By Rachel Duncan 

Photo courtesy of Erica Coffey.

Wednesday, January 17 marked former Collegiate Director of Inclusion and Global Engagement Erica Coffey’s, “Khanniversary,”a year since her transition from Collegiate to Khan Academy.

Coffey first came to Collegiate in the 2007-2008 school year as a full-time Upper School Spanish teacher, track coach, and SCA advisor. Throughout her time, she would additionally take on roles as a Dean of Student Life, a faculty member in the Admissions Office, a coach for winter and spring track and field, a leader of all of the advisory programs in the Upper School, a Senior Capstone teacher, and an advisor. Coffey laughingly admits, “I’ve had so many different titles and roles at Collegiate, I had to reach out to HR for help!” 

Moreover, in 2017, Coffey helped students start United Sisters and Brothers (USB) at Collegiate, an African American affinity group dedicated to creating a space for authentic connections, celebrating diversity, and providing emotional support for experiences, challenges, and triumphs within the Black student community. 

In her final year, in addition to her director role, Coffey also co-taught the Senior Capstone classes IEL Americas and TEDxYouth@RVA, and served as an advisor. Because of her lasting ties, after accepting her position at Khan Academy, Coffey continued commuting to Collegiate to honor her commitment to her students the rest of that semester. Additionally, Coffey has two children—Kyla (’24) and Kai (’30)—at Collegiate, and her husband Kevin coaches and teacher Middle School P.E. She explains, “I haven’t been gone from Collegiate very long, considering that I co-taught a course in the fall semester. I’m just now getting to a point of there being more distance.”

Coffey and Collegiate students at BIMUN in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico.  Photo courtesy of Erica Coffey.

“At Collegiate, I was able to work with a very wide constituent base that gave me experience in working with people with a wide variety of perspectives” said Coffey while reminiscing on her time here. She continued, “I will miss the colleagues that became friends, and the students that I had built deep relationships with.”

Presently, Coffey is the Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) for Khan Academy, “a personalized learning resource for all ages,” as stated on their website. Her main role is to implement their DEIB strategic plan, which focuses on three main areas: aligning values and behavior within the organization, hiring and retention, and prioritizing historically under-resourced communities. Within a year, Coffey has gotten her workplace investigation certification, developed a safety travel plan for employees, rewritten the strategic plan, developed guidelines for affinity, ally, and social groups, and accomplished other achievements. Currently she is working on improving the hiring and interviewing process, developing a class in Khan Academy about the values of Khan Academy, and training employees so that there is a feeling of belonging. 

While Coffey’s new position is geared towards working with employees rather than students, she explained that, “I believe that if we get the right people in my place in Khan Academy, then the impact on our learners will be bigger. You have to have people in place that believe in the mission, have diverse backgrounds, and feel like they belong in the organization. All this, and research shows that you will get a big return on investment. And our investment is the learners that we serve. The mission of Khan Academy is to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.”

“My favorite part about my job is the flexibility,” Coffey shared as she summarized her workday. “There is no set work schedule, and every day is different.” Working from home, Coffey describes how she gets up to see her family off to school, has a cup of coffee, and starts her work day. She checks Slack, their main source of communication. “It’s like email on steroids,” she humorously compared. “Because we work in so many different time zones, there’s usually something in there that I didn’t see before.” She explained how sometimes her day is filled with multiple meetings, while other times she finds herself passionately enthralled in a singular project from 9 to 5, the hours she chooses to log on and off. While she loves the creativity and freedom to try out new ideas, she also mentioned the importance of accountability in staying on track. “I love what I do,” Coffey said.

While as a beloved former Collegiate faculty member, Coffey is dearly missed, it is also inspiring to see someone who looks like me having a worldwide impact. USB member Treasure Brown (‘24) conveyed, “Obviously her character is missed. Her personality was very infectious and welcoming, but also she was one of very few Black faculty members, and so I think losing someone you can see yourself in and relate to was a loss.” No words can amount to the legacy that Coffey left on the Collegiate community. Upper School counselor and current USB faculty sponsor Antenette Stokes expressed, “When I was contemplating applying to Collegiate, Erica Coffey took the time to engage in a meaningful conversation with me, a stranger, addressing all the questions I had about the school community… Her actions spoke volumes about the person she is—kind, generous, and compassionate. We will forever be indebted to her for the impactful work she has undertaken.”

Upper School English teacher and Match adviser Vlastik Svab remarked, “Erica Coffey and I arrived at Collegiate the same year, and she was always a wonderful colleague and friend who could be depended on for wisdom, a laugh, and a shoulder to lean on. She was so essential in providing support to our students, especially our students of color. As much as we miss her, I know she is doing amazing things in her new role at Khan too.”