Our team.
Leadership.
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David "TC" Ellis
The Founder and CEO of Studio-4 and the High School for Recording Arts, TC turned his journey as Minnesota's first rap recording artist into an Oxford-honored model for re-engaging youth through creative learning.
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Tony Simmons
Tony Simmons is the Executive Director of HSRA and Co-Founder of the New School Creation Fellowship at High Tech High, an attorney-turned-educator who has spent decades building national models for student-centered, justice-oriented school design.
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Michael Lipset
Michael Lipset, PhD, is co-author of Hip Hop Genius 2.0: Remixing High School, a McGill-trained researcher, award-winning MC, and Director of 4 Learning whose work centers Hip-Hop pedagogy, digital media literacy, and school re-engagement.
Coaches.
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Rab Bakari (In Memoriam)
Rab Bakari was a visionary DJ, music producer, and educator credited alongside Reggie Rockstone with pioneering Ghana's Hiplife genre, who brought his New York Hip Hop roots and 12+ years at Universal Music Group/Def Jam to mentoring artists across the African continent.
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TRY Bishop
TRY Bishop is a Grammy-nominated, Dove Award-winning music producer from Saint Paul, MN — with credits spanning Koryn Hawthorne, Akon, and T-Pain — who has brought recording arts learning to the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
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Elyse Burden
Elyse Burden is the Forbes 30 Under 30 Co-Founder and Executive Director of Real World Scholars, and the architect of the EdCorps model that has launched 625+ student-run businesses across the U.S.
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Joey Cienian
Joey Cienian is the Executive Director of the Minnesota Association of Charter Schools. He served for 12 years as the Educaiton Director at the High School for Recording Arts where he developed competency-based assessment, social justice programming, and trauma-informed re-engagement through Hip Hop pedagogy.
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Alice Cook
Alice Cook is a K-12 educator, instructional coach, and PhD candidate in Minority and Urban Education at the University of Maryland, who co-leads a Math for Justice curriculum at HSRA and serves as co-principal investigator on an NSF-funded study of African American youth's mathematical identity.
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Haben Ghebregergish
Haben Ghebregergish is the Lead Math Facilitator at HSRA, a social justice math educator and University of Chicago alum who also coaches Bridgemakers, the youth-led nonprofit that secured legislation making Minnesota high school students eligible for unemployment benefits.
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Alexis Gwin-Miller
Alexis Gwin-Miller is an educational equity leader and CEO of Momentum Edge with 20+ years of K-12 leadership in Memphis, TN, who designs transformative learning environments rooted in personalized learning, competency-based instruction, and community justice.
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Scott Herold
Scott Herold is the Founder of Rock the Cause Records — a music nonprofit with 30.5 million streams — who teaches the Business of Music and Media at HSRA and leads the Vocational Discovery Job Squad connecting students to real-world industry careers.
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Timothy Jones
Timothy Jones is a writer, ordained minister, Hip-Hop scholar, and Chief Visionary Officer of HipHopEd who teaches at Teachers College Columbia University and Howard University while running Techniques4Learning LLC, an education-focused youth engagement and staff training firm.
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Norbert Kruezer
Norbert Kreuzer is a two-time Platinum-winning audio engineer and career college executive who served as President/CEO of IPR College and the Institute of Audio Research, an Education Specialist at the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC), and runs the Diverse Media Institute from within the High School for Recording Arts.
Studio facilitators.
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Phil Winden
A founding studio partner at HSRA and Director of Studio Facilitation for 4 Learning, Phil Winden brings over 32 years of music production expertise—spanning audio engineering, studio design, and curriculum development—to inspire youth through the art of recording.
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Scott Martin
A Los Angeles-based professional audio engineer with 20 years of experience mixing and mastering for Hip Hop's most notable independent artists, Scott Martin has served as a Studio Facilitator at HSRA LA since 2018, mentoring young people ages 16–24 on their path to music industry careers.
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Jordan Lyles
An American artist, songwriter, and record producer, Jordan Lyles channels a deep faith and community spirit into music he began crafting from the ground up, representing his family, city, and values through every project.
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Marcus Porter
A Hip-hop/R&B artist, engineer, and producer based in Madison, WI, Marcus Porter blends Indie, Backpack Rap, and R&B to create music he believes is both uplifting and inspirational, while actively working with youth and building his brand through live performance and studio work.
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Keilyn Davis
A Youngstown, Ohio native shaped by hip-hop culture from childhood, Keilyn has built a career that spans legendary performance venues and the classroom, bringing his lifelong passion for the art form to audiences and students across the country.
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Dave D Delgado
David Delgado (aka Dav D Beats) is a Southern California-based music producer, audio engineer, and educator whose decade of professional experience — spanning independent and nationally recognized artists across multiple genres — drives his hands-on, industry-focused approach to teaching music production and Pro Tools.
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Andre Dennis
Andre "Scorz" Dennis is a Philadelphia-born producer, engineer, and songwriter with over 25 years of hip-hop, R&B, and pop experience, working with artists at every level from first-time creators to major label professionals.
Board members.
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Mandy Smith
Board of Directors
BOARD CHAIRMandy Smith is a 6th grade ELA and history teacher whose classroom practice — rooted in identity work, mindfulness, restorative circles, and student passion projects — exemplifies the learner-centered values at the heart of 4 Learning.
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Javier Guzman
Board of Directors
TREASURERJavier Guzman is the CEO of the Center for Powerful Public Schools and architect of the Upstream Collaborative, a veteran educator who grew Big Picture Learning's California network from 6 to 40+ schools and has spent nearly three decades transforming education for students furthest from opportunity.
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Robert Redd
Board of Directors
SECRETARYRobert Redd is a 25+ year entertainment executive who has led brand development and marketing campaigns for artists including Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, and Master P across Cubevision, Priority Records, and Lench Mob Productions.
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Daniel "D Smoke" Farris
Advisory Board
Daniel 'D Smoke' Farris is the Grammy-nominated champion of Netflix's Rhythm + Flow, a former Spanish teacher, the first Studio Director of the Studio 4 Los Angeles Program, and a longtime supporter of 4 Learning's mission.
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Bronwen Low
Advisory Board
Bronwen Low is Associate Professor and Chair of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University, a leading scholar on Hip-Hop pedagogy and community-based media, and author of Slam School (Stanford, 2011) and Community-Based Media Pedagogies (Routledge, 2017).
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Linda Nathan
Advisory Board
Linda Nathan is the founding headmaster of Boston Arts Academy — Boston's first public high school for the visual and performing arts — a Harvard Ed.D., adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and author of The Hardest Questions Aren't on the Test and When Grit Isn't Enough.