A native Chicagoan and Chicago Public Schools veteran, Cris Whitehead brings to SLI a wealth of knowledge and perspective gained from her years of experience as a mother, youth services program director, and Chicago Public Schools parent leader to her work as Director of Parent Engagement.

After attending McCormick Elementary School and Harrison High School, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, Cris was the Program Director for seven years at a Chicago youth-services agency, where she designed, developed and delivered programs for children 6-21 years of age, as well as trained and supervised 10 program staff, 25 summer youth program assistants and 15 volunteers. During that time, she also supervised the agency’s pre-kindergarten program working with children 3- 5 years of age.

Following her years as a program director, Cris took a break to raise a family, and when her two boys started school she began what became 11 years of volunteering at their elementary school. She was a classroom volunteer/tutor, PTO President, PTO treasurer, and President of the Math & Science Committee, then served as Chairperson of the Local School Council at Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy for six years.

Initially, Cris specialized in working directly with children, but now having raised two sons — one currently a Chicago Public Schools high school student and the other now serving in the military — and after her experience as a Chicago Public Schools parent leader, she now enjoys her focus on working with other parents, helping them learn how to help their own children to learn and succeed in school.

Cris came to Strategic Learning initiatives in 1999, and is now responsible for designing, directing and delivering SLI’s Parent Engagement program for schools in the neighborhood networks that are the core of the Scaling Up Best Practice program. Under Cris’ leadership, SLI provides innovative programming, highly interactive facilitation, and effective recruitment techniques to strengthen and energize parents in the network schools. Cris and her team of facilitators provide training for parents on how to become more involved and engaged in their children’s education, and how to make home a center for learning. The workshops give parents tools and strategies for parents to assist in their children’s learning at home, which supports and strengthens what they are learning in school.

Cris is a professionally-certified facilitator in Junior Great Books, Family Math, Family Science, and Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (and Highly Effective Families). She is currently a member of Family Support America, the National Network of Partnership Schools, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and is Vice-President of The Kenwood Academy Football Booster Club.

[In her free time (when she has any), she likes to read, listen to 50’s and 60’s music, and dance.]