A turning point in the early life of Benjamin P. Mosley, principal of Glenmount Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore City, came when one of his college professors lit a fire under his students by saying, “The best way to hide information from a Black person is through a book.”

Ben says, “It changed my life. It hurt because there’s some truth to it, and I wanted to show others that this isn’t our narrative.”

Born and raised in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with a brother and sister, Mosley wasn’t interested in being an educator at all. He says, “I just wanted to play sports like most young Black men in the inner city did.”

In Harrisburg, they didn’t even have a basketball court, but they improvised one by using telephone poles. He also loved football. His father was the football coach at Harrisburg High School and an inspiration to him. Then, when Ben was in seventh grade, the family moved to the Susquehanna suburbs.

At Susquehanna Township School, he was a quarterback for four years and was always in the honors classes. He was on the road to a full scholarship to Delaware State. He remembers, “I saw a night-and-day difference in education and lifestyle between the schools in Harrisburg and Susquehanna. Suddenly, there were mostly white students at Susquehanna and no Black teachers.”

In college, he thought he would have a career in sports or engineering. “Engineering was also a big thing at the time,” he recalls. But he studied biology and moved away from engineering to physical therapy, likely because it was sports-related. He also became more of a reader and was influenced by novels including Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist,” which he has read several times since. He graduated as an English major.

He first taught at Nicholas Orem Middle School in Prince George’s County. A year in, he became the leader of the Blue Team of six eighth grade teachers. Quickly, he felt greater ambition and became lead teacher and English department chair. He was a seventh and eighth grade teacher and also a gifted and talented teacher. It was becoming obvious that he was a natural leader and an optimist, and he recalls that he was very much influenced by Barack Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope.”

Aware of his leadership qualities, he went to Wilmington University in New Castle, Delaware, for his doctor of education in educational innovation and leadership. “It really gave me prowess in universal thinking. I also worked alongside superintendents. It was a phenomenal experience.”

After attending conferences at Harvard and building relationships, he applied to and was accepted into the Harvard Graduate School of Education in policy and management. “It was a different stratosphere, being in class with governors and state representatives. It was amazing. I still value the relationships I formed there.”

From 2010 to 2014, Ben served as assistant principal at Cross Country Elementary/Middle School and Hazelwood Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore City, and in 2014 he was named principal at Glenmount Elementary/Middle School. The accolades and awards accumulated for both the school and himself.

“The Heart of the Schools Award probably means the most to me,” he says.

The award cited him for transforming the school into a place where students come first and parents are partners and where both students and staff have space to grow into their best selves.

Above all, he inspired others to become school leaders. He says, “I love building leaders, love to be part of a school that cultivates talent. My doctoral dissertation was about cultivating principal effectiveness and outcomes.”

Ironically, for this reason, the pandemic was especially hard on Glenmount Elementary/Middle School. “We were in the midst of our rise and were already a Maryland State Department of Education three-star school,” he says. Then, while suffering through the tortures of the pandemic, several staff members left for leadership positions at other Baltimore City schools. In spite of this, Glenmount moved forward and is now a four-star school.

“It’s really about the culture that you grow,” Ben says. “The last two years have been the best. I’m a people person, and I’m OK with being me and hanging out with the staff even after hours.”

That keeps him busy, and so does his active membership in Local 25, Public School Administrators and Supervisors Association of Baltimore City. He’s also active in the National Organization of Men of Color in Educational Leadership and in his fraternity, Omega Psi Phi. He’s an active reader and a Peloton rider, and he enjoys traveling to various college football games.

But his family keeps him busiest of all. With his wife, Tamyra, an RN, and two daughters, Sanai and Braelyn, he’s traveled to Costa Rica, Jamaica and Qatar. Sanai, a National Honor Society member, is now thinking about colleges, and “it keeps me up at night figuring out the school visits and everything.” Braelyn is a dancer, so they’re busy with recitals.

“But I still love my job and going to work every day, seeing everyone grow,” he says, and he adds that he would love to be a superintendent in the next two or three years and is open to going anywhere between New York and Virginia. A geographical move challenges him.

“Think globally, act locally,” he says. “I’m a big-picture person.”