Our Team
Angela Bass has dedicated most of her career to advancing educational excellence in Mississippi. A proud Spelman College alumna, she began her journey in the classroom through Teach For America in the Greater Mississippi Delta. Her passion for education policy reform was sparked during an internship with Mississippi First in 2009, leading her to earn a master’s in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Mississippi. Angela has taught in Mississippi, served as a founding school administrator, and held key nonprofit leadership roles including the Deputy Director of Policy at Mississippi First, the founding Executive Director of the Mississippi Early Learning Alliance and the Mississippi Regional Executive Director of RePublic Schools. From 2020 to 2022, she also served on the Mississippi State Board of Education. She rejoined Mississippi First as Executive Director in 2025 to lead the organization in driving bold change for Mississippi’s children. Angela lives in Jackson, MS with her husband, her two children, and her dog. In her spare time, she volunteers with the PTA at the public schools where her children attend, and she serves with the Mississippi chapter of the National Alumnae Association of Spelman College.
Dr. Tomeka Cheatham is a seasoned nonprofit leader and business professional with over 29 years of experience in management, retail, business startups, event planning, finance, and grant writing. A native of Prentiss, Mississippi, she began her academic journey at Hinds Community College, earning associate degrees in Business Technology and Pre-Nursing. She went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a master’s degree in Business Management from Belhaven University. Dr. Cheatham later earned her Doctorate of Business Administration with a concentration in Human Resources, also from Belhaven.
She has collaborated with artisans and entrepreneurs across Mississippi and neighboring states and currently serves as a board advisor for the Doctoral Leadership Initiative, a global program supporting master’s and doctoral students.
Dr. Cheatham is the proud mother of her daughter, Morgan Cheatham, and together they volunteer regularly at Handworks and other large-scale community events throughout the Jackson metro area. She is passionate about service, mentorship, dissertation research, and equipping the next generation of leaders through education and hands-on engagement. She also loves spending time with her family and cherishes opportunities to give back to her community.
Grace was raised in Columbia, SC. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2019 with degrees in Public Policy and Economics, and a minor in Chemistry. During college, Grace completed internships at the Brookings Institution, the US House of Representatives, and UNC’s Office of Ethics and Policy, in addition to working as a research assistant in UNC’s Department of Public Policy. After graduation, Grace moved to the Mississippi Delta as a Teach For America corps member and taught in the Sunflower County Consolidated School District for three years. In 2022, she completed a Master’s of Business Administration at Delta State University through the Teach For America Fellows Program. As the Director of Research and K-12 Policy at Mississippi First, Grace is responsible for working with the executive director to create and execute the organization’s K-12 agenda, in addition to leading the organization’s research efforts.
Micayla was born and raised in Lexington, KY. She attended Amherst College, where she received degrees (cum laude) in American Studies and Anthropology as well as a certificate in Native American and Indigenous Studies. After college, Micayla joined Teach for America’s Greater New Orleans-Louisiana Delta subregion as a corps member. She spent nearly six years as a classroom teacher in Tallulah, LA and Vicksburg, MS. In 2019, Micayla earned her master’s degree in Education Policy and Leadership from American University. Micayla was a Policy Fellow and later a Senior Policy Fellow with Teach Plus Mississippi, where her work focused on social-emotional learning and teacher retention. She joined the staff of Mississippi First in early 2022 as the Associate Director of Early Childhood Policy. Micayla works with the executive director to develop and execute Mississippi First’s early childhood policy agenda. In her free time, Micayla co-manages the Bettye Smith Brown Memorial Scholarship and enjoys her menagerie of pets.
Pheron, a Mississippi native, got to experience both rural and urban education as a student. After high school, she attended the historical, Wiley University in Marshall, Texas, earning her Bachelor’s in English. Pheron then became a Teach For America corps member, teaching high school English in the Arkansas Delta. Since then, Pheron has taught in Mississippi’s first charter school as part of the founding team, teaching 5th grade Literacy. She has also served the students of Copiah and Hinds County as an English Language Arts teacher. She served as a Teach For America staff member for the Greater Delta Region, where she coached first and second year corps members based in Jackson, Mississippi. Pheron holds a Masters of Education from Belhaven University with a concentration in Curriculum and Instruction, and a Specialists in Administration and Supervision from Delta State University.
Linda was born in Flora, MS and raised in Jackson, MS. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Jackson State University, as well as a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Texas Southern University. She has over ten (10) years’ experience with administering and managing federal grants which involved assisting organizations/non-profits plan and implement grant programs. In addition, she’s written several grants for organizations and served as a grant/peer reviewer for an array of federal grants. Linda has a passion for volunteering in her community and spending time with her favorite little person (granddaughter), Kaitlyn. As the CSP Coordinator, she assists with managing the Charter Schools Program (CSP) grant, and is responsible for implementing a subgrant competition, providing training and technical assistance (TA), managing subgrant drawdown requests, supporting monitoring, and maintaining Mississippi First’s CSP webpage.
Our Board
Dr. Marvin P. King, Jr. is an Associate Professor of Political Science and African American
Studies at the University of Mississippi, where he has spent nearly two decades teaching and
writing about political inequality, African American politics, federalism, the politics of the
American South, and the legal foundations of racial inequity. His scholarship explores the
political forces that structure opportunity and inequality in the United States, and his work has
appeared in leading journals such as Politics & Policy, Journal of Black Studies, and Publius. He
is currently completing two major book projects—Mississippi’s Mess: Political Inequality,
Stratification Economics, and Inadequate Economic Development (Lexington Books) and The
Politics of Stratification Economics (Palgrave Macmillan). These manuscripts each offer a
comprehensive critique of how political decision-making produces and sustains economic
disparities.
Dr. King is equally known for his extensive community engagement across Mississippi. He has
served as an expert witness in federal redistricting trials, providing testimony and research on
race and representation. He is a former commissioner on both the Oxford Planning Commission
and Oxford Parks Commission, where he oversaw multimillion-dollar budgets, personnel
decisions, land-use planning, and citywide recreation programming. As founder, president, and
race director of Run Oxford, he created a thriving nonprofit running organization responsible for
major local races and more than $50,000 raised for community causes, along with thousands of
donated books for local youth and families.
King’s campus and statewide leadership includes founding TEDxUniversityofMississippi,
directing The Residential College South, mentoring hundreds of students, and organizing a 2023
Inclusive Economies Roadshow, in partnership with state agencies and nonprofit coalitions to
promote equitable economic development across Mississippi. A frequent speaker for civic
groups, universities, and public forums, he regularly engages audiences on topics such as voting
rights, political empowerment, race, and democracy.
Through his scholarship, public service, and community leadership, Dr. King bridges academic
research with civic impact. He continues to work at the intersection of inequality, democracy, and public policy to advance institutions and organizations committed to equity, democratic
participation, and inclusive development.