Advisory Committee

School District of Philadelphia Superintendent, Dr. Arlene C. Ackerman, has more than 30 years of experience in leading large, diverse urban public school systems.

Dr. Ackerman, who assumed her duties in Philadelphia in June 2008, came to the School District from the Teachers College of Columbia University, where she served as Director of the Urban Education Leaders Program and Chairperson of the Superintendents and Scholars Symposium. The Urban Leaders Education Program is the College's largest doctoral program for public-school leaders. She joined Teachers College's Education Leadership faculty as the Christian A. Johnson Professor of Outstanding Educational Practice in 2006.

Dr. Ackerman also is Superintendent in Residence of Los Angeles-based Broad Center, where she facilitates and directs the Broad Superintendents Academy. The Academy is a ten-month executive management program designed to prepare CEOs and senior executives from business, government, and education backgrounds to lead urban public school systems.

Prior to 2006, Dr. Ackerman was Superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District and the District of Columbia Public Schools. During her tenure in San Francisco, the city's public schools — with, 62,000 students and 117 schools — attained five consecutive years of improved achievement for all groups of students while also holding the distinction as the highest-performing large urban school district in the state of California during the last two years of her superintendency.