Chad Rountree is the CEO of Propel America, a national organization supporting young adults in securing well-paying jobs and earning college credits, while filling critical middle-skill jobs for employers. Prior to becoming CEO, Chad served as the organization's founding Chief Program Officer. In this role, he was responsible for executing the programmatic vision of building accelerated, credit-bearing pathways that are responsive to the needs of both young adults and employers. 

As a product of non-traditional pathways, Chad deeply understands the need for creating viable alternative pathways that unlock access to building meaningful careers for students whom the more traditional routes were not designed to serve.

Prior to joining Propel, Chad led multiple teams at OneGoal, a national nonprofit organization working to close the college degree divide. There, Chad led his teams to help scale their program nationally and deepen its impact through innovation.

Before joining OneGoal, Chad led the novice teacher preparation efforts for Denver Public Schools, where he helped to increase, strengthen, and diversify their incoming teacher cohorts. He designed and implemented an innovative school network in Duval County Public Schools, supporting the district in tripling the graduation rate for over-age, under-credited students.

Chad served in school leadership with KIPP Jacksonville and began his career in education as a middle school teacher in Jacksonville, Florida with Teach For America. Prior to that, he completed Le Cordon Bleu culinary training and led multiple restaurants in the southwest.

He currently serves on the Board of Profound Gentlemen, an organization that works to recruit, develop, and retain male educators of color.

Chad holds a Bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education from New Mexico State University, Masters in Education Leadership from Michigan State University, and is an alumni of Harvard’s Strategic Data Project.