Ran Barnes has served for over fifteen years as a Board member for the North Carolina Association for Middle-Level Education. While on that Board, he has served as the Central Office Representative, Treasurer, and Past- President. In addition, Ran serves on the Board for the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform. While serving on these Boards, Ran worked with the 2010 Investing in Innovation i3 grant for NC. This was a three-state collaboration with North Carolina, Illinois, and California. He is currently the state director for the SEED grant. This is a 4 state initiative with Michigan, California, North Carolina and Illinois. Ran is active in the Schools to Watch (STW) initiative in North Carolina. Each year he visits schools to help determine a school as a new STW or a redesignated STW.