Tracy-Elizabeth Clay
Not too many organizations have turned the struggling economy into good times. But for Tracy-Elizabeth Clay, general counsel of Teach for America (TFA), 2009 has not just been a good time–it has been a boom time. This year, the non-profit–which places recently graduated teachers in underresourced schools received 35,000 applications for 4,000 teaching slots, a 42 percent increase from 2008. While the growth is thrilling, it also creates new challenges for TFA’s small legal team. “My primary job over the past three years has been building the legal function to match the needs of this rapidly growing organization,” Clay says. “That’s going to continue to be my primary focus: How do I construct a legal team that meets those needs yet preserves the nimble, entrepreneurial spirit that is part of what makes Teach for America so successful?”
