BATON ROUGE — The National Institute for Excellence in Teaching has named a Baton Rouge administrator as one of eight district-level education leaders for a national fellowship.

East Baton Rouge Parish School System Chief Academic Officer Catasha Edwards has been named to the inaugural NIET Fellowship for Chief Instructional Leaders Program cohort. 

NIET's fellowship, a year-long program from October 2026 to June 2027, aims to strengthen education officials' capacity to lead meaningful, sustainable improvement across K-12 school systems.

"I am excited to recognize and welcome these exemplary leaders to the inaugural NIET Fellowship for Chief Instructional Leaders cohort," NIET Chief Executive Officer Dr. Joshua Barnett said in a statement released Tuesday. "Through this fellowship, these leaders will strengthen how they lead instructional improvement and better align district systems to drive transformative change for students."