Across 2016, our journey took us coast to coast, as we captured the stories of pioneers who came together to nurture the charter networks that would reinvent American education. It’s a living history, an evolving portrait of America’s public charter schools.

In the months since The Founders launched, we’ve asked you to nominate other founders to join the collection — school leaders who are inspiring parents, educators, and students across the country. Today we’re thrilled to launch three new chapters in that archive; we’ll also be sharing more stories over the next few weeks.

Derwin Sisnett co-founded Gestalt Community Schools, but he always believed that thriving schools needed to exist in thriving communities. A serial “founder,” Sisnett built on his work launching high-performing public charter schools in Memphis to start the nonprofit Maslow Development Inc., which has worked to develop the communities around Gestalt schools in Tennessee and beyond. In his “Founders” oral history, Sisnett recounts his personal journey to becoming a founder and what scaling change means to him.

Continue watching the rest of the videos in the series about charter schools from The 74