The Chicago Learning Fellowship
For Chicago's Education and Civic Leaders.
Learn from cities that have faced Chicago’s hardest questions, build trust across every sector of Chicago education, and help shape the future of Chicago’s public schools.
Overview
The Chicago Learning Fellowship is a nine-month cohort experience that brings together leaders from across Chicago’s education ecosystem to learn from cities that have faced similar challenges and return ready to act. The Fund operates the Fellowship in partnership with the Kersten Institute for Urban Education at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice.
Public education in Chicago is at a crossroads, with a governance transition and challenges to district finances, student engagement, and outcomes. The Fellowship aims to build a shared understanding of Chicago’s assets and cross-sector relationships, leveraging them to generate new solutions for the opportunities ahead.
Three Learning Experiences
Fellows travel together to learn from leaders who have faced Chicago’s hardest questions in other cities.
Civic Engagement
What does a model public agency look like?
Learning Engine
What does it take to move the needle on student outcomes?
Economic Accelerator
How do you build the will to make hard decisions?
Expected Outcomes
New Relationships
Trusted connections with leaders across every sector of Chicago education, forged through shared experience.
New Perspective
Firsthand evidence from cities that have faced Chicago’s hardest questions and found paths forward.
Real Influence
A direct voice in shaping the ideas that can guide Chicago’s public schools through its most consequential inflection point in a generation.
A Lasting Network
A cohort of peers who will carry this work forward long after the Fellowship concludes.
The People Behind the Learning
A Cohort Shaped by the People Who Impact Chicago’s School Communities:
Elected Officials:
Chicago Board of Education members and state legislators who will shape the policy environment of Chicago’s schools for years to come.
Educators:
School principals and classroom teachers representing the full range of CPS schools, who bring a daily, grounded perspective on what policy looks like in practice.
Parents and Students:
Local School Council members, parent advocates, and recent CPS alumni who keep every conversation anchored to Chicago’s students.
District and Civic Leaders:
CPS senior staff and civic and philanthropic partners who can translate learning into action at scale across policy, resources, and community relationships.
The 2026-27 Cohort
Meet the Fellows
Comfort Agboola
Poe Classical Elementary
Karina Ayala-Bermejo
Instituto del Progreso Latino
Kelsey Bakken
Advance Illinois
Sherly Chavarria
Lloyd A. Fry Foundation
Nayda De La Rosa
Kids First Chicago
Eva-Dina Delgado
Illinois House of Representatives
Alexandra DeLuca
P33 Chicago
Calvin Epps
Englewood STEM High School
Ric Estrada
Metropolitan Family Services
Umi Grigsby
Share Our Spare
Sara Guderyhan
Wirtz Corporation
Angel Gutierrez
Chicago Board of Education
Malik Henfield
Loyola University Chicago
Caleb Herod
Chicago Community Trust
Christina Herzog
Crown Family Philanthropies
Katie Hill
UChicago Crime Lab
Jameycia Jenkins
Kids First Chicago
Greg Jones
Kenwood Academy (former principal)
Peggy Korellis
City Colleges of Chicago
Jedianis Mercado
Loyola University Chicago
Iris Millán
Chicago Public Schools
Rodolfo Rojas
Everett Elementary
Ellen Rosenfeld
Chicago Board of Education
Nuwan Samaraweera
P33 Chicago
Tommorrow Snyder
TeachPlus
Nicole Spicer
Bronzeville Classical Elementary
Ana Suarez-Baca
Haugan Elementary
Curtis Tarver
Illinois House of Representatives
Conrad Timbers-Ausar
Chicago Public Schools
Veena Villivalam
Suder Montessori (Local School Council)
Ann Williams
Illinois House of Representatives