Elementary schools that serve large populations of minoritized youth often privilege literacy and mathematics instruction because those are the subjects included in high-stakes accountability testing. Teachers working in high-needs settings often feel isolated and need support to sustain innovative science and engineering instruction. We are committed to nurturing equity in science and engineering by empowering teacher leaders. The STEM Teacher Leader Collaborative (TLC) is a community of teachers, teacher candidates, university faculty, administrators, local business leaders, and community stakeholders that supports, celebrates, and sustains teachers’ efforts to include enriching, rigorous, equitable, and responsive science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) instruction in high-needs elementary schools in the North Carolina Piedmont Triad.