Rob Watson named executive director of EdRedesign; Tauheedah Jackson to assume deputy director role

Professor Paul Reville, founder and faculty director of The EdRedesign Lab at Harvard Graduate School of Education, today announced several key appointments and promotions within the leadership team at EdRedesign. Rob Watson will become the inaugural executive director, Tauheedah Jackson will become deputy director, and Bridget Rodriguez will become senior adviser.

“I am delighted to recognize the superb contributions made by this extraordinary team and to promote Rob and Tauheedah to new roles that will enable them to provide the inspirational leadership for EdRedesign’s future,”  said Reville.

Watson, who currently serves as deputy director, is a national leader in the field of cradle-to-career place-based partnerships and brings a wealth of lived, academic, and practitioner experiences to his new leadership role. His extensive work history spans the domains of civic engagement, cross-sector collaboration, and socioeconomic mobility in the U.S., Latin America, and Africa. He is a lecturer on education at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Watson joined EdRedesign in 2019 and was named deputy director in June 2023. In his time with EdRedesign, he has grown EdRedesign’s strategic partnerships with national intermediaries, Harvard centers and organizations, and communities across the U.S.  

Jackson, director of EdRedesign’s Institute for Success Planning, will also assume the role of deputy director, while continuing to serve in her current role. Jackson brings nearly 24 years of experience working in youth development, local government, philanthropy, school districts, and out-of-school time programs to her role. She is regularly invited to speak at convenings and serve as an adviser nationally given her deep expertise in building, scaling, and sustaining cross-sector collaborative systems at both the local and national levels, including the Full-Service Communities Schools strategy. In her role as director of the Institute for Success Planning, Jackson has grown the Success Planning Community of Practice and fueled the adoption of the strategy in local communities across the country. 

As part of this planned leadership transition, Rodriguez, who has served as EdRedesign’s managing director, will remain with EdRedesign as a senior adviser to support the leadership transition. Rodriguez has been — and continues to be — a champion of EdRedesign’s new leaders, Watson and Jackson. 

Reville, who will continue as EdRedesign’s faculty director, went on to say, “EdRedesign is at a pivotal moment of growth and development. We are energized and enthusiastic about our bright future and proud to have the perfect team to take us there. We look forward to serving and growing our cradle-to-career place-based partnership field in even deeper and more impactful ways in the years to come.”