Naomi Fortis-Gebreselassie

Affiliation

TNTP

Biography

Naomi Fortis-Gebreselassie is a Salvadoran American leadership development professional and Director of Leadership at TNTP, partnering with districts, states, and school systems across the United States to strengthen leadership capacity, instructional coherence, and student outcomes. She specializes in coaching systems leadership, designing scalable professional learning, and supporting the implementation of high-quality, science-of-literacy-aligned curricula and instructional systems. With nearly 20 years of experience in education across four countries, Naomi has served as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, professional learning facilitator, and founding principal of a bilingual public charter school in Washington, D.C., where she championed dual language education and equity-centered design. Her career has been rooted in multilingual learner advocacy, early childhood education, adult learning, and systems building—bridging research, practice, and implementation to drive sustainable improvement. Naomi currently partners with state education agencies and district leaders to shape coherent implementation systems, align leadership practices to instructional priorities, and build cultures of continuous improvement. Her coaching and design work has contributed to increased leader confidence, improved instructional quality, stronger organizational culture, and 100% retention among coached principals. As an ICF-educated professional coach, Naomi embeds reflective practice, feedback, and data-driven improvement into all aspects of her work. Naomi holds graduate degrees from Harvard Graduate School of Education and George Mason University, a TESOL certification from the School for International Training, and a bachelor’s degree from Kent State University. She is an International Coaching Federation educated professional coach and a Teach For America alum. She is deeply committed to advancing inclusive, linguistically affirming, and student-centered educational systems.