Former Teach For America Baltimore Executive Director Omari Todd brought more than 1,000 teachers to Baltimore and helped shape the meteoric growth of an entire national organization.

Omari Todd, Senior Vice President, Regional Field Executive for Teach For America, dies

Two great loves featured prominently in the life of Omari Todd. Serendipitously, he found both at a teacher training institute in Houston, Texas.

During a Teach for America welcome reception in July of 2000, his trajectory forever changed when he observed a beautiful young woman in an orange dress who’d later become his wife, Shaylin Harris. He also found an auditorium filled with hundreds of individuals who, like Todd, felt morally charged to agitate, teach and lead toward educational equity for all children.

He put away long-held plans to become a doctor, and instead devoted himself to improving the life outcomes of students and families impacted by racism and poverty.

Todd’s two-year placement in Baltimore became a two-decades long assignment. Todd’s impact quickly expanded from elementary school teacher to community organizer. Within six years, he became the executive director of Teach for America Baltimore, the first black man to serve in that role for the Baltimore region. Todd’s specialty was identifying a community need and finding a solution that felt both authentic and sustainable—whether organizing to end food deserts in West Baltimore or creating new affordable housing in the Oliver community of Baltimore or finding new teaching talent for City Schools. Armed with his experiences at Yorkwood Elementary and the organizing chops honed through Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development (BUILD), Todd took the helm of his beloved Baltimore region and increased the corps of Baltimore Teach for America teachers in Baltimore City Public Schools by 80 percent.

His upward trajectory never faltered—nor did it ever stray from his greatest professional love: Teach for America. Over the next seventeen years, as part of the national organization’s executive leadership, Todd helped shape the organization’s meteoric growth, opening multiple regions for the organization, helping to shape national strategy and—above all else—helping to shepherd a culture of community, service and impact.

Todd was born in Birmingham, Alabama attending Holy Family Elementary School, Daniel Payne Middle School, and Ramsay High School. He attended Xavier University of Louisiana graduating with a major in Psychology with plans to become a doctor. Born to the late Paul Todd and Vashone Todd, he was raised in a deep culture of paying it forward, espousing as Muhammad Ali said, that “service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.” He’d chosen to commit two years, post-graduation, to teach in Baltimore- a city that has been the beneficiary of his love and leadership for over 20 years.

In addition to his abiding love of Baltimore, Todd often found himself on the road, coaching, mentoring, and advising national and regional staff. He never limited the scope of people he could love to immediate family or a handful of friends.

And, always in his heart was Birmingham with all the people, places, and possibilities his childhood home encompassed. A twin and one of three brothers, he never felt restricted by proximity—showing up for his siblings and their families whether down the street or from 800 miles away. When his twin brother became a ‘Pop Pop,’ it only made sense that Todd would be dubbed ‘Uncle Pop Pop.’

Todd picked up devoted friends the way a snowball rolling down a mountain simply melds with the snow underneath and brings it along the path. Todd had no casual friends, rather, he had hundreds of individuals who might describe him as their best friend, a trusted confidant and mentor—and, indeed, he was.

As a leader, he took pride in bringing those individuals not only into his orbit but helping them find their place of impact. He knew not only the people who should be ‘on the bus’ but exactly which seat they needed to inhabit so they could have their greatest impact. Todd often helped others see what they might not see in themselves and cultivate that leadership to its fullest potential. He was found often asking ‘Why aren’t you thinking bigger?’ because he knew that kids, communities, and the leadership of others would not flourish with small thinking. Almost never, though, was that question posed for himself: Todd felt secure in his place of impact, a behind the scenes champion who could help maximize the growth and leadership of others. And so, while he was never content with the state of the world, he knew he’d found his rightful place in it.

Despite that behind-the-scenes role, Todd was pure charisma, the Pied Piper who could draw every child and adult in with his deep laugh and magnetic personality. In recent years, he claimed to be an introvert trapped in an extrovert’s body—a laughable remark to anyone who’d spent even five minutes in his presence. He thrived on people and the reciprocal nature of being in deep and meaningful relationship with them.

Those relationships were never a one-way street. For Todd, the great joy of his life came from fueling these deep connections and supporting those he loved the most. Diagnosed with Melanoma in 2021, Todd kept much of the burden of his diagnosis and treatment private—not wanting to burden others with the weight of that reality. In his mind, there was always a way to be of service to others—never a distraction, and until the very end, whether it was ensuring his children were loved on or a final budget was submitted, he committed himself to that service.

Each person he saw, each conversation he had was an opportunity to get to the heart of things; to better understand not only who they were, but why they did the work. Only then, could they truly understand their purpose in this life.

That was Todd, in his element, when, at twenty-two years old, he offered to drive Shaylin to a party, moments after they’d met through Teach for America. He asked her to sit in the front seat, then peppered her with questions: How many siblings do you have? What was is your relationship like with your parents? Tell me about your family.

Indeed, his greatest accomplishment was building their nuclear family, affectionately called “Team Todd.” As a professional, Todd was always in motion and multitasking, but as a father tasked with safeguarding his children, he was measured and deliberate. Todd relished the opportunity to drive his daughter to school or spend a Sunday afternoon grilling a family meal. They were the sun in his solar system; raising them in a culture of faith and service was his one, true priority.

Todd is survived by wife, Shaylin, and his children, Olivia (14) and Owen (11); brother Shomari Todd (Kimberly), sister in law Kozette Todd; nieces, Latrysha Woods (Tyrone), Angel Williams, Sidney Todd, Kalia Todd, Kaia Todd, and Kamari Todd; great nephew, Amauri-Paul Woods, mother in law Rita M. Harris. 

Todd is preceded by his father Paul T. Todd and brother Paul Montee Todd. Father in law Gregory A. Washington and brother in law Montoya K. Harris. 

But so too, is he survived by a deeply mourning community too large to be named by specific individuals. He is survived by ‘Baltimore, ‘Birmingham’, ‘TFA’ ‘BUILD’ and ‘Xavier’.

“His assignment is complete,” Shaylin wrote, after that faithful servant transitioned on Tuesday, April 25. In forty-five years, his impact could rival those with twice as many years. Todd was ‘All in,’ always.

But while his personal assignment may be complete, his charge to each of those who loved him best remains ongoing: Love those around you, be ever in service to others, and always find your place to impact this world. Because that is the rent that each of us pays for the gift of years we are given. And this community could find no better teacher of that wisdom than Omari Todd. 

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