Meet Our New Director
Dr. Arlene Ackerman served as the Superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District and formerly Superintendent of Washington, D.C., Public Schools, has joined Teachers College's Education Leadership faculty as the Christian A. Johnson Professor of Outstanding Educational Practice, effective September 2006. She directs the Urban Education Leaders Program, formerly known as Inquiry in Ed Leadership, the College's largest doctoral program for public-school leaders, and the The Superintendents and Scholars Symposium formerly known as the Superintendents Work Conference. Dr. Ackerman, who holds a doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, succeeds Thomas Sobol, the eminent former New York State Commissioner of Education, who has held the endowed appointment since 1995.
Dr. Ackerman is nationally recognized for her successful school leadership. San Francisco was one of five finalists for the 2005 Broad Prize for Urban Education, given annually to "best urban districts in the nation."
Dr. Ackerman was the 2005-06 elected chair of the Council of Great City Schools, a coalition of the nation's 65 largest urban school districts, serving 37 million students. She also co-chaired the College Board's Writing Commission and works closely with the Broad Foundation's Urban Superintendents Academy. She was named Superintendent of the Year for 2004-05 by the National Association of Black School Educators, and the 2007 "Superintendent in Residence" of the Broad Superintendents Academy in Los Angeles.