Our Founder
Dr. Andrea Terrero Gabbadon is a nationally recognized expert in educator retention and culturally affirming leadership, and a scholar-practitioner who brings both research grounding and school leadership experience to move districts from awareness to measurable action. She is the author of Support and Retain Educators of Color (ASCD, 2023) — a resource the School District of Philadelphia purchased for more than 700 of its administrators.
Dr. Gabbadon began her career as a public school teacher before becoming a founding teacher at a turnaround school in North Philadelphia. She then moved into school leadership while completing her graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, as well as her K-12 administrator's certification — and has also taught at the graduate and undergraduate levels, including at Swarthmore College, Temple University, and Relay Graduate School of Education.
As a school leader, Dr. Gabbadon led her team to increase Keystone proficiency by 10% over two years and later raised average ACT reading scores by more than two points in a single quarter — early evidence of the standards-driven, instructionally rigorous approach that still grounds her work today.
She has since led a regional teacher retention initiative in one of the largest school districts in the country, producing measurable gains in educator belonging and retention, and has trained aspiring and sitting leaders across Pennsylvania and New Jersey. To date, her work has reached more than 100,000 students through the educators she has trained and developed.
Her work has been featured in Education Week, EL Magazine, Chalkbeat, The Teaching Channel, and the ISTE+ASCD Expert Webinar series, and she has presented alongside Baruti Kafele through the AP and New Principals Leadership Academy.
As Founder and Principal Consultant of ILM Consulting Group, Dr. Gabbadon leads the Affirming Schools framework — equipping district and school leaders with the tools to support and retain educators of color.