Simone Wright
Dr. Simone Wright leads with an unwavering commitment to ensuring education is an effective tool to drive each student‘s success. She believes that each student’s educational experience should be a driver to equip them with the skills and mindsets to write their success narrative.
Dr. Wright’s perspective on the purpose of education solidified during her various experiences in Houston, Texas, where she served as a high school chemistry teacher and in various instructional leadership roles across the city.
She led an underperforming school to receive the state’s highest accountability rating, a first for any campus in the northeast Houston community, by focusing on leader and teacher development as a lever for change. These experiences helped her understand the strengths and challenges that exist in many urban education settings while fueling her desire to lead systematic change in education.
Dr. Wright served as a Special Advisor in the Chief Academic Office at the New York City Department of Education. While at NYCDOE, Dr. Wright launched an ambitious curriculum reform effort that uplifted the significance of engaging students, families, educators, and community members to inform the development stages of curricula. In addition, she played a key role in supporting the development of the system’s long-term goals for teaching and learning.
Dr. Wright is excited to continue to expand her influence as a systems leader in education as the Chief of Academics for Denver Public Schools. She takes the charge, personally, of ensuring the learning experiences for students across DPS act as a catalyst to accelerate their trajectory- specifically for historically underserved students. Dr. Wright initially joined the Denver Public Schools family as the Executive Director of Universal School Supports. Within a few short months, she moved to the role of Associate Chief of Academics, where she oversaw the following teams- Gifted and Talented, Whole Child, and College and Career Success, in addition to supporting the Chief of Academics with developing strategic coherence across the Academics team.
Dr. Wright received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia and a doctorate from Harvard Graduate School of Education.