Roosevelt High School
Courtney Wilkerson has served as the principal of Sousa Middle School since 2016. Principal Wilkerson developed her leadership skills as a Mary Jane Patterson Fellow, where they served as a Resident Principal at multiple elementary and secondary campuses across the District. Wilkerson joined DCPS in 2012 as an assistant principal at H.D. Woodson High School, supporting more than 350 second and third-year freshmen and overage students to accelerate their learning to graduate. Through Wilkerson’s transformational leadership, students were empowered to authentically engage, own their learning, and reach their post-secondary goals. Before leading in DCPS schools, Wilkerson taught for eight years and served as an International Baccalaureate (IB) and Advanced Placement (AP) instructional administrator for three years.
The theme of Wilkerson’s leadership journey is an unyielding commitment to increasing equity and access for those most impacted by the dominant status quo. Wilkerson does this by developing culturally responsive leadership capacity, centering children’s diversity as assets, designing project-based pedagogical models, and creating multidimensional metrics that assess the whole child. Wilkerson is committed to establishing cooperative education practices, leveraging the strengths within diverse communities, and being a resource to improve academic outcomes that empower leaders to have sustainable change.
A District native, Wilkerson began their career teaching math and science at an alternative high school in Northern Virginia. Wilkerson earned a bachelor’s degree in biology, a master’s degree in juvenile justice policy and planning from Virginia Commonwealth University, and administrative licensure from the University of Virginia. In the Fall of 2019, Wilkerson began a doctoral education journey at Howard University and is on track to defend their dissertation in December 2022. Wilkerson presents her published educational research and leadership practices across the globe. Married for eight years, Wilkerson has five children flourishing in academics and careers, from high school national honor society leaders to medical school.