Member
Initially Appointed: Nov. 15, 2021
Reappointed: July 1, 2025
Term Ends: July 1, 2031
Joseph Manko works as the Education Program Officer at the Abell Foundation, the largest foundation focused exclusively on giving in Maryland. Each year he reviews education-based projects in Baltimore City and makes recommendations to the board for their $4 to $6 million dollars of annual giving to support education related efforts in the city.
Prior to joining Abell, Mr. Manko was principal of Liberty Elementary School in Baltimore City, Maryland. Out of 150 schools, Liberty was the fifteenth highest performing school in Baltimore City and the third highest performing of high poverty schools in Baltimore during the era of PARCC testing. Liberty maintained the largest field trip program in Baltimore and was also the site of the first one-to-one mobile program in Baltimore City with 200 iPads and 400 Chromebooks being used daily by students. Liberty Elementary is also the site of the Liberty Rec and Tech Center, and adjacent recreation center building directed at providing wrap around services including a food pantry, parenting classes, after school programming, a fab lab, and technology offerings to students and community members.
Mr. Manko is a National Board Certified Teacher, Fullbright Scholar, America Achieves Fellow, New Leaders For New Schools Cohort Member, and Teach for America Corps Member. He formerly served as an educational advisor to the United States Secretary of Education as one of four Principal Ambassador Fellows in the country. In 2014, he was named by Education Week as one of nine educators to shape education in the next ten years. His story as principal of Liberty Elementary School is chronicled in Wes Moore's best-selling book The Work and Arne Duncan's newest book How Schools Work.
