ABOUT US

Powerhouse Collective exists to make family and community engagement the core strategy for educational improvement by partnering with education leaders to build trust-based family and community partnerships that lead to measurable gains across evolving priorities for children and youth.

Our Mission

Our Approach

Powerhouse Collective believes that every family and community is a powerhouse—full of generational wisdom, expertise, dreams and hopes for their children. Research tells us that when families are invited to partner with educators and decision-makers, the results are transformative for children and youth.

Using family engagement research, collaborative design, and evidence-based practices, we help leaders implement engagement strategies to advance priorities co-designed with families, bolster teaching and learning goals, and sustain outcomes.

Our capacity-building programs and services turn vision into action and results by applying engagement principles across four of today’s most pressing challenges impacting historically marginalized children and youth:

  • Early Learning and Kindergarten Readiness

  • Academic Achievement and Recovery

  • Student Attendance

  • Digital Literacy and Wellness

Innovative learning systems are designed and continuously improved with families and communities—not for them. We’ll show you how.

Meet Our Founder

Meet Our Founder

Cassandra J. McGraw, Ed.M.

Cassandra McGraw is the President and CEO of Powerhouse Collective, an education strategy organization that partners with schools, districts, families, state agencies, and organizations to strengthen learning outcomes across the P–12 continuum through family and community engagement. She brings 17 years of experience as a classroom teacher, school leader, and coach, and as a senior leader within community-based and national philanthropic and nonprofit organizations, where she has led the design and implementation of education strategies that drive meaningful outcomes for children and families.

Cassandra has led local, state, and national education initiatives across urban, rural, remote, and Indigenous communities, including work with federally funded Family Engagement Centers in North Carolina, Nebraska, Washington, and Colorado. Throughout her leadership, Cassandra has built and sustained partnerships across national, state, and local organizations, including the Southern Education Foundation, the San Francisco Department of Early Childhood Education, PNC, Google, as well as school districts, libraries, and community-based organizations. These efforts have contributed to outcomes such as increased student attendance, stronger kindergarten readiness, improved family–school partnerships, and expanded intergenerational digital literacy

Driven by the fundamental belief that every family and community is a powerhouse, full of brilliance, hopes and dreams, and leadership that can change the world for the better, Cassandra advances family engagement through Powerhouse Collective as a core strategy for addressing four issues shaping children’s educational and life trajectories: kindergarten readiness, digital literacy and wellness, student attendance, and academic achievement. This belief guides her work and shapes how she holds families in the highest regard, centering trust-based family and community partnerships within systems aligned to data, accountability structures, and long-term improvement goals in service of children and families.

Cassandra holds a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from the University of Central Florida with Reading and ESOL certifications, a Master of Education in Education Leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a post-graduate certificate from the Perrone-Sizer Institute for Creative Leadership at Boston University.