Deirdra A. Preis, Ed.D

A retiree from the CT public schools, Dr. Preis served as a high school administrator, K-12 curriculum leader, Dean of Students and classroom health educator. As a classroom teacher, her passion for authentic, student-centered instruction led her to develop award-winning curricula on such topics as adolescent substance abuse prevention, ethical decision-making, social and emotional learning, and sexuality education. Dr. Preis left the classroom in 2004 expressly for the purpose of researching and redesigning the education system to better meet the needs of the increasing diverse student populations entering CT schools. Her work in bringing educators and students together to create and present unique professional development around equity, race and eliminating opportunity gaps has been showcased by NEASC and other national educational organizations. Dr. Preis earned her doctorate in educational leadership from Northeastern University in 2016, has taught at Northeastern and Southern CT State Universities, and has presented her work at conferences and classrooms at Oxford, Harvard and other leading educational institutions. Her most recent publication in the Fall 2020 issue of the Journal of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies is intended to help school leaders to identify eight common educator “narratives” that act as barriers to creating equitable academic and programmatic access for historically underserved groups of students. She is a school consultant for  Capitol Regional Education Council’s equity consulting team supporting the work of CT’s teachers and administrators to address equity and institutional racism in their schools.