Alisa has over 25 years of experience as an educator, principal, and school leadership coach. She works with schools, districts and networks to support deeper and more engaging instruction for all students.
Alisa is Executive Director of the Deeper Learning Dozen, a project out of the Harvard Graduate School of Education that works at the intersection of Deeper Learning, systems change and equity. Alisa's work is primarily focused on schools, districts and networks who are looking to design and implement innovative programs that better meet the needs of all students and works to create school systems that support deeper and more engaging instruction for all students. Alisa is the co-author of the book How to Innovate: The Essential Guide for the Fearless School Leader, published April 2014. She was the founding co-principal at the NYC iSchool, a New York City public high school committed to rethinking high school for the 21st century. Previously, she has worked in the New York City central offices as a Director of Leadership and Organizational Learning, overseeing 250 schools in achieving their goal of increased student achievement by developing, aligning, and delivering cutting edge training and professional development. She was part of the design team for the Children First Intensive (CFI), a city-wide action research initiative designed to help build schools’ capacity to use accountability tools to differentiate, individualize, and improve instruction; as well as problem solving around school-based and systemic DOE issues to ensure that they do not interfere with schools’ effective operations. Alisa began her career in school administration as the founding leader of the Mott Hall II school, a small, progressive NYC public middle school. Alisa received her undergraduate degree from Barnard College, her MA in curriculum design from Teachers College, Columbia University and her MBA from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.
