Leyla Bravo

Leyla Bravo is the Senior Director, Partnerships and Communications at ELSF. In her role, she will be building and maintaining critical partnerships and initiatives to push ELSF’s mission forward. Before this role, Leyla expanded KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) Schools to her hometown of Miami. In doing so, she worked with several stakeholders including funders, board members, the KIPP national network, local community organizations, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, teachers, families and students to start the first school—KIPP Miami Sunrise Academy. Leyla served as the founding principal and later as the Director of New Teacher Development for KIPP Miami network of schools. She had previously worked as Director of Lower School at KIPP Infinity Middle School in Harlem, where she brought multiple socio-emotional supports to students including resiliency work from Angela Duckworth and the Character Lab. Leyla has been featured in various news outlets including the Miami New Times, The New York Times, and NPR for her work founding KIPP Miami and her work on socio-emotional learning for students including a TEDx Talk. Leyla started her career as a 5th Grade bilingual education teacher at PS70x in the South Bronx. She holds a Master of Education from National Louis University and a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Harvard College. As an immigrant from Nicaragua, Leyla and her family have always understood education as the great equalizer. She seeks to bring equity in access to education to all students especially English Learners like herself and her sisters. Leyla currently resides in Miami, FL with her husband, Ian, and two daughters, Soraya and Anais.