Marcus Strother

Marcus Strother is the President and CEO of MENTOR California, the California affiliate of MENTOR: The National Partnership, the unifying national champion for expanding quality mentoring relationships for young people.

A father, husband, career educator, youth and community advocate, he is a 24-year veteran in public education. Marcus spent eight years in the classroom and nine as a high school administrator, most recently as Director of Youth Development at Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD). At SCUSD he oversaw the district’s Expanded Learning Programs, Summer Programming and Boys and Girls of Color initiatives, which included the coordination of the Men’s Leadership Academy (MLA) and Women’s Leadership Academy (WLA). The program focused on supporting youth in the development of their personal social justice framework through civic engagement and community building.

Outside the traditional classroom, Marcus provides professional teacher training in the Freedom Writers Methodology as a Freedom Writer Teacher and is building a movement in education, mentoring and youth development around the ideology he describes as “Life Data.” Human testimony is assessment! When he is not working with youth, he spends Wednesday nights teaching a Creative Writing class at Folsom State Prison. He and his wife have traveled abroad with students to support the building of 3 schools in the Dominican Republic and a medical clinic in Peru, working with the Yanesha people.

Marcus is a graduate of the University of Arkansas @ Pine Bluff and has earned two graduate degrees in education from Olivet Nazarene University. Marcus is an award-winning educator and has been named Illinois Public Citizen of the Year, Illinois 40 Under 40 and the Sacramento Kings/Wal-Mart Community Playmaker. He lives with his wife, twin sons and daughter in Elk Grove, California.