Honoree: Tia Dwyer

Chief Operating Officer
Think Together

Tia Dwyer is an innovative leader with 17-plus years of organizational leadership resulting in significant growth of revenue, providing fiscal and strategic leadership. From her roots as a teacher in the Los Angeles area, her journey reflects a commitment to educational equity. In her teaching career, Dwyer quickly saw the students she was teaching needed more support outside the regular school day to overcome the various challenges they faced. When California started to fund afterschool and summer programs with the historic passage of Prop 49 in 2002, she applied to become the administrator of that program in her district. Under her leadership, the program became a state model.

In 2009, Dwyer was introduced to Think Together, one of the area’s leading afterschool program providers. Think Together partners with schools to change the odds for kids and delivers nationally recognized expanded learning programs and school improvement. She joined the organization as director of summer learning during a period of rapid expansion and built a national summer learning model in the Santa Ana Unified School District. Over the years, Dwyer progressed in leadership roles, overseeing Orange County as general manager and later all of California. By 2017, she was appointed to the role of chief operating officer to oversee the expansion of Think Together throughout the state. The organization has grown into programs in over 400 California schools - from San Diego to San Francisco - serving over 200,000 students.

Today, Dwyer leads the organization’s Talent Acquisition, Human Resources, Organization Development, Program Design & Implementation, Data & Evaluation and Business Development for Think Together. By focusing on the processes and operations of the organization, her strategic vision continues to shape educational landscapes and elevate opportunities for countless students statewide. With the receiving of additional funding through the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program (ELO-P), Think Together experienced a period of unprecedented growth amid nationwide staffing shortages. Dwyer has built a 50-person talent acquisition team, hiring over 5,000 people this last year. This strategic move propelled Think Together’s revenue from $80 million to over $250 million, positioning it as one of the fastest-growing large nonprofits in the U.S.