Michelle Palmer: Breaking Through Barriers to Transform Education
When a struggling nonprofit asked Michelle Palmer to take the helm, she didn't just say yes—she transformed it from serving 90 students to 220 while expanding from a three-year program to eight years of comprehensive
Michelle Palmer juggles three kids, a husband, two jobs, and one unwavering mission: ensuring every child gets the same educational opportunities regardless of zip code or family income. As Executive Director of Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia and a longtime educator at Germantown Friends School, she’s spending her days building bridges between privilege and possibility. Her work touches everything from training future teachers to mentoring middle schoolers, all while raising an 8-year-old, a 13-year-old, and a college junior who’s currently interning in New York.
Michelle Palmer is a 2025 Philadelphia Family Women of Influence Award Winner
Philadelphia Family’s Women of Influence Awards celebrate exceptional women making significant impacts in our community. Michelle was nominated by her coworker, Edel Howlin and selected based on her achievements and dedication to creating positive change in her community. Each Women of Influence Award Winner has committed to support Family Focus Media’s core values. Together, we are committed to foster a sense of belonging and empowerment for all for all families. All backgrounds, races, genders, and sexual orientations are welcome and safe with us.
Beyond the awards, our Women of Influence Luncheons and Speed Networking Night attendees come together as our Women of Influence Network, a community fostering connections, collaboration, and mutual support.
A Winding Path to Purpose
Michelle’s path to educational leadership reads less like a straight line and more like a testament to following her passions. “I found a notebook yesterday at a friend’s 50th birthday party,” she laughs, “and it said I wanted to be an English professor when I grew up.” That teenage dream led her through communications at Temple University, a stint in New York’s music industry, and eventually into fundraising at independent schools.
The true turning point came during her 19 years at Germantown Friends School. She began in development but soon felt the pull of the classroom. “I had an opportunity to help out with some classes one day and I was like, ‘Oh gosh, I really do love being in the classroom,'” she recalls. Inspired, she pursued her master’s in education at Arcadia and began teaching social justice dialogue while serving as faculty advisor for the Black Student Union.
When Breakthrough needed a program director in February 2020, Michelle took the leap. The organization was struggling—revenue down, enrollment down, mission unclear. “It was in bad shape when I started,” she admits. But Michelle saw potential where others saw problems. By 2021, she was promoted to executive director, tasked with running the entire operation.
The Breakthrough Transformation
Under Michelle’s leadership, Breakthrough has become a different organization entirely. What started as a small, three-year program for 90 students in grades 7-9 now serves 220 students—mostly students of color—from fifth through twelfth grade. The expansion wasn’t just about numbers; it was about recognizing that meaningful change requires long-term commitment.
“I just didn’t want to let them go in 9th grade,” Michelle explains. The organization now offers college-bound programming through high school graduation, while also reaching younger students earlier. “When you get kids young and they’re ready to learn at this age—in the summertime and on weekends—they’re setting their own trajectory. They’re going to be more successful in life because they’re energized and they care so much about their academics.”
Breakthrough operates as what Michelle calls a “dual mission organization”—providing academic enrichment for underserved students while training the next generation of diverse educators. College students from across the country spend nine weeks in intensive teacher training, with 75% eventually staying in education. The program’s “secret sauce” puts these Teaching Fellows directly in front of students after just two weeks of training.
The results speak for themselves. Michelle recently ran into a former Teaching Fellow at a professional development conference. She was not an education major when she joined Breakthrough of Greater Philadelphia, and now she teaches science at an independent school in Boston. FOX 29 recently featured alumna Kayla Banks teaching fifth-grade with the School District of Philadelphia after graduating from Howard University. She began her teaching career at James G. Blaine School last month—watch the segment here.
The Daily Reality of Leadership
Michelle’s role isn’t all success stories and program expansions. Some of her hardest moments happen when she has to enforce rules that protect the program’s integrity and safety. “The most challenging part of my role is when we have an infraction with a student,” she says, her voice softening. She’s had to ask a remorseful student to leave, balancing compassion with program safety. “As a mom, I want to just say it’s okay, forgive, and say, ‘Don’t do it again. Make better choices.’ But I have to preserve a high-quality, learning-focused experience for our Scholars and support our Teaching Fellows as they navigate middle school dynamics for the first time. They’re young college students.”
These moments capture the complexity of educational leadership—balancing compassion with accountability, individual needs with community safety. “I always believe in second chances for everyone,” Michelle says, “but those are the rules of our program.”
Fundraising presents its own challenges, particularly for a Black woman in predominantly white, wealthy spaces. A colleague once told her it would be harder to raise money as a Black woman in predominantly white, male spaces—a comment that stayed with her for years. “It always stayed in my head,” she admits. “When I enter spaces where there are people with a lot of money and networking, it’s kind of like, ‘Do I belong here? Should I be here?”
She’s learned to push through those moments by focusing on her mission and remembering that the worst someone can say is no. “I belong in any space,” she says firmly.
Building Bridges Across Communities
Michelle’s dual role at Breakthrough and Germantown Friends School creates unique opportunities for cross-pollination between privilege and need. She’s developed programs like Community Connections, a peer mentoring opportunity for GFS students and Breakthrough participants to learn from one another. “It’s great for GFS students who may have wealth and privilege, to understand how good they have it and to give back,” she explains. “And it’s good for our Breakthrough students to see there are so many different opportunities out here.”
The partnership goes deeper than mentorship. Instructional coaches from Germantown Friends oversee Breakthrough’s teaching fellows, and this year, Breakthrough students eat hot lunches in the school’s cafeteria instead of receiving box lunches. “They’re here working and learning for most of the day, so they need good nourishment,” Michelle notes.
Her goal is clear: getting Breakthrough students into top high schools, whether that’s prestigious independent schools like GFS or renowned public schools like Central High School, where Michelle herself graduated. “I’m very proud of that,” she says.
The Personal Cost and Joy
Managing two demanding roles while raising three children requires constant recalibration. Michelle’s 20-year-old son is a Junior in College, while her 13-year-old is a multi-athlete and scholar, and her 8-year-old just started 3rd grade and is a dancer. Family time recharges her batteries—recent beach trips, roller skating adventures that have become a family tradition, and the simple pleasure of playing board games and watching TV together.
“Summertime is my favorite time of year,” she says. “We all love to roller skate. My oldest son has really gotten into it, and my daughter loves it too.” After Breakthrough’s intensive summer programming ends, she’s looking forward to downtime.
A Vision for Educational Equity
When asked what she’d change about Philadelphia education with a magic wand, Michelle doesn’t hesitate: “I would revamp every building that this city has, every school, make them bright, make them vibrant, make them places where students are running to go to every day.”
Her vision extends beyond buildings to systemic fairness. This October, she’s hosting an educational equity summit to address pressing issues facing the city’s schools. “I wish we could make a system that was fair for all. I want everybody to have the same opportunities regardless of the color of their skin, regardless of how much money they have,” she says.
The inequality shows up in concrete ways—some schools don’t offer algebra in eighth grade, making it harder for those students to access competitive high schools. “We cannot continue with a system that is unequal,” Michelle insists. “Everybody deserves to have the same basic education, and that’s what we’re going to be fighting for.”
Measuring Success Beyond Numbers
While Breakthrough tracks traditional metrics—high school placement rates, pre- and post-testing scores—Michelle measures success in moments that can’t be quantified. She thinks about the college student who discovered her passion for teaching through the program, now shaping young minds in Boston. She considers the fifth-graders who show up eager to learn on summer weekdays, already setting their own trajectory for academic success.
“Success is seeing that our teachers are leaving our program excited to actually stay in the field,” she explains. “And making sure our students really have benefited from the summer and grown in their work.”
As her nominator, Edel Howlin notes: “I’ve worked with Michelle Palmer for three years and I’m inspired by who she is and the work that she does.” Michelle’s story shows that educational equity isn’t just a policy goal—it’s a daily practice requiring vision, grit, compassion, and accountability. From her circuitous path to leadership through the expansion of Breakthrough’s impact, she demonstrates how individual commitment can create expanding circles of opportunity for entire communities. Her work ensures that the next generation of students and educators have the tools, training, and confidence they need to succeed, no matter where they start.
