Robert Torres, ED.M

Robert has taught both K-12 students and teachers since 1988. From 1991-93, he taught elementary school as a Teach For American (TFA) corps member. In 1993 he served as a faculty member at TFA and in 1994 he joined the organization’s national headquarters as president of the national faculty. In 1995 he launched and served as the executive director of The Learning Project, a not-for-profit organization that would design new schools in Houston, Texas and New York City. There he designed and directed The Learning Project One Middle School in the Lower East Side, which after three years enabled 58% of students to score at or above grade level in reading and 69% in math, making it the second highest scoring middle school in District One. In 1999 he joined Clearpool, Inc where he served as director of education and designer of the Clearpool Children's Charter School. In the summer of 2002, Robert launched designbydesign, a not for profit education school design consulting group that coaches principals and teachers on structural and instructional school design issues.

Concerned with the alarming rate of poverty in the United States and its impact on marginalized communities, from 1994-2000 Robert wrote and produced an auto-biographical cinema-verité documentary film on the impact of poverty on his Puerto Rican family in New York. The film, Nuyorican Dream, premiered at the Sundance 2000 Film Festival, was acquired by and aired on HBO, and has won numerous awards in the United States and abroad. The documentary offers blunt observations and statistics about the legacy of colonialism, the inadequate inner-city educational system and discrimination. Currently, Robert is executive producing The Fourth Purpose, a documentary film about the historical purpose and present day outcomes of the American compulsory school system. Robert has presented on media, education, race and poverty at Harvard University’s Forum, Amherst College, Wellesley College, New York University, Rutgers University, Hunter College, Bard College, Audrey Cohen College, California State University at Los Angeles, University of San Francisco, Williams College, The Taft School, Packer-Collegiate, The Independent Film Project and at El Puente Academy High School.

Robert completed his bachelors with a double major in English and Spanish literature form Oberlin College. Additionally, he completed a Masters in policy and school administration at Bank Street College of Education and was a Stanford University Research Fellow. Currently Robert is pursuing a doctorate focused on media and education at New York University.