Co-Founder & Executive Director
Kareem Weaver
Kareem is the Co-Founder & Executive Director of FULCRUM. He is an award-winning educator and community advocate with extensive experience leading schools and systems in district, juvenile justice, and managed-care settings. His advocacy is featured in the 2023 documentary The Right to Read.
Kareem’s commitment to literacy is deep-rooted. He credits the quality of his education to a program through A Better Chance, a nonprofit that provides high-performing students of color access to the best schools, helping them become the nation’s next leaders. This program was foundational to Kareem’s understanding that education is the greatest equalizer. Kareem became a first-generation college graduate after obtaining a bachelor's degree from Morehouse College and a master’s in clinical-community psychology from the University of South Carolina. At Morehouse, Kareem co-founded Students for the Children of Incarcerated Parents (SCIP), an endeavor that underlined illiteracy’s crushing impact on these families and their communication.
Kareem has limited availability for speaking engagements. Complete this form to submit a request.
Armed with this knowledge, Kareem began his career in the classroom, rooting his approach in evidence-based methods exemplified by Marva Collins and the American Federation of Teachers—today, these strategies are referred to as the Science of Reading. Kareem taught grades spanning elementary to high school before becoming an administrator and eventually accepting the role of Executive Director—Western Region at New Leaders, an organization committed to developing technical, adaptive, and instructional leadership skills in educators serving high-needs schools.
Later, Kareem continued his community-based work as the Commissions Chair for the Oakland East Bay Alliance of Black Educators and provided financial and technical support to diverse schools from districts to reservations as a managing partner at a funding organization. He is the current 2nd Vice President and Education Committee Chair for the Oakland NAACP.
In 2018, Kareem took a year-long hiatus to examine a critical question: Why weren’t children in Oakland reading? His research and exploration unearthed jarring realizations that eventually led to FULCRUM. Read the full story here.
Kareem has engaged with the Council of the Great City Schools, the College Board, and the Ontario Human Rights Commission on literacy as a civil right. He has offered diagnostic support to districts, states, and educator preparation programs; presented at over 100 conferences, departments of education, universities, and community organizations; and led field visits for system leaders, all in service of bringing clarity to the literacy crisis and illuminating the most productive path forward so that all children have access to Full and Complete Reading, which is a Universal Mandate (FULCRUM).
Upcoming Engagements
Keynote Speaker—Memphis Literacy Institute Annual Symposium (September 2024)
Panel Speaker—Drexel University’s Science of Reading Day (September 2024)
Speaker—Chatham Educational Alliance: Literacy Week (October 2024)
Speaker—DyslexiaCon 24 (October 2024)
Speaker—Project Peace: Speaker Series (November 2024)
Speaker—Mississippi Literacy Association Conference (December 2024)
Select Past Engagements
Keynote Presenter—Inaugural Black Literacy Matters Conference (2024)
Keynote Presenter—5280 Literacy Leadership Symposium (2024)
Keynote Presenter—Embracing Literacy Conference (2024)
Speaker—Alabama State Department of Education’s Conference, Unlocking Potential: The Power of Education (2024)
Presenter—Annual Plain Talk Conference (2023, 2024)
Keynote Speaker—Los Angeles County Office of Education’s Structured Literacy Symposium (2023)
Keynote Speaker—The Reading League Annual Symposium (2023)
Speaker—Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival (2023)
Keynote Speaker—University of Minnesota’s LEAD Conference (2023)
Speaker—American Federation of Teachers (AFT) TEACH Conference (2023)
Speaker—California Elementary Literacy Conference: Everyone Has the Right to Read (2023)
Speaker—Council of the Great City Schools’ Annual Legislative/Policy Conference (2023)
Speaker—Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) Joint Legislative Conference (2023)
Speaker—International Dyslexia Association Southwest Annual Conference (2023)