EASL Executive Director Peggy Baker

Executive Director Peggy Baker has spent over 20 years consulting with non-profit organizations, and the last 10 with a particular focus on education work.  Working closely with the founding faculty of the Young Women's Leadership Charter School, Peggy created the initial software used to track student achievement in support of the school's approach to outcomes-based, data-driven assessment. She helped develop the grant proposal which led the Boeing Corporation to provide the resources needed to put EASE onto the internet and make it accessible to students and families as well as teachers.

Peggy has led workshops nationally which have led to building a network of schools using EASE across the country and as far away as Jakarta, Indonesia.  She organizes professional development, resources, and communications to support teaching and learning in the schools using EASE, as well as coordinating ongoing software development of the EASE platform.

Peggy's work in education began when she taught apprenticeship classes at Southern Pacific Railroad after completing her own apprenticeship there.  She also taught in a training program designed to equip young women to obtain non-traditional jobs in the transportation industry, and taught ESL classes through the city colleges of Chicago.  She served for several years as Technology Manager at the Young Women's Leadership Charter School. In addition to her role with the Institute, Peggy works with the Network for College Success, a project of the School of Social Service Administration of the University of Chicago.  The Network supports 15 Chicago Public High Schools to develop leadership capacity through programs for principals, assistant principals, Instructional Leadership Teams, college counselors, and Freshman Academy coordinators.

Peggy holds a Certificate in Non-Profit Management from the University of Illinois, Chicago, where she also did graduate work in the College of Education.  She received her BA from the University of California, Los Angeles.