Robert Spencer has been the principal of Aspire’s Capitol Heights Academy in Sacramento for the past three and a half years. Prior to joining Aspire, Spencer was an eighth-grade language arts teacher at Old Court Middle School in Baltimore County, MD, where he was twice named Teacher of the Month.

Spencer began his education career teaching eighth-grade social studies and language arts at Gaston Middle School in Gaston, NC, through Teach for America. He was also a preventive medicine sergeant in the United States Army for four years. After graduating from the Army Noncommissioned Officer Academy, he supervised and conducted surveys and inspections for environmental factors that affect the health of soldiers. Spencer was named the 2001 Soldier of the Year, and was also awarded the Army Achievement Medal in 2000 and 2001, and the Army Commendation Medal in 2000.

Spencer was a member of the New Leaders for New Schools 2004–05 cohort. In the past, he also wrote General Education Development (GED) language arts test questions as a test writer, and edited short fiction and poetry as an editor’s assistant.

Spencer earned his BA in English language and literature from the University of Virginia. He has studied secondary education at Johns Hopkins University and is currently completing his master’s of education in educational leadership at California State University, East Bay.