A Biography By Executives Diary Magazine
David Heiber: A Leader Forged by Purpose
David Heiber is the Founder of Concentric Educational Solutions and CEO of Redemption Social Solutions, recognized nationally for transforming how schools re-engage students and support families. Drawing from his own lived experience, he created the Concentricity model, a student-centered framework that has redefined absenteeism intervention and equity-focused practice. A former star athlete turned education reformer, David has completed hundreds of thousands of home visits and built organizations that center humanity, connection, and possibility for young people nationwide.
From the Fall to the Fight
David Heiber’s journey didn’t begin with triumph. It began with collapse. The loss of his father, the absence of school support, and the spiral into incarceration could have been the final chapter of his story. But in the quiet of a cell, something powerful took root: a refusal to accept that broken systems must produce broken people.
He realized then what would define his life’s mission:
If the system doesn’t change, young people never stand a chance.
And if no one else is building that change, he would.
From that resolve emerged a leader who would reimagine student support, confront inequities head-on, and prove that resilience is not just surviving the fall. It is rising to build what should have existed all along.
From Loss to Leadership: The Early Wounds That Shaped a Warrior
Raised in Wilmington, Delaware by his grandparents, David grew up anchored in love, discipline, and the belief that he was built for purpose. As an all-state track athlete with scholarship offers, his trajectory appeared steady and certain. But everything changed when his father died unexpectedly during his senior year of high school. What followed was not only heartbreak but a profound revelation about the limits of the systems surrounding him.
Teachers, coaches, and school leaders who once celebrated him never reached out. No guidance counselor sat with him. No adult asked what he needed. The school system that cheered his athleticism had no framework for his grief. In that silence, David began to understand how easily a young person can slip through institutional cracks. The downward spiral that followed led to expulsion, poor decisions, and eventually incarceration. Yet even inside that cell, he chose not to accept the narrative that had been written around him.
He earned his GED, began rebuilding his confidence, and started imagining a future that stretched beyond confinement. When Lincoln University offered him admission, he petitioned the court to reduce his sentence and the judge agreed. David entered college with humility, hunger, and the determination to become the kind of leader the system had failed to be for him.
He earned degrees from Lincoln University, Temple University, and later a Doctorate in Urban Education and Leadership from Morgan State University. Each step affirmed a single truth. His experiences did not disqualify him. They prepared him.
Creating What He Never Had: The Birth of a Student-Centered Revolution
By 2010, David had seen enough to know what was missing in American education. Schools had rules, protocols, and accountability structures, yet lacked the most essential element: coordinated, compassionate, human-centered support for students whose lives extend far beyond the classroom.
What he needed as a grieving teenager simply did not exist. So he built it.
David founded Concentric Educational Solutions in Baltimore with a mission rooted in deep personal experience. He wanted to ensure that no child would experience the neglect, invisibility, and isolation he endured. As he often reflects, “I knew what it felt like to be unseen. So I built the thing I needed when I was a child, structures that make being seen inevitable.”
Influenced by Afrocentricity and the scholarship of Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, David recognized that students were too often positioned around the margins of systems never designed with them at the center. That insight gave birth to Concentricity, a framework that places students at the core of school culture, operations, and decision-making.
Under David’s leadership, Concentric Educational Solutions became a national leader in student re-engagement, home visits, and wraparound support. Districts across the country found in Concentric a partner capable of reaching the students they struggled to support. One superintendent reported that 340 seniors were at risk of not graduating and that every student ultimately crossed the stage after Concentric’s involvement. Another school leader described Concentric’s approach as “transformational” because it reconnected families who had long felt unheard.
David was not just building a company. He was building a revolution in student-centered practice.
When the World Shut Down, He Showed Up: Connection as a Lifeline
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the true scale of David’s purpose. While schools closed their doors, he and his team opened more. Concentric completed nearly 900 in-person home visits per month during the height of the crisis. These visits exposed the truth behind absenteeism. Students were not disengaged because they lacked motivation. They were navigating trauma, housing instability, financial pressure, fear, and the emotional toll of isolation.
For David, the work was clear. Attendance was never only about attendance. It was a symptom of deeper challenges that required genuine human connection. As he expressed, “It wasn’t the home visit itself. It was the connection. That’s what saved lives.”
The impact of these visits extended far beyond the return to school buildings. They restored trust between families and institutions. They gave students renewed direction. They offered parents support and dignity during an unprecedented crisis. The work redefined the role of schools in students’ lives and helped reshape the national conversation on absenteeism and student well-being.
David expanded his influence even further with the creation of the Black Educational Business Alliance, known as BEBA. After witnessing the barriers faced by Black-owned education companies, he created BEBA to promote collaboration, shared opportunities, and united economic strength. He later founded Redemption Social Solutions to tackle systemic inequities through trauma-informed leadership, community empowerment, and cross-sector strategy.
A Future Built on Possibility: The Vision He Refuses to Compromise
David’s vision for the future is rooted in the lessons of his past. He believes that no child should ever feel invisible. He believes in systems that anticipate student needs rather than react to crises. He believes that Black and Brown entrepreneurs should not be pushed to the margins of the educational landscape. And he believes that equity must be a lived practice, not a performance.
He imagines communities where students are supported without judgment, where families are respected as partners, and where leaders move with courage and compassion. He envisions ecosystems grounded in trust, humanity, and the belief that young people are brilliant long before they are compliant.
If his story offers one lasting truth, it is the power of resilience.
“I didn’t give up when I was grieving, when I was overlooked, or when I was incarcerated. I stood tall. I stayed true. I did it my way.”
David wants students, educators, and his own family to remember that resilience is not avoiding hardship. It is rising through it.
The Leader the System Didn’t Expect, but the Community Desperately Needed
David Heiber’s life is a testament to what is possible when pain becomes purpose and experience becomes strategy. His journey challenges educators to rethink how they see students, how they interpret struggle, and how they show up for communities that have been historically overlooked.
His work reminds us that transformation begins long before the data shifts. It begins with presence, with listening, with knocking on one more door. It begins with leaders who rise when systems falter.
David’s story is not simply one of overcoming adversity. It is an invitation to reimagine what leadership looks like in the fight for equity, for justice, and for the future of our children.
When systems fail, leaders rise. And because he rose, countless students, families, and educators are rising too.
