Crystel Harris has an entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to student success that has been demonstrated throughout her career. She served as a founding middle school teacher in the Bronx, developed the NYCDOE’s first and only teacher residency program, and lead the city’s first effort to recruit and retain male teachers of color. At each step in her career, Crystel has had the opportunity to innovate, influence, and build systems and structures to continuously improve educational opportunities for students.
As a leader, Crystel has developed new and experienced teachers in their practice, implemented innovative teacher recruitment strategies, built and supported strong teams, and developed and maintained cross-organization partnerships. As a result, an increasing number of students in NYC have had access to strong teachers, teacher attrition has increased, new recruitment pipelines have been developed, the diversity of the teacher population has increased.
Crystel is in her second year of HGSE’s Ed.L.D. program and within the past two years has been fortunate to be able to develop two organizations with her classmates, Educators Thriving, whose focus is to provide social emotional supports to early career teachers, and Teacher Impact Collaborative, whose focus is to increase the quantity and quality of teachers of color. She is looking forward to starting her residency at NewSchools Venture Fund in Oakland, CA this summer.