Bob Kucher, Chief Officer of Partnerships and Programs, and Alayna Cate, Director of Partnerships, represent PENCIL (Public Education Needs Community Involvement & Leadership), a Nashville non-profit linking community resources to Metro Nashville Public Schools. For the 2022-23 academic year, PENCIL leveraged the power of 700+ business partnerships which provided $7.3M in community investment to MNPS.

Kucher began his career as an Arts Specialist for MNPS, served as Deputy Director for the Tennessee Arts Commission, and thrived at The Renaissance Center as the Senior Director of Fine Arts before joining PENCIL in 2014. Kucher is proud of his ability to create strong internal teams and holds great passion for public education.

Cate became a K-8 music teacher in 2016, quickly realizing the magnitude of failures in the system. This spurred her decision to pursue a Master of Education Policy from Vanderbilt University. From there, Cate was drawn to the nonprofit sector and thus discovered PENCIL. Currently, Cate and her team manage over 700+ community partnerships across all of Metro Nashville Public Schools. Cate is a member of 2023 Nashville Leadership Public Education (LPE) and 2024 Nashville Emerging Leaders (NEL), continuing to grow as a leader in the local public education sphere.