Jennifer Cheatham

Jennifer Perry Cheatham is an American educator and scholar who currently serves as a Senior Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and Faculty Chair of Field Engagement. She is co-chair of the Public Education Leadership Project (PELP) and co-chair of the Collaborative on Political Leadership in the Superintendency. She is the former superintendent of Madison Metropolitan School District and also held positions at Chicago Public Schools.

Her writing has appeared in publications such as Phi Delta Kappan, Education Week, and The Learning Professional.

 Education 
Cheatham earned her Ed.D. in 2010 through HGSE's Urban Superintendents Program, following earlier degrees including an Ed.M. from HGSE, an M.A. in Education from the University of Michigan, and a B.A. in English from DePaul University.

 Career 
Before joining Harvard, Cheatham served as Superintendent of the Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin from 2013 to 2019.

Prior to her work in Madison, Cheatham held positions in large urban districts. She was Chief of Instruction and Chief Area Officer in Chicago Public Schools, where she oversaw curriculum, post-secondary initiatives, early childhood programs, and professional learning. Earlier in her career, she served as Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction in San Diego City Schools, and worked as a literacy coach, curriculum developer, and middle school English teacher in California’s Newark Unified School District.

Her resignation as superintendent was announced in May 2019, effective at the end of that summer.

At Harvard, Cheatham designs education programs for superintendents and system leaders, including Leadership Entry: Empowering Schools and Communities and Civic Leadership in the Superintendency. Her recent lectures and research explore civic dimensions of district leadership and the role of political acumen in public education.

In 2023, she co-authored an opinion piece in Education Week, arguing that educational leaders must model openness to changing their own thinking to create conditions for collective learning. In the article, she highlights her approach to teaching graduate students who are aspiring system-level leaders.

Jennifer Cheatham is also the co-author, with Rodney Thomas and Adam Parrott-Sheffer, of the book Entry Planning for Equity-Focused Leaders: Empowering Schools and Communities (2022), which offers a framework to support leaders in equity-driven organizational entry planning.

 Selected publications 



References

Category:Living people
Category:American teachers
Category:People from Massachusetts