Lindalyn Kakadelis will retire as executive director of the NC Coalition for Charter Schools on Feb. 1, after more than 30 years as a North Carolina education policy leader and advocate. Longtime charter leader Dave Machado will succeed her in this role.
The Coalition announced the leadership transition in a press release this morning. We share these leaders’ backgrounds and quotes from the press release below.
Lindalyn Kakadelis
Kakadelis began her career as a teacher, later serving on the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education.
She also held leadership roles at the North Carolina Education Alliance, the Children’s Scholarship Fund, and the John Locke Foundation. In addition, she served as a founding board member of Queen’s Grant Charter School in Charlotte. She helped launch the Coalition in 2018, becoming the organization’s executive director in 2018.
Dave Machado
Machado, who begins his new role on Feb. 1, has decades of experience in charter school leadership and policy. He served as chief administrator of Lincoln Charter 
School from 2002 to 2016. After that, he led the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s Office of Charter Schools from 2016 to 2020. Since 2020, Machado has been North Carolina State Superintendent for Charter Schools USA. He has also served as a member of the state’s Charter Schools Advisory Board (now Charter Schools Review Board) from 2022 until his resignation this week.
Lindalyn Kakadelis said this about her career in education and K-12 advocacy:
The past 30 years of work haven’t really been work at all. Since I was an elementary school teacher, and especially when I became a mother, I’ve known that students have a better chance of flourishing when parents have a choice in which school their children can attend. Moving school choice forward has been a passion and a calling since then, and I’m wonderfully grateful to everyone I’ve met along the way.
Dave Machado said this about Lindalyn and his upcoming role with the Coalition:
I’ve known Lindalyn for many years, and her reputation as a tireless and passionate advocate for charter school students is well-earned. I’m excited to lead the Coalition into this next chapter as we continue to protect and promote North Carolina’s public charter schools, educators, parents, and students.
Jonathan Bryant, chair of the Coalition’s Board of Directors, thanked Lindalyn for her leadership and service:
This organization would not exist without Lindalyn, and the charter school landscape in North Carolina would not be what it is today without the decades of advocacy she has poured into it. Lindalyn’s work has touched the lives of tens of thousands of students, many of whom will never know it. From the bottom of my heart, I offer Lindalyn a collective ‘thank you’ for her service to this state.
Lindalyn, we appreciate your hard work and devotion in so many ways, and we will miss you!
Welcome to the Coalition, Dave! We’re excited to have you with us.
