Jack Powers

Jack Powers is the Vice President of Policy and Advocacy at the Beacon Center of Tennessee and Beacon Impact. A former teacher and accomplished public servant, Jack has over a decade of experience in policy, advocacy, and legislative affairs. In his role at Beacon, Jack is the chief liaison to members of the governor’s administration and General Assembly and spearheads action on all legislation in which Beacon is involved. He leads research and advocacy work to shape and advance Beacon’s annual policy initiatives.

A native Tennessean, Jack grew up in Memphis and was a member of the 2013 cohort of the Mississippi Teacher Corps, where he taught high school English in the small Delta town of Clarksdale. Jack joined the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) in 2019, where he spent five sessions as a Legislative Liaison for Governor Bill Lee’s Office. In 2023, Jack worked as the Southeast Regional Advocacy Director for ExcelinEd, where he spearheaded passage of Georgia’s first Science of Reading-based early literacy law. Most recently, he served as the Assistant Commissioner of Policy and Legislative Affairs at TDOE, where he was part of an amazing team effort to pass the Tennessee Education Freedom Scholarship Act, the state’s first universal school choice program.

Jack holds a bachelor’s degree from Millsaps College, a master’s in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Mississippi, and a master’s in Education Policy from Vanderbilt’s Peabody College. He lives in Nashville with his wife Pam and enjoys fly fishing and restoring vintage stereo gear in his spare time.