The former superintendent for Atlanta Public Schools will lead an organization that serves students at historically Black colleges and universities.

Lisa Herring, whose successor took over Sept. 1, has been named president of PROPEL, “an innovation and learning hub” that works with HBCU students, a press statement from the organization said Thursday.

Herring parted with Atlanta a couple of months after the school board announced it would not offer her an extension on her contract, which would have ended next June. She had been superintendent since July 2020. Last month, the board approved a separation agreement that moved her into a consultant role until Dec. 31.

Herring was succeeded on an interim basis by Danielle Battle, a former Atlanta principal and associate superintendent.

PROPEL says Herring will lead an organization that “will serve as a catalytic epicenter of instruction, providing students with the knowledge, skills, tools and resources necessary to transform the nation’s talent pipeline and workforce.”

Georgia has 10 HBCUs. Six are located in Atlanta.

Corporate investors in PROPEL include Apple and Atlanta-based Southern Company.

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