Both Vincent Cobb II and Rashiid Coleman attended public schools and have experienced the lack of Black male educators. Cobb said he had one Black male teacher that inspired him, while Coleman said he had several. Both who identify as Black men, have seen the work of SHI (“Summer House”) as their own “identity-based work” reflecting and responding to a need of having national early exposure and pre-service educator programs that  could’ve reached them sooner to make an impact in schools and motivate younger Black males to join the education field, the same way their teachers inspired them. 

In 2017, these two men created and launched the first ever National Black Male Educators Convening with a local group of educators and mentors, garnering the attendance of 1100 attendees annually and representing over 30 cities that gave impetus to their work to officially launch SHI. Since then, these emerging leaders have been able to draw a lot of attention nationally and started a necessary conversation that has been a priority for major school districts to see more diversity in their candidate pool for a while now.

Coleman, who worked as a teacher and school dean for three years before transitioning to working as a social innovator full-time and Cobb who has an eight-year history in public schools in school leadership both took a leap of faith to start a non profit dedicated to Black male undergraduates interested in the field of education. Two forces of passionate and visionary young Black men created a space where they are not just highlighting a problem but providing solutions as well as robust talent pipelines into schools and now more broadly young entrepreneurs and tech professionals.

Coleman has a B.S. from Slippery Rock and MBA from LaSalle University. Cobb has a B.A. from the Maxwell School, and an M.S. in Education from Syracuse University. The combination of these backgrounds provides not only 13 years of professional experience as educators in public schools but also adds business acumen and a policy lens into the work.