Erica Brame-Manuel has been selected as the new principal of Thompson Elementary School. Brame-Manuel began her career 15 years ago at Bastian Elementary School in HISD before transitioning to KIPP Public Schools in 2006. Her leadership roles include lead teacher, department chair, dean of instruction, and dean of students. Brame-Manuel was instrumental in helping Foerster Elementary School and Lawson Middle School out of Improvement Required status in one school year as the campus’ reading specialist. Most recently, she was the driving force as the ELA teacher specialist at Lawson Middle School which yielded double-digit gains in reading and writing. She earned a bachelor’s in Elementary Education from Wiley College and a master’s from Jones International University.