Inner circle: Here’s who Superintendent Hopson leans on to lead Memphis schools

Dorsey Hopson has been at the helm of Tennessee’s largest district for four years, but his cabinet has been a bit of a revolving door since the historic merger of city and county schools.

Only three members of his 11-person leadership team have been with Hopson since the Memphis attorney was named superintendent of Shelby County Schools in 2013.

As the 2017-18 school year begins, here are the lieutenants that Hopson has recruited to help him lead schools in one of the most challenging education landscapes in America.

Brian Stockton, chief of staff

Brian Stockton (Laura Faith Kebede)

Salary: $157,500
Duties: Oversees superintendent initiatives, supervises other chiefs and their departments, connects school-level staff to central office decision-making, cultivates relationships with local governing bodies, handles day-to-day emergencies.
His story: The Memphis native returned home last year after 25 years away, including a stint as a leadership analyst for a government contractor in Washington, D.C. There, he was in charge of stemming attrition, boosting morale and developing leaders. Stockton is a 1990 graduate of Central High School. (Read our Q&A with him when he joined Hopson’s team.)

Gerald Darling, chief of student services

Gerald Darling (Laura Faith Kebede)

Salary: $163,200
Duties: Leads security teams and prevention programs around truancy, gang involvement, violence and out-of-school suspensions, as well as sports, medical and emergency services for schools.
His story: Darling was chief of police for Miami-Dade Schools from 2004 to 2008, when former Memphis City Schools Superintendent Kriner Cash hired him to lead the district’s security division, a new cabinet post at the time.

 

Sharon Griffin, chief of schools

Sharon Griffin (Kayleigh Skinner)

Salary: $165,000
Duties: Supervises and supports principals and oversee teacher coaching, leadership development, virtual schools and the Innovation Zone school turnaround program.
Her story: Griffin was promoted to her new job in January after five years as regional superintendent of the iZone, one of the district’s most successful programs. Before that, she led a turnaround effort as principal of Airways Middle School. A Memphis native, Griffin is a graduate of LeMoyne-Owen College and received her doctorate at the University of Memphis. She was named Tennessee’s 2015 supervisor of the year.

Lin Johnson, chief of finance

Lin Johnson (Caroline Bauman)

Salary: $155,000
Duties: Crafts and maintains the district’s budget, monitors spending, looks for new sources of revenue, and allocates money to the district’s nearly 200 schools.
His story: Johnson was hired in 2015 after serving as director of special initiatives for the Tennessee Department of Education and director of finance and operations for the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board.

 

Brad Leon, chief of strategy and performance management

Brad Leon (SCS)

Salary: $157,500
Duties: Oversees charter schools, school accountability and testing, planning and research.
His story: Leon started out with Teach For America as a middle school teacher at a New Orleans charter school, where he was voted Teacher of the Year in 2002. He went on to become a regional vice president at Teach For America and the first regional executive director of TFA in Memphis from 2006 to 2010. He joined Hopson’s cabinet in 2013 to lead the district’s innovation department.

 

Rodney Moore, chief general counsel

Rodney Moore

Salary: $192,270
Duties: Oversees legal matters, including the district’s funding lawsuit against the state.
His story: Moore joined the district in 2016. He previously was a partner in Atlanta with Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, which the district hired in 2015 to explore litigation against the state over funding. He is a former president of the National Bar Association and has served on the National School Board Association’s Council of School Lawyers.

Leon Pattman, chief of internal audit

Leon Pattman (SCS)

Salary: $143,820
Duties: Evaluates processes, monitors operations, leads risk management strategies.
His story: Pattman came to Shelby County Schools in 2015 from the City of Memphis, where he was the chief audit executive. He has held roles in finance, compliance, auditing and information management with the U.S. Treasury and U.S. Air Force.

 

Beth Phalen, chief of business operations

Beth Phalen (SCS)

Salary: $176,000
Duties: Oversees facilities planning and maintenance, nutrition services, district purchases and contracts, transportation and risk management.
Her story: The most recent hire to Hopson’s cabinet, Phalen previously was executive vice president of strategy and operations for ISS Facility Services and vice president of business operations at Memphis-based ServiceMaster.

 

 

Natalia Powers, chief of communications & community engagement

Natalia Powers (Shelby County Schools)

Salary: $139,230
Duties: Oversees internal and external communications, media relations, digital and print publications, social media, television and radio broadcasting services, and community outreach.
Her story: Powers was hired in 2016 after climbing the ranks in the school district of Palm Beach, Fla., from translator and interpreter, teacher for English language learners, program coordinator, and head of communications and community engagement.

 

Trinette Small, chief of human resources

Trinette Small

Salary: $141,500
Duties: Handles recruiting and retaining employees as well as salaries and benefits.
Her story: Small has held this job since the creation of Shelby County Schools following the merger of city and county schools in 2013.

 

 

John Williams, chief information officer

John Williams (Laura Faith Kebede)

Salary: $158,100
Duties: Provides data systems for administrators and classroom technology for students and teachers.
His story: Williams was hired in 2015 after serving in the same role with Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. He has held technology and telecommunications positions with Atlanta Public Schools and Orange County Schools in Orlando, Fla.

 

 

Editor’s note: Salary information is based on a list of full-time positions with Shelby County Schools as of April 2017. District officials did not confirm those numbers after multiple requests.