Anika Baltimore, Chief Financial Officer of Freedom Prep Charter Schools, has committed over 15 years of her career to working with charter management organizations whose focus has been improving the quality of education for black and brown children. Her progressive experience with charter management organizations includes developing core financial systems, processes and controls that supported the growth of single-site schools to multi-site charter management organizations. Anika graduated from Tennessee State University with a bachelor’s in business administration with a concentration in public accounting. She also obtained a master’s in business administration with a concentration in finance.

Anika was first introduced to the charter space in an effort to find a more rigorous education program for her son. With a curiosity for how schools operate and an opening at the very school she had been monitoring for her son, she began her 15-year journey with a single-site charter in Arkansas. She utilized her accounting and finance background to establish fiscal policies and procedures that ensured finance, HR and federal programs supported the mission and vision of the charter while maintaining compliance with all federal, state and local policies. Within two years, this single-site charter was ready to expand to multiple campuses and Anika adapted the fiscal policies and procedures to support the growth to four schools. She then took this experience to a Nashville single-site charter who grew to seven schools, and is currently applying those same learnings at Freedom Prep Charter Schools, as it grows and expands across the South.