Emily Elliott Gaffney

Chief Executive Officer

Emily is a long-time volunteer tutor and interned at nonprofits locally and abroad before studying economics at UNC-Chapel Hill and completing the two-year financial analyst program in Wells Fargo’s investment bank. While volunteering, Emily saw the challenges facing at-risk students and joined Teach for America (TFA) in 2010, where she taught math and wrote curriculum for a startup, intervention-focused middle school in San Jose, CA. Emily was then selected to be an Education Pioneers Analyst Fellow and joined the financial strategy team at Rocketship Education in Redwood City, CA, a high-growth, public elementary charter school system in low-income areas. After this fellowship, Emily returned to her hometown of Charlotte to help start Heart Tutoring in 2013. Emily believes the community collectively has the resources to ensure all students perform on grade level and are confident, enthusiastic learners, and she believes volunteer tutors are a powerful resource to make this happen!