Elizabeth Kirby

Before joining the district leadership team as Chief of Network 11 (covering schools on the city’s southwest side), Liz served as a principal at Kenwood Academy High School in the Hyde Park neighborhood. In 1999, she began her career at Kenwood as a history teacher, winning a Golden Apple Award during her second year in the classroom. Liz transitioned into school leadership as a member of New Leaders’ Cohort 2 and served as an assistant principal at Kenwood from 2003 to 2005 before becoming principal in 2005. At that time, the average Freshmen On-Track rate at Kenwood was 58.4 percent. By 2010, Liz had increased the rate was 74.5 percent, a gain of more than 26 percent. Moreover, five of the 31 Gates Millennium Scholars chosen in Illinois in 2011 were Kenwood students. Liz graduated from Harvard College in 1994 and worked as a center director with the Higher Achievement Program in Washington, D.C. She then moved to Chicago and taught at Olive Harvey Middle College, an alternative school for students who dropped out or were expelled from CPS, as well as Triumphant Charter School. She holds a Master's of Science degree from the University Of Chicago.