Andrew Saunders

Andrew Saunders is the Co-founder of New Blue, a nonprofit which connects community members and police leaders so that they can reform local police policies and procedures. New Blue focuses on supporting these community partnerships with the skills, networks, and funding to foster systemic change at the local level. From LAPD to the suburbs of Chicago, New Blue has fellows in departments across the nation. Recently, the organization won Columbia Business School’s Social Innovation Award, and is partnered with MIT Solve, NYU School of Law’s Policing Project, The Center for Police Equity and The Chicago Crime Lab. Saunders previously served as a patrol and Crisis Intervention officer in Wilson, NC, where he spent a large portion of his time supporting police-led youth programs and the local school district. After witnessing the school-to-prison pipeline firsthand, Saunders refocused his leadership on K-12 classrooms and went on to teach low income students of color as a Teach For America Corps Member. He was a Vice President of Recruitment with Teach For America, where he recruited and placed more than 1000 diverse college graduates as teachers in low income communities across the nation. He was named as a 2020 Executive Director Fellow where he completed a rigorous year-long non-profit executive preparatory experience focused on public engagement, fundraising, and governance. Saunders was also an elected member of a local Board of Education, an appointed School Board Association Delegate, a member of Leadership for Educational Equity, and a Master of Public Administration candidate.