Travis Wharton

Travis Wharton is a Research Assistant at EdRedesign. A native of Greenville, SC, he graduated from Claflin University in 2007 with a B.A. in Music Education. He began his teaching career as a middle school band director in Berkeley County Schools. Travis journeyed back to the Upstate and received his master’s degree in School Administration and Supervision from Clemson University in 2012. Since then, Travis has served as principal at both Mitchell Road Christian Academy and NEXT High School. His love of his community and growing awareness of the economic, educational and political disparities of people in poverty drew him to shift his career from education into the non-profit arena.

In 2018, Travis launched The Wharton Company LLC, a consulting firm focused on helping to leverage philanthropic assets to empower communities at the intersection of education and economic mobility. Notably, Travis led the work of The Spartanburg Network for Economic Mobility at The Spartanburg County Foundation in partnership with the Network for Southern Economic Mobility. Travis is currently working to increase his leadership capacity at the Harvard Graduate School of Education as a candidate in its Doctor of Education Leadership program. He believes that community-level power and systems will be the key to answering our country’s toughest questions in an uncharted future.