In this issue...

Dr. Ethan Netterstrom (Cohort 4) is a graduate of the UIC Urban Educational Leadership Program and has been in various educational leadership roles the last 15+ years. He served as the founding principal of Skinner North for 8 years. In 2016, in collaboration with Dr. Katie Magnuson (Cohort 10), Skinner North earned the prestigious National Blue Ribbon Schools designation. 

Ethan has also served as the Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction and the Director of Advanced Learning in the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) from 2017-2020. He returned to Chicago in 2020 and has most recently served as the Executive Director for School Supports in the Office of Network Support (ONS). In this role Ethan acted as the Independent School Principal (ISP) Chief and led and supported all 71 principals in the program. Dr. Netterstrom also managed the district's Parent Support Center which provides support to parents across all 500+ district-run schools. Additionally, Ethan's team was responsible for updating the Tiered Support Model which provided support to 40 Collaborative Schools from across different geographic networks. He is thrilled to be back home in Chicago and is looking forward to joining the Network 7 Team!

Dr. Cortez McCoy (Cohort 14) has been in the educational field for sixteen years. He has dedicated his career to helping children and their families. He has been a substitute teacher, teacher, assistant dean, assistant principal in the public and charter school sectors. He is the former principal of Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts. He was the school’s first contract principal. Dr. McCoy graduated the school’s first graduating class since the reform. Dr. McCoy began his tenure at Dyett in 2019. Under his leadership, Dr. McCoy spearheaded a college going culture that resulted in exemplary graduation rates and millions of dollars in scholarships.

Dr. McCoy completed his doctorate in the Urban Educational Leadership Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (Cohort 14). He was honored as a 2021 Chicago Defender “Man of Excellence” and was recently recognized by Continuing Academic Training Children and Youth Services, Inc. as a “Most Distinguished Man of Illinois.” In his new role as Assistant Superintendent of Operations and Educational Services with the Matteson Elementary School District 159, Dr. McCoy looks forward to allotting all students the opportunity for success. He is a proponent of collaboration and distributive leadership and looks forward to working with the students, faculty, parents and community to take the district to new heights.

Dr. McCoy would like to thank all of his mentors and UIC coaches and would like to give a special thanks to Kay Volk, Dr. Barron and Dr. Lionel Allen for all of their support throughout the years.
 

Dr. Matt Heller (Cohort 9) has been selected as the new principal of Franklin Elementary in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.  Dr. Heller has worked in the Green Bay Area School District for the last seven years as an associate principal at East High School and as the principal of Nicolet Elementary.  Prior to leaving for Wisconsin to be closer to family, Dr. Heller was the principal at Solomon Elementary in Chicago and TEAM Englewood, where he began his administrative career under the guidance of his coach Dr. Cynthia Barron and his mentor Dr. Peggy Korellis.  The title of Dr. Heller's final capstone was "Impact of Teacher Collaboration and Teacher Learning on School Culture and Student Learning".

Dr. Heidy Moran (Cohort 15) has accepted the role of interim principal at Carl Schurz High School and will serve as the first Latina and first multilingual principal in school history. Dr. Moran is eager to continue building a culture of academic excellence that she has worked towards in the last four years as the assistant principal under the mentorship of Dr. Anthony Rodriguez (Cohort 7). Prior to Schurz High School, Dr. Moran began her education career in the Roseland neighborhood and has served as teacher leader, instructional coach, and resident principal in schools in Chicago, internationally in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and in Philadelphia before returning to teach bilingual English Language Arts in her childhood neighborhood of Logan Square.

While at Schurz, Dr. Moran has overseen the founding of the first secondary Dual Language program in the city, has worked to integrate Schurz’s five IB Program and Career and Technical Education academies to include enrollment of diverse learners and English learners. She looks forward to strengthening access for all students to choose their right fit for post-secondary pathways. Dr. Moran strongly believes in developing teachers and creating strong teams because she knows that all students can succeed with the right combination of high expectations and adequate support. Her success story, beginning as an undocumented English learner to becoming a first-generation college student, is thanks to the mentoring and dedication of passionate educators in her Chicago Public Schools K-12 schooling. 

Dr. Moran’s capstone was titled, "The Evolving Role of an Assistant Principal in Developing Organizational Capacity for Equity." 
 

LaToya McBride (Cohort 19) has been awarded the Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois (DFI) Fellowship.  She is the first EdD student to receive this honor.  The Illinois Board of Higher Education provides DFI fellowships to underrepresented minority students pursuing post-baccalaureate degrees as part of the state’s effort to diversify the faculties and professional staff at Illinois colleges and universities. As a doctoral student, LaToya has been awarded a renewable stipend of over $16,000 to continue her studies over the next four years as a full-time student.

Students awarded the DFI fellowship must seek and accept full-time employment at an Illinois college or university or a position as an employee of this state in an administrative, educational-related position equal to the number of years for which they receive the DFI fellowship.

Dr. Laquita Louie (Cohort 13) is a Distributive Leadership Specialist for Chicago Public Schools. In this role, she coaches and supports principals in establishing systems of distributive leadership within their school building with a focus on creating high functioning ILTs. Prior to her current position, Laquita was principal of Curtis School of Excellence for five years. During her tenure at Curtis, she established a distributed leadership model that gave voice to all stakeholders, including staff, students, and families, in addition to cultivating a highly functioning Senior Leadership Team (SLT). Laquita led the SLT in designing and developing a comprehensive instructional equity strategy that resulted in a more integrated and cohesive approach to ensuring that all students have access to quality grade level appropriate learning materials. For Laquita, the superintendent endorsement process provided the opportunity to reflect on her leadership efforts and provided the opportunity to learn from other district leaders to improve her understanding of systems in areas such as instruction, budget/finance, and strategic planning. The title of Laquita’s Capstone is, "Leadership Through Cultural Change: Leadership as Healing and Helping in a Post Turnaround School."
 

George Szkapiak (Cohort 15) is the Principal of John F. Kennedy High School, an International Baccalaureate World School. Starting his fifteenth year as the instructional leader of this premier general enrollment neighborhood high school in the Garfield Ridge and Clearing communities, George with Assistant Principal Chris Pawelczyk (Cohort 7) led some of the most successful instructional improvement initiatives in the City of Chicago. First in 2013-2015, Kennedy HS increased student attainment through more than a point composite growth on the ACT Exam for two consecutive years. This resulted in Kennedy HS being named to the Illinois State Board of Education Honor Roll for Increases in Student Achievement in 2015. Kennedy was 1 of 3 high schools in Chicago to receive that distinction and the only general enrollment neighborhood school in the city. During that time, Kennedy HS was selected by then Mayor Emmanuel for the International Baccalaureate Program. The first cohort of IB achieved eight full IB Diplomas increasing to thirty-eight full IB Diplomas in most recent IB cohorts which is one of the highest diploma pass rates in the City of Chicago. In 2019, Principal George Szkapiak with Assistant Principal Brian Kelly (Cohort 15) led Kennedy’s instructional improvement through focus on robust teacher professional learning structures and systems resulting in the third highest SAT student growth in Chicago.

The superintendent endorsement program at UIC provided George with the formal process of reflecting and documenting the highest leverage leadership moves he’s made that can be parlayed into district level instructional improvement. The entire process of achieving a superintendent endorsement truly allowed Principal Szkapiak to reflect on his leadership experiences through Donaldson’s I-C-I Framework for intentional preparation in all aspects needed to lead a school district in the future.