Terence Patterson
President & Chief Executive Officer
Terence Patterson is currently the Chief Executive Officer for the Memphis Education Fund, a non-profit investment fund focused on improving urban K-12 education systems and student outcomes, where he has served since 2018. Prior to assuming this role, he served as its Founding Chairman in partnership with local and national philanthropic leaders.
He has a relentless focus on improving K-12 public education systems and schools in predominantly economically disadvantaged, Black communities. His fundamental belief is that all children can achieve at a high level when given access to talented leaders/mentors and a policy environment that is supportive of their diverse and changing needs. Every day this is the work of the Memphis Education Fund—to improve local education policy, to support policymakers serving in the best interests of students and to invest in research-based, innovative academic systems, models and frameworks to alleviate any equity gaps in our communities.
His deep professional commitment to his hometown began in 2011. From 2011 to 2015, he served as Education Program Director for Hyde Family Foundations focused on change making investments to the Memphis and Shelby County public education system. From 2015 to 2018, he expanded his city building impact to economic development, where he served as the first Black and youngest Chief Executive Officer of the Downtown Memphis Commission, the organization charged with advancing Memphis and Shelby County by making Downtown Memphis a better place to work, live, play, and invest.
Prior to his work in the non-profit sector in Memphis, Patterson worked as a senior executive (Deputy Chief of Staff and Interim Executive Officer of New Schools) at Chicago Public Schools, a corporate attorney at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Chicago and a Senior Financial Analyst at The Walt Disney Company in California.
He currently serves as a Member of the Board of Directors for the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and Chair of the School Performance and Accountability Committee of the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission. Patterson holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from Harvard University, where he was a two-time All-Ivy League football player and graduated as the school’s All-Time Reception Leader. He also holds prestigious MBA and law degrees from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and Pritzker School of Law. He is a Life Member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated. In his spare time, he is a proud and devoted father, coach and mentor to his 11-year-old son.