Amaris Salazar is the Founding Principal of Rocketship Explore Elementary. She has 27 years of experience as a progressive educator in the United States and internationally. She has enjoyed being a teacher, counselor, administrator, and consultant at some of the world’s most innovative educational organizations. She has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and Spanish, as well as advanced degrees in counseling and educational administration. Amaris was the founding head of school of two ELEducation schools as well as a School Designer who helped direct the writing of the Common Core curriculum for New York State. As Director of Teaching and Learning at Graded – The American School of Sao Paulo, she helped lead school change initiatives around competency-based assessment, project-based curriculum review and development, instructional coaching as professional development and student support services. Amaris has been an educator in Colombia for the past 4.5 years, originally as the Middle School and Academic Director at Gimnasio los Caobos. She most recently served as the founding Head of School at Avante Global School in Cartagena, Colombia where she led a team of dynamic educators focused on creating innovative and powerful personalized learning experiences for the next generation in Colombia.