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Raising Expectations educates, engages and empowers our youth with a unique mentoring and tutoring
program designed to bring out the very best the have to offer academically, socially and culturally.

  • Raising Expectations Programs
    • Our Model
    • Educate
    • Engage
    • Empower

Maria Armstrong
CO-FOUNDER

Maria Armstrong has served the Atlanta area for nearly two decades in a variety of academic and service-oriented capacities. In addition to her primary role as co-founder of Raising Expectations, growing and guiding our organization alongside Tangee Allen, Maria’s diverse educational experiences have also included working as a high school teacher, mentor, teaching in alternative educational settings and serving as an administrator in a public charter school. A graduate of Georgia State University, Maria was also the creator, director and administrator of a collaborative after school program model that served over 400 students with interactive academic and enrichment activities. Her comprehensive experience extends to resource development with community organizations and program development in elementary, middle and high schools. Maria was a runner up for the MTV Brick Award and was featured in the inspirational book As I Am. She was also honored with a Sisters Who Serve Award from Spelman College and an Unsung Hero Award from the WB 36 television station as one of Atlanta’s top young leaders along with an Unsung Heroine Award from the Atlanta Chapter of National Coalition of 100 Black Women.


Tangee Allen
CO-FOUNDER

One of two co-founders for Raising Expectations, Tangee Allen has worked alongside Maria Armstrong (the two met while both were enrolled as students at Georgia State University) to create and develop our nonprofit youth development organization into the award-winning program and resource it is today. In addition to Tangee’s aforementioned experience working in the nonprofit sector, she has also worked for local government for over nine years. As a Program Manager in the Mayor’s Office for the community-focused Department of Weed and Seed—an innovative, comprehensive multiagency approach to law enforcement, crime prevention, and community revitalization—Tangee was responsible for working with the designated Weed and Seed sites to develop and implement their 5 year strategy under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Justice. As an active participant in her community and staunch advocate for Atlanta’s youth, Tangee has been recognized by a variety of organizations and has received a host of community awards from the City of Atlanta, Spelman College, Enterprise Foundation, Morehouse College and the WB Channel 36.