Steve Pond is the founding and current principal at Peak Charter Academy, a National Heritage Academies partner school in Apex, North Carolina. This is his 21st year as an educator, and he has served in leadership positions at the public charter, public district, private, and university levels for the last 16 years.

Steve is a strong believer in the power that the implementation of differentiated instruction models can have in a community of learning, especially when coupled with a campus-wide focus on growth. Steve holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a Master of School Administration degree from North Carolina State University, and is currently pursuing his doctorate in P–12 Education Leadership at the University of Southern Mississippi with a focus on differentiated instruction.

He has presented on differentiated and tiered instruction at the local, state, and national levels and is honored that ICLE named Peak Charter Academy a Model School in both 2020 and 2021.