National Coaching Fellows

In the United States, only half of the 13 million children raised in poverty will graduate from high school and only 1 in 10 will graduate from college. In Chicago alone, nearly 200,000 children live in extreme poverty.

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About → Our Team

Philip Kovoor – Founder and Executive Director

Philip was raised in Warren, Ohio. While studying at the University of Chicago, he discovered his passion for service by volunteering at a local domestic abuse shelter. As the Student Director of the Men in Service Program at the University Community Service Center, Philip founded several programs to marshal university men in service of the surrounding communities. He devoted many hours working with students from public and parochial schools in the Hyde Park, Woodlawn, and Kenwood neighborhoods. In 2006, Philip interned in the Policy and Intergovernmental Affairs Departments at the City of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Office. After graduating, he joined Teach For America. He worked for months in the worst performing school in the lowest performing state in the nation. After resigning, Philip returned to the Midwest and launched National Coaching Fellows. These days he works relentlessly on corporate strategy, fundraising, management, finance, and operations. Teach For America’s theory of change is to transform the educational system by developing lifelong leaders in the pursuit of educational equity. Now more than ever, he strives to live up to this ideal.

Matt Wonzer – Regional Manager, Chicago

Matt was born in Bloomington and was raised just outside of Chicago in Burnham, IL. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago in Political Science and Gender Studies and developed his love for coaching while working various youth sports camps and as a tutor with the Neighborhood Schools Program. While developing a rapport with young student-athletes, mostly from schools on Chicago’s south side, he also developed a strong desire to provide quality coaching and resources to as many kids as he could. Shortly after graduation from the University of Chicago, Matt joined National Coaching Fellows to pair his own desires to provide quality athletic and academic resources for students with the efforts of NCF and aided with expansion to Marquette University. He currently works for a consumer advocacy law firm in downtown Chicago, IL.