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ABOUT US
Our team is courageous, compassionate, cooperative, creative, and tenacious.
We bring an asset-based approach to each partnership with the goal of ensuring that all students engage in liberated learning - learning that is not only academically rigorous, but also affirms student identity, prepares students socially and emotionally, and creates meaningful opportunities for students to explore their interests and shape their communities.
We are hiring! Contact us if you're interested in joining our team.
WE
BELIEVE
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Students deserve liberated learning experiences.
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Authentic partnerships with families and communities are essential.
3.
Leaders and teachers must have a roadmap and robust structures to support their growth.
To engage students in liberated learning that draws on the assets and uniqueness of each school community.
OUR MISSION
To fundamentally change the way leaders partner with school communities to reimagine and implement liberated student learning experiences.
OUR VISION
How It All Started
LiberatED Way emerged from Academy for Urban School Leadership's learnings from over 15 years of transforming neighborhood public schools in Chicago. Our work began as a pilot within the AUSL network to embrace innovation in school improvement.
How We Developed
We have leveraged our learning to develop our LiberatED Way model, a school revitalization partnership approach tailored by and for each school community. Our LiberatED Way team serves as a strategic partner to schools and districts nationally who believe in the power and potential of a community-driven approach to school improvement.
What We Can Do For Your School or District
Our experienced team of current and former school and systems-level leaders works arm in arm with your leadership team to:
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Inclusively design a whole-child vision for the student experience
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Establish and sharpen foundational structures for culture and instruction
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Foster authentic family and community partnerships
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Create robust leader and teacher development systems aligned to the desired student experience
OUR TEAM
Martin’s ultimate goal and aspiration in life is helping others, especially young people, unlock the self-efficacy and courage they need to live their purpose. He hopes to make the most out of every day, whether that’s by helping to unearth a critical insight with a client, enjoying a cocktail or two with his wife, or driving home the game-winning run on the softball field.
Prior to LiberatED Way, Martin led an array of strategic teaching and learning priorities at Tulsa Public Schools. Key projects included the design and implementation of the Tulsa Way for Teaching & Learning and associated teacher development roadmap, revamping the district’s novice teacher experience, redesigning report cards to drive more meaningful engagement with students and families in their academic and social-emotional learning progress, and implementing the district’s first learning management system. Prior to his work at Tulsa Public Schools, Martin was a Manager at Deloitte Consulting, leading projects across a variety of industries including higher education. Martin is a proud graduate of the Broad Residency in Urban Education, received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, and graduated with a BA in Comparative Literature from Williams College.
Martin has a unique affinity for karaoke (specifically early 90s R&B) and the New York Yankees. He’s also a superfan of TV series’ The Wire and Sopranos.
MARTIN GREEN
General Manager
Shelby works tirelessly to ensure that all students are able to unlock their potential. Shelby works with educators around the country to help schools, leaders, teachers, and parents to grow practice, make connections, and create sustainable systems designed to guarantee student success.
Shelby leads the design, rollout, and ongoing refinement of LiberatED Way content leveraged in the team’s district and school partnerships. Shelby began her education career as a special education teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools. After the death of Freddie Gray, the importance of educational equity was cemented for her as a critical component to any education work. She realized that without true honesty about the education system and the role we all play, students in Baltimore would never have an opportunity to chart their own path forward. After leaving the classroom Shelby led teacher and leader development and high quality curriculum implementation work at TNTP. Her partner districts included Baltimore City Public Schools, Guilford County Public Schools, Tulsa Public Schools, and Chicago Public Schools. In addition to bringing a depth of expertise in establishing structures to catalyze rigorous, equitable instruction in schools, Shelby is also adept at leading research-based diversity, equity, and inclusion work across schools and organizations. Shelby is a graduate of Judson University in Elgin, IL and graduated with a BA in Human Services and Walden University where she received a Master’s of Science in education with a focus on Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. Shelby is also a proud Fellow of the 2020 Surge Institute - Chicago Cohort, The Disruptors.
Shelby is an avid sports watcher and Baltimore Ravens super fan! She started singing before she could talk and frequently leads the congregation at her church in song, and loves to spend quality time with her family - especially her partner and college-age daughter.
SHELBY HILDRETH
Chief Program Officer
Ulric Shannon believes that school can be a transformational experience where educating is the practice of freedom and schools are hubs for healing. As a product of Chicago Public Schools, he attests his professional and personal success as a Black man to the adults, in and out of school, that provided meaningful moments that enabled him to show up complete and whole. Ulric dreams of the day that we redefine student success that allows all students to gain the confidence needed to instinctually believe that they are enough in every space.
Ulric began his career in education with Chicago Public Schools as a 3rd-grade teacher. His experience in the classroom is when he realized his calling was to disrupt the current way of educating students and provide them with an 11-star educational experience that enabled all students to thrive. His leadership and passion took him to Chicago Public School's Office of Local School Council, where Ulric developed and led the family and community engagement strategy for over 90 schools. In this role, he recruited, trained, advised, and coached Local School Councils, Parent Advisory Councils, and school & district leaders in making sure that all decisions are made in the best interest of children and representative of the communities' voices. Before joining AUSL, Director of External Affairs at Civitas Education Partners. served as the Managing Director of Recruitment for Teach For America.
Ulric volunteers on the Chicago Scholars and Chicago Debates Associate Boards. He is a Surge Institute Alum, Chicago Urban League/ University of Chicago Booth School of Business Impact Fellow, Posse Scholar, and University of Illinois Civic Leadership Fellow. Chicago Scholars recognized Ulric as one of Chicago's 35 under 35 making an impact in Chicago. And he is a proud University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Alum, where he received his bachelor's and master's degree in Political Science. He has two additional master's degrees in Teaching and Business Administration.
Like a true Chicagoan, he loves deep dish pizza, and you will never find ketchup on his hot dog. As a kid, he wanted to be the President of the United States, and now, as an adult, he realizes that even as a kid, all he wanted to do was work that would change the world, and working in education, he is allowed to do just that - every day! So, when he finds some free time, he enjoys traveling the world, cooking, and watching Law and Order: Special Victims Unit marathons.
Director of Purpose
ULRIC SHANNON
Molly Leger is the Manager of Strategic Initiatives for the LiberatED Way team. Her work is energized by a mission to ensure all students have access to high-quality, identify-affirming educational experiences that set them to successfully navigate and change the world. As a former teacher, she believes in the power of teachers, leaders, students, and community members to lead their schools towards equity and a holistic definition of excellence. She knows all students deserve nothing less.
As the Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives, Molly works across projects to support program leads, continuous programmatic improvement, and business development. Prior to joining the LiberatED Way team, Molly served as a researcher, non-profit director, educational program evaluator, and a school improvement specialist. In these roles, she’s supported non-profits, philanthropic foundations, schools, and districts in vision-building, strategy-alignment, and organizational capacity-building. But, to date, her most challenging and rewarding role was her work as a middle school educator. She holds a Master’s in Education Policy from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master’s in Instruction, and professional certificate from the University of Michigan in Leading Educational Improvement & Innovation.
MOLLY LEGER
Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives
Zataya is a mission driven educator who has committed the past 25 years to advocating for equitable academic experiences for black and brown youth. She firmly believes that a child’s zip code should not determine the quality of their academic or enrichment opportunities and that every child deserves a highly qualified and caring teacher throughout the course of their time as students.
Zataya graduated with a bachelor of science degree in Psychology with a focus on adolescent development and a minor in English from Saint Mary’s College of California. At 21 years of age, Zataya began her teaching career in California’s Bay Area. She taught 6th grade language arts and social studies for three years at Vallejo Unified School District. While it wasn’t the first time she was confronted with the fact that the disparities in access to a high quality education and high quality teachers disproportionately affected black and brown children, it was as a first year classroom teacher with little resources and even less training, Zataya began to realize the systems of power and privilege that were at play.
With the understanding that there was more to learn about public schools and education as a system, Zataya moved to Chicago in 2002 to study at DePaul University’s School of Education in Education. She earned a Master’s of Education degree in Social and Cultural Foundations in Education.
Over the next two decades, Zataya has worked as an advocate of equitable educational outcomes. She was a founding teacher at ACE Technical High School and founding Dean of Students of Noble Street High School-Rauner College Prep. She has served in various school level and network level leadership roles, including principal and Director of Strategic Supports at CICS-Civitas Education Partners. Recently, Zataya founded the role of Director of Youth Development at Thrive Chicago, a non-profit organization focused on life-sustainable outcomes for Black and Brown youth in Chicago. As a project manager at Thrive Chicago, her work focused on social-emotional and mental health care support for school aged youth.
Zataya is the mother of three girls, a member of two book clubs and is passionate about ending childhood food insecurity through her volunteer work at Beyond Hunger, a food pantry in Oak Park, Il.
Zataya Shackelford
Program Director
Sarah Cohen
Program Director
Sarah Cohen is a Program Director for the LiberatED Way team. She is committed to working at the intersection of urgency, equity and a people-first mentality to accelerate student achievement. Informed by her first career as a journalist and subsequent years of working with stakeholders across educational spaces, Sarah believes in the power of communication and relationships to create systemic change and disrupt inequities.
As a Program Director, Sarah provides leadership oversight and partnership to project teams implementing the LiberatED Way approach with clients and partners. Prior to joining the team, Sarah served as a nonprofit leader, programming designer, state education specialist and teacher. In these roles, she has overseen organization-wide strategy, scaled high quality teacher preparation programs, and managed multi-million dollar grants. Her passion for liberated learning is rooted in her experiences teaching third and fifth grades at a dual-language elementary school.
Sarah holds a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction, a bachelor’s degree in Journalism, and a professional certificate in project management. Sarah lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband, daughter and two spoiled dogs. She loves traveling and the Denver Nuggets.
Sarah Cohen is a Program Director for the LiberatED Way team. She is committed to working at the intersection of urgency, equity and a people-first mentality to accelerate student achievement. Informed by her first career as a journalist and subsequent years of working with stakeholders across educational spaces, Sarah believes in the power of communication and relationships to create systemic change and disrupt inequities.
As a Program Director, Sarah provides leadership oversight and partnership to project teams implementing the LiberatED Way approach with clients and partners. Prior to joining the team, Sarah served as a nonprofit leader, programming designer, state education specialist and teacher. In these roles, she has overseen organization-wide strategy, scaled high quality teacher preparation programs, and managed multi-million dollar grants. Her passion for liberated learning is rooted in her experiences teaching third and fifth grades at a dual-language elementary school.
Sarah holds a master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction, a bachelor’s degree in Journalism, and a professional certificate in project management. Sarah lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband, daughter and two spoiled dogs. She loves traveling and the Denver Nuggets.
Rick believes that teachers truly can unlock the potential in students that will make them change the world. As a first year teacher Rick lacked the support that he needed to be successful which is why he is so passionate about supporting teachers in this work. Rick has been a founding teacher at 2 high performing charter schools in Chicago where he served in a variety of instructional leadership roles such as Department Chair, Resident Principal, Testing Coordinator, etc.
Before transitioning to the Advisory Services team in 2018, Rick spent several years working for AUSL as an instructional coach and curriculum and development coach. In this work Rick has been instrumental in supporting teachers and school leaders across the AUSL Network with the implementation of a Common Core curriculum and data driven instruction. He has also designed professional development for teacher and school leaders across the network. Rick holds two Master's Degrees. One in School Leadership from Concordia University and another as a Masters of Arts in Teaching from National Louis University in Chicago.
When he is not busy trying to support teachers who are trying to change the world, Rick spends his time living in Las Vegas where he likes to get outside and enjoy Las Vegas by hiking and attending as many live music events as he can.
RICK JAGER
Teacher Development Partner
Stephanie Champi
Strategy and Implementation Partner,
Program Expansion
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Christine Diaz, School Systems Leadership Subject Matter Advisor- Christine is a Leadership Development Partner on the LiberatED Way team. As part of her role, she supports and builds capacity among school leaders and teachers across various schools and school districts. She brings a wealth of experience and expertise in systemic leadership, change management, data driven leadership and is passionate about educational equity. Christine brings 19 years of K-12 educational leadership experience in traditional district, charter schools, and alternative schools with a strong record of results. Prior to joining LiberatED Way, Christine has served in a variety of roles: Principal, Assistant Principal, Chief Education Officer for one of the largest K-12 Charter networks in Chicago and most recently, as VP of Schools for IDEA Public Schools in Ft. Worth, TX. Christine holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Florida Institute of Technology, a Masters in Educational Leadership from Northeastern Illinois University. In addition, she is a proud alumn of both New Leaders for New Schools and the Surge Institute.
CHRISTINE DIAZ
Leadership Development Partner
Erica Wright
Strategy and Implementation Partner
Erica is a Strategy and Implementation Partner on the LiberatEd Way team. She has over 15 years of experience working with schools and nonprofits that serve our most vulnerable youth. Erica is a firm believer that equity in education is one of the most fundamental ways to level the playing field. While our young people are our most valuable asset, it takes an entire village to come together to ensure their success.
Erica is a practicing Mental Health Therapist and prior to joining the LiberatEd Way team, she served as a counselor and Restorative Justice Facilitator in schools and organizations in several cities throughout the country. She holds a B.A. in English and Black Studies, a Masters in Education for Counseling Psychology- as well as Certificate in Mental Health Therapy.
