oxford University (LL.B), Columbia (LL.M.) Languages: Swahili, Giriama, English, and Kamba
CHRIS WHITTLE
CLAUDIA KAHINDI ASSOCIATE DEAN
BARET ’ S TRAVELING Team was built through a rigorous selection processin- volving a rigorous selection process and hundreds upon hundreds of hours of interviews. It was necessary to curate a team that was not only well-traveled and accomplished, but also made up of proven mentors and leaders. We needed a group that we felt we could trust to guide our scholars around the world and into their futures. Just as important as their exper- tise was their heart, their compassion, and their curiosity about the world. The process of building our traveling team began with our Dean. Chris Whit- tle has founded, to name just a few, Ave- nues School in New York City and Edison Schools, while also sitting on the board for the Center for Education Reform. He has been a leading figure in education reform for more than three decades, in addition to leading various other ventures. Baret, is, if you will, his brainchild, and was inspired by his own gap year: there is no one better to lead the program on the road. His influence on the program will be felt for years to come. With our Dean in place, we could be- gin selecting our Fellows. We knew they would need to be as diverse in their ex- pertise and backgrounds as our scholars would be in their interests and experienc- es. We didn’t just need the best research- ers or artists or scientists–they needed to be the best in their field and to be enthu- siastic and effective leaders and mentors
as well. They are Fulbright Scholars and Oxford graduates, PhDs and filmmakers, scientists and entrepreneurs. What they all have in common, besides their passion for teaching and mentorship, is that their journeys have led them to Baret. Between them , our Fellows and Dean have lived in 7 countries and speak 8 lan- guages. They have used their expertise to design and refine our Fellowships and advising program. All of them believe in the vitality of the Baret mission. And our traveling team would not be complete without our support personnel and medical and security officers. With their own impressive resumes, they have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make the Baret year possible, securing visas, vetting hotels, neighborhoods, and medical facilities. Their goal is that our scholars get to where they are going safely and happily, and we could not have made the first year happen without them.
Raised in a small town along the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, he’s the one who recommended the Baret Fellowship 73-mile trek on the Appalachian Trail! Early on, Chris enjoyed building things, constructing forts and cabins with young friends in the woods they would play in. And build he did. In his 50-year career, Chris founded and led 5 education
As a Giriama and Mijikenda woman from Kilifi on the Coast of Kenya, Claudia is the first Rhodes Scholar from her community. She is the only Baret member to have both herded cattle and earned a law degree from Oxford. Following her early education in Kenya, Claudia went on to major in Politics, Philosophy & Economics (PPE) and minor in African Studies at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, USA, then to University of Oxford, finally completing an LL.M. at Columbia as an Appel Fellow. Claudia’s diverse legal expertise encompasses international human rights, civil rights, and commercial law. Claudia’s dedication to social impact is demonstrated through her role as the Founder and Project Manager of the KIU Project in Kilifi, Kenya, where she enhanced educational opportunities for local students. Additionally, as a Development Assistant at
and media endeavors, employing over 8,000
team members. Founded in his college apartment, Whittle Communications grew to be one of America’s top 100 media companies, publishing Esquire and broadcasting daily to 8,000,000 students through the Channel One network, with Anderson Cooper as its first anchor. In the mid- 1990s, along with former Yale University President Benno Schmidt, Chris pioneered the charter school movement, establishing over 100 campuses with 60,000 students. In 2012, Chris
chris.whittle@baretscholars.org
Birthplace: Kilifi, Kenya Lived In: Kenya, USA, UK
Special Book: The Genealogy of Morals , Friedrich Nietzsche
If you’re interested in joining a future Trav- eling Team, reach out to us at info@baret- scholars.org for more information.
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THE BARET TEAM & ADVISORS
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