Rafiq Kalam Id-Din

Rafiq R. Kalam Id-Din is a social entrepreneur, activist, teacher, lawyer, and non-profit leader with more than 25 years of experience. He is also the founder and managing partner of Ember Charter Schools for Mindful Education, Innovation, and Transformation (Ember).

Rafiq practiced law before serving as executive director of the AnBryce Foundation in Washington, D.C., a pioneering pipeline program focused on impactful education opportunities for socio-economically disadvantaged youth. In 2007, Rafiq received the prestigious Echoing Green Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurs for his “Teaching Firm,” an innovative model for fully teacher-led schools managed like law firms, the first of which launched in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn in 2011. This evolved into Ember.

A co-founder of the New York Black Latinx Asian Charter Collaborative, co-founder and former executive board member of the NYC Coalition of Community Charter Schools, and founder of the #BlackLedSchoolsMatter initiative, Rafiq also serves as a member of the board of directors of Echoing Green, The National Charter Collaborative, Revitalize Charter School (North Carolina), The Brooklyn Crescents, and president of the NYU Law Alumni of Color Association (LACA). Rafiq was recently honored as a recipient of the Black Voices for Social Justice Fund Award.