Hilary (she/her/hers) grew up in a small town in Massachusetts and has spent the almost twenty years since college working in education, despite an initial plan to join the foreign service thanks to Teach For America. She joined the corps in 2001 in New Orleans and taught Kindergarten and First grade at Langston Hughes Elementary in the 7th Ward. From there she joined TFA staff working at Institutes and on the Recruitment team until landing in the Midwest in 2006 and returning to the classroom at West Gary Lighthouse Charter School the year they first opened their doors. After moving into school leadership much faster than anticipated Hilary was the principal of West Gary until 2010 when she returned to TFA to work as a director on the school leadership team, and also to get her masters in school leadership from Concordia University. Since that time, Hilary’s been blessed to start up and grow a number of programs designed to serve leaders in our community working hard in schools and now on social enterprises including RSLA, Schools to Learn From, the School Leaders of Color Conference and the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Social Innovation Award. She’s also been blessed to spend those 9 years working with a diverse team of talented people dedicated to the learning and development of leaders in the field of education. Hilary lives in Chicago with her two children Willa and Harmon, her husband Nolan and their dog Henry. She loves hanging on her front porch, drinking wine, eating mango and listening to music.