The University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and Curry School of Education have appointed William Robinson as executive director of the Darden/Curry Partnership for Leaders in Education.

Partnership for Leaders in Education is the country’s premier school turnaround group, using a system-wide approach to develop and align leaders to transform underperforming schools in their districts. It is administered by Darden’s Executive Education program and guided by Darden’s top-ranked faculty members with strategic advice and oversight from the Curry School.

Since its inception, the program has worked with school systems across 16 states, helping superintendents, district cabinet members, principals and teachers sustainably improve students’ mastery of course work.

Robinson will be responsible for the program’s strategic direction, program results and integrity as an organizational authority on the role of system and school leaders in the transformation of failing schools, as well as on ways to solve of some of the nation’s most critical education challenges.

Since joining Partnership for Leaders in Education in 2010, Robinson has developed strong ties with national leaders and with faculty members from Darden and the Curry School. Most recently, he expanded the opportunity to work with the program’s largest cohort to date, which includes leaders from Salt Lake City Public Schools. This past year, he tackled efforts to redefine the program’s theory of change and redesigned the group’s consultation methods. In the months ahead, Robinson will work with an engagement committee at Darden and Curry to redefine the partnership’s growth and impact strategies.

A graduate of Harvard Business School and Princeton University, Robinson has consulted for various education organizations, including Stand for Children, the Achievement Network, the Center for Better Schools and the D.C. Public Education Fund.

In 2013, Partnership for Leaders in Education became a lead partner with The Center on School Turnaround, a new, federally funded group with a goal of driving change in low-performing schools.

The Partnership for Leaders in Education’s School Turnaround Specialist Program is the only school turnaround program that uses a systemic approach to change by working with schools, districts and states to build internal capacity. The program assists districts in setting action plans that will lead them to recognize and overcome the challenges faced in their context, building a system that will sustain positive changes in their high-needs schools.