Alumni, Arches

Frank Reed ’05, MAT’08

When Burbank, Calif., native Frank Reed ’05, MAT’08 topped out at 5'8" in high school, he begrudgingly accepted that he probably wouldn’t be headed to the NBA. But when then-Puget Sound basketball coach Joe Callero asked if he’d be interested in joining the team, Reed liked the sound of continuing to play while getting a top-tier education. With a grant from the Gates Millennium Scholars Program covering his undergraduate tuition, Reed committed to Puget Sound and the basketball team with sights set on a career in marine biology.

Reed—whose first-year roommate, Aubrey Shelton ’05, MAT’06, is now the Loggers’ head coach—played for a year and a half before deciding to leave the team. “Puget Sound allowed me to venture out of sports and explore different paths,” he says. He switched majors from biology to history, and pivoted from basketball to theater.

Frank Reed ’05, MAT’08 at ORLA.

Frank Reed ’05, MAT’08 came to Puget Sound to play basketball and become a marine biologist. Instead, he wound up becoming a teacher and an innovative school principal.

Reed found that his penchant for performing translated well to teaching—and, while teaching high school social studies at an alternative school in the Yakima School district, he discovered a passion for alternative education. After stints as an assistant principal in several different school districts, he was named in 2021 to be principal of Olympia Regional Learning Academy. ORLA, an alternative public school within the Olympia School District, offers four programs: K-5 Montessori, a parent partnership supporting home-based instruction, a Middle School Academy, and an online program that supports third through 12th graders.

Reed champions alternative education as a vital resource for “just about anyone who might not vibe with a traditional academic setting”—from those navigating behavioral or social-emotional challenges to others who need a safe space to express their sexual identity. 

“We’re able to provide an education in a more flexible way that meets families’ and students’ needs,” he says. He’s also aware of his potential impact as a person of color in a predominantly white field. “There aren’t a lot of Black educators in Washington state, percentage-wise,” he says. “It’s sort of an unspoken thing, but I have families who tell me they’re glad I’m here, and I know what they mean.”

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