NYC Leadership Academy Incoming President & CEO Nancy Gutiérrez, Ed.L.D., today delivered the keynote address at the inaugural meeting of the New Jersey Department of Education’s new statewide Principal Learning Network. The network of fifty K-12 principals from across New Jersey will spend the next year sharing promising practices with each other, seeking guidance, and gaining access to resources to foster equity in schools.
The Department of Education invited Dr. Gutiérrez to speak at the two-day summer institute for her national leadership on educational leadership and equity. The theme of the kickoff was “Why This, Why Now, Why You?”
“The work of equity requires courage,” Dr. Gutierrez said to the roomful of school leaders. “Why are leaders who actively disrupt the status quo considered rebels?” Her speech included an interactive discussion on the history of inequities in education in the U.S., and on the skills and knowledge school leaders need to be able to identify and address inequities in their schools. As part of the Principal Learning Network, participants will select an area of professional growth and design an individual Principal Learning Network Plan.
About Nancy Gutiérrez
Dr. Nancy Gutiérrez joined the New York City Leadership Academy in 2014 and has served as National Leadership Designer and Facilitator, Vice President of District Leadership, and most recently as Chief Strategy Officer before being named the new President & CEO in July 2018. Nancy began her career as a teacher and principal in her home community, where she was the founding principal of Renaissance Academy, the highest performing middle school in the district and a California Distinguished School. Achieving that success, she went on to lead an effort to turn around the district’s lowest performing middle school, located only two blocks from her childhood home. Nancy was named the UC Davis Rising Star and Association of California School Administrator’s Region 8 Middle School Principal of the Year in 2010.
At the NYC Leadership Academy, Nancy has led such accomplishments as launching the organization’s district leadership work, developing principal supervisor leadership standards and aligned curriculum and programming including the popular Foundations of Principal Supervision institute. More recently, Nancy led the creation and implementation of NYCLA 2020, the Leadership Academy’s strategic plan. Prior to working at the Leadership Academy, she launched a program for executive leadership advancement for the New York City Department of Education that led to superintendent certification. Nancy is a graduate of the inaugural cohort of the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Doctor of Education Leadership (Ed.L.D.) program. She served on the national board of the Coalition of Essential Schools for more than a decade and is a frequent speaker and teacher for the Harvard Principals’ Center institutes for School Turnaround Leaders, Urban School Leaders, and Race, Equity, Access, and Leadership. Nancy is on the Latinos for Education (L4E) teaching team, a graduate of the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS) Aspiring Superintendents Academy, and a member of Education Leaders of Color (EdLoC). Find Dr. Gutierrez on Twitter @nancybgutierrez or LinkedIn.
About NYC Leadership Academy
NYC Leadership Academy is a nationally recognized nonprofit organization that builds the capacity of educational leaders, at every level of the system, to confront inequities and create the conditions necessary for all students to thrive.