This initiative is no longer available. Please visit the LIFT Guidebook for additional teacher leadership opportunities.
The Teachers Central To Leadership Fellowship Program brings 5-8 DCPS teacher-leaders to share their wisdom and perspective with the work of central office. These eight were selected from among more than 100 applicants.
Shajena Erazo, Ballou High School
Shajena Erazo is a ninth through eleventh grade AVID and College Prep teacher at Ballou High School, and has been with DCPS for four years. She began working in DCPS after serving as a tutor, mentor, and role model to first graders at Malcolm X Elementary School through the City Year AmeriCorps program. This experience solidified Ms. Erazo’s desire to teach and her commitment to students from disenfranchised backgrounds.
Ms. Erazo is actively involved in her school community, having served on the Personnel Committee to interview and select new staff, and on the Academic Leadership Team to analyze data and academic trends, improve school culture, and support teachers. She has also served as an AVID Coordinator and led professional development for her colleagues around college-readiness and literacy.
Along with being awarded the Creativity and Excellence in the Classroom Award in 2013, Ms. Erazo has been recognized as a 2013 DC Teacher of the Year Finalist, a White House “Champions of Change” Finalist, and the Get Motivated Teacher of the Month at Ballou High School.
As a TCTL fellow, Ms. Erazo worked with the Office of College and Career Readiness to create a credit deficit prevention program dedicated to supporting students in re-mastering content.
Outside of the classroom, Ms. Erazo enjoys spending quality time with her family and friends, especially if it involves traveling, salsa dancing, or playing sports.
Kristen Addison, Ludlow-Taylor Elementary School
Kristen Addison teaches kindergarten at Ludlow-Taylor Elementary School. In her eight-year career, she has taught in Prince George’s County Public Schools in Maryland as well as at the Imagine Hope Community Public Charter School in Washington, DC. Ms. Addison has always wanted to teach, and loves the opportunity to inspire young minds. Her goal as a teacher is to encourage a strong love of learning in each one of her students, and she is passionate about helping students to achieve at high levels in order to reach their full potential.
Ms. Addison has facilitated training on guided reading best practices for both principals and managers of the Instructional Coaching Program. As a Local School Advisory Team member, she provided input on school issues such as staffing, budgeting, and resource allocation.
Ms. Addison was a Highly Effective Teacher in 2012 and 2013, an Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) Teacher of the Year nominee in 2013, and has been recognized for her students’ achievement on reading comprehension assessments.
Ms. Addison worked with in the Office of Teaching and Learning on the literacy team during her time as a TCTL fellow. She wrote reading units aligned to the Common Core, helped revise curriculum for kindergarten and first grade, and provided input for the social studies curriculum and the close reading literacy focus area.
When she is not teaching, Ms. Addison enjoys taking advantage of DC’s great restaurants, traveling to beaches, and spending time with her 3-year-old daughter.
Scott Harding, Maury Elementary School
Scott Harding is an early childhood teacher at Maury Elementary School, and has been with DCPS for seven years. Upon his graduation from Penn State University, Mr. Harding joined Teach For America’s early childhood initiative pilot program in Washington, DC. After meeting the children and families he would be serving, he was sold on a career in teaching, and he has found his work to be incredibly rewarding, incredibly impactful, and – perhaps most importantly – incredibly fun.
Mr. Harding has served on Maury’s leadership team, created and facilitated professional development sessions, led family engagement initiatives, and organized a weekly book club. He has also served as the early childhood grade level chairperson and as a LIFT Ambassador. Mr. Harding won the Rubenstein Award for Highly Effective Teaching in 2012, and is currently a Flamboyan Foundation Family Engagement Collaborative Fellow.
Working with the Office of Family and Public Engagement as a TCTL fellow, Mr. Harding helped to develop and facilitate training sessions for the Flamboyan Foundation Family Engagement Collaborative Fellowship. The sessions are designed to encourage teachers to think more deeply about their family engagement work.
Outside of work, Mr. Harding enjoys reading, traveling, and game nights with friends.
Suzie Peters, Ross Elementary School
Suzie Peters teaches fourth grade literature at Ross Elementary School, and has spent four years with DCPS. She was drawn to teaching because of the positive influence of several of her own teachers, who not only engaged her in learning but also contributed to her personal development. She believes that a teacher can change a student’s outcomes, and one of her goals every year is to ensure each student leaves her class having read at least one book that they love.
Ms. Peters serves as the teacher lead at her school, analyzing student data and using that data to plan with teachers, and also as the literacy coordinator. In this role, she co-plans literacy instruction with other teachers, leads professional development sessions, and heads the Response to Intervention Team. She also planned and facilitated a literacy night for parents of students in preschool through first grade, during which she and other teachers instructed parents in basic literacy skills, so that they could best support their children’s learning. Ms. Peters completed her Masters in Literacy at George Mason University in 2013.
As a TCTL fellow, Ms. Peters worked with the Office of Teaching and Learning on the literacy team. She worked closely with the Common Core Reading Corps to create and revise close-reading units and evidence-based writing prompts based on reading unit texts. She also created guides to help teachers implement evidence-based writing instruction in their classrooms.
In her spare time, Ms. Peters enjoys playing soccer with friends.
April Greene, The Walker-Jones Education Campus
April Greene is a third grade English language arts and social studies teacher at the Walker-Jones Education Campus, and has spent over four years teaching in DCPS. After working as a paralegal for Goodwill Industries International, Ms. Greene decided to become a teacher because of her strong desire to make a difference in the world and effect change at a fundamental level. She believes that our students are our future leaders, and she is inspired by the opportunity to shape them to be the best they can be.
Ms. Greene has served her school as the teacher lead, assisting teachers in using assessment data to drive classroom instruction. She has also served on the Academic Leadership Team as the K-2 grade-level chair, running grade-level collaborative meetings and supporting developing teachers. S She has been a member of the Chancellor’s Teachers’ Cabinet, a TNTP pre-service training instructor for the DC Teaching Fellows program, and a teacher leader through the Teach Plus T3 Initiative. Ms. Greene was a Highly Effective Teacher in the 2011-2012 school year, was on the Honor Roll for the Fishman Prize, and received a Teachers Choose Grant.
During her time as a TCTL fellow, Ms. Greene worked ii in the Office of Human Capital and helped create professional development sessions for DCPS school leaders and master educators who evaluate teachers through IMPACT. These sessions, which Ms. Greene also helped to facilitate over the summer, are designed to help evaluators implement the IMPACT rubric with consistency and fidelity.
Though Ms. Greene has lived in DC for several years, she still enjoys being a tourist. Whenever she gets the opportunity, she visits a monument or museum she has not yet explored, or eats at a new restaurant.
Lauren Trujillo, McKinley Technology High School
Lauren Trujillo teaches ninth grade biology and twelfth grade AP biology at McKinley Technology High School, and has been teaching in DCPS for four years. Driven to share her passion for education, Ms. Trujillo loves working with and for people, and her career as a teacher has allowed her to build meaningful relationships with school staff and students.
In addition to being a TCTL Fellow, Ms. Trujillo is also a member of the Leading Educators Fellowship, a program designed to help teachers develop leadership and adult facilitation skills. She has worked with DCPS and the DC Teaching Fellows to interview teaching candidates and make hiring recommendations. Her teaching has been filmed for the Align Teaching and Learning Framework video project to serve as a training tool for improving classroom instruction throughout DCPS. Ms. Trujillo has been a Highly Effective Teacher for the past two years.
As a TCTL fellow, Ms. Trujillo worked with the Office of Teaching and Learning on the Education Technology team. There, she helped to design and implement a pilot program with Discovery Education to use digital textbooks in science and social studies classrooms at two DCPS middle schools and one high school.
Outside of work, Ms. Trujillo loves going out to dinner with family and friends at new restaurants around DC.
Sara Ewbank, Brent Elementary School
Sara Ewbank is an instructional coach at Brent Elementary School, where she has worked for the last four years of her twelve-year career in education. She previously taught at Two Rivers Public Charter School, The American School of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and as a Teach For America corps member in Warren County, North Carolina. Ms. Ewbank believes that our education system is the greatest lever we have for enacting social change. She joined the movement of teachers and school leaders working to bring greater equity and excellence into the field because of her conviction that providing all children with access to high-quality education is critical to the maintenance of our democracy.
In addition to serving as an instructional coach and leading professional development sessions at Brent, Ms. Ewbank also coordinates and runs the school’s National War College partnership, which provides forty students with weekly tutoring sessions. She also participates with her Local School Advisory Team. Ms. Ewbank holds two masters degrees, one in elementary education, and the other in Education Policy and Management from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.
Ms. Ewbank spent her time as a TCTL fellow working in the Office of Teaching and Learning with the literacy team. She partnered with the Common Core Reading Corps to develop and revise close-reading units for English language arts.
In her spare time, Ms. Ewbank can often be found at the National Portrait Gallery or the Smithsonian American Art Museum, or ballroom dancing just for fun.
Mikel Oliver, Stanton Elementary School
Mikel Oliver is the mathematics instructional coach at Stanton Elementary School, and has worked in DCPS for four years. During her nine-year career in education, Ms. Oliver has also worked in Prince George’s County Public Schools. She traces her passion for teaching back to her eighth grade teacher, Mrs. Couden, who believed in Ms. Oliver’s potential, encouraged her to do better than her best, and continues to serve as the driving force behind the educator she is today.
As a TCTL fellow, Ms. Oliver worked in the Office of Teaching and Learning on the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) team to help the Common Core Math Corps fellows revise unit overviews to align with DCPS scope and sequence. Scope and sequence documents establish consistency of instruction throughout the district —across grade levels and subject areas— by providing clear guidance on what teachers should teach and when.
Outside of work, Ms. Oliver enjoys spending time with family and friends.