Terry Stoops is the director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation. Before joining the Locke Foundation in 2005, he worked as the program assistant for the Child Welfare Education Programs at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work. He taught English at Spotsylvania High School and served as an adjunct instructor in professional communication at the University of Mary Washington. During his doctoral studies, Stoops was a research assistant in the Department of Leadership, Foundations, and Policy at the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development. He is co-founder of Carolina Charter Academy, a public charter school located in Angier, North Carolina. In 2021, he was appointed to the North Carolina Charter School Advisory Board by Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.