UELIP Success Stories

David DeMatthews is a former UELIP associate that is now an Assistant Principal at Shaw Middle School. We recently interviewed David to see how his previous experience in the program shaped his career path.

Can you tell us a bit about where you are from?

I'm originally from New Jersey. I got my undergraduate degree from Rutgers, I got my masters from Johns Hopkins, and I'm working on my PHD from the University of Maryland.

What UELIP class are you from?

I was a 2009 [Spring] senior associate.

Did your UELIP experience shape your career path?

Absolutely. I realized that there is a need for people to be working in Special Education. When I saw how poorly special education students were being treated and how so many of them were being tossed to the side, it really motivated me to work in special education in order to address these problems.

What type of work did you do while at Central Office?

I worked on developing special education policy and most of that work culminated in the Special Education Reference Guide. I also did a lot of professional development and training with special education coordinators. I've worked with everyone from Instructional Superintendents to Teachers, training them for work with special education students.

So, when you were an associate were you in the Office of Special Education?

Yes.

Was your work as a UELIP associate similar to what you do as a Central Office employee?

Actually yes, a lot of the work I did as an associate involved setting up materials for the Special Education Reference Guide.

Did your perspective of DCPS change in any way from the time you were in UELIP once you became a Central Office employee?

As an associate I saw a lot [of DCPS], but I definitely did not see it all. As an associate, you are here for such a short time, so the focus is solely on your own project and your department. After I became a full time employee, I was able to see how large and complex this organization [DCPS] is.

What made you want to become an assistant principal?

Well, this has always been a goal of mine. My PHD program is a principal leadership program. The reason why I came here [Central Office] was to become a better educator, and I always intended to take what I learned here back to the school level.

Do you have any advice for our associates?

Continually search for answers to your questions. Education is such a big thing that it's too hard to explain. A child's experiences with his teachers, family and peers—that all goes into that child's education. So there is no magic bullet for any problem in education, but that is not to say you shouldn’t work towards finding solutions. To work towards a solution, you have to see the problem from a lot of different angles.

Associates should be gaining experiences in schools right now. Seeing schools and being in schools really helped me. I got to know a lot of people and saw what was going on both at the central office and school levels.

Chief Chat: Lisa Marie Ruda

Lisa Marie Ruda, the Chancellor’s Chief of Staff, oversees school operations, general counsel and interagency relations.

Can you describe for us what you do?

I work on making sure that the left hand and the right hand are moving in the same direction. Anytime an initiative crosses departments, it's my job to make sure that all the involved offices and departments are on the same page and moving in the same direction. Most importantly, I make sure that anyone that should be part of the conversation is at the table. This includes people from DCPS, the mayor’s office, and other district agencies.

Where are you from?

Geographically, I spent most of my life in Cleveland. I attended Bowling Green State University as an undergrad, and I went to grad school at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. I also previously worked as the Chief of Staff at the Cleveland Public Schools.

When did you know that you wanted to pursue education?

I don’t think I did! I was initially trained as a corporate lawyer. I was hired by a small law firm that worked closely with schools, and then I went on to Cleveland Public Schools.

What are you most proud of since coming to work for DCPS?

I’m so proud of how much we have accomplished in the past three years. The work that is being done here is very similar to what was going on in Cleveland, but the difference is the rate at which we are making these changes. The bottom line is that kids can't wait. We have to get traditional public schools right, or we, as a nation, are never going to move forward.

I also love that we try different things, nothing is worse than not trying.

We try to be smart and move quickly. We assess and evaluate where we are going. Sometimes things don’t work out as planned we pick ourselves up and figure out what we’re going to do next.

What do you find most challenging about your position?

The biggest challenge is what we can't control.

What advice would you like to give to our associates?

Absolutely number one: get your graduate degree- no ifs, buts, or ands. I am a huge advocate of advanced degrees, and unfortunately, the undergraduate degree is no longer enough.

Also try to work with as many different departments as humanly possible. The work and personalities in each department can be so different. There are folks that are data crunchers, and there are folks that are relationship builders. Each of these is an important skill set. To be successful, you need to a combination skills, and you need to meet other folks to be exposed to that.

Associate Spotlights of the Week

Junior Associate: Keerat Pannu

Where do you come from?

I’m from Northern Virginia and just graduated from Georgetown University.

Why did you choose UELIP?

Living just outside the beltway for most of my life and spending four years going to college here, I’ve developed a strong connection to the District and its young people. I believe this city has great potential and I wanted greatly to be part of an effort to create better opportunities for its students.

What are you working on during your time here?

I’m working on a variety of activities aimed at improving the exchange of information and ideas between DCPS and D.C. Council.

Name one interesting fact about yourself.

I literally lived steps away from Tower Bridge for a year.

What was your favorite subject growing up and why?

Math, because it was the easiest to understand.

What is your dream job?

I think it’d be awesome to be a travel blogger.

What’s your favorite UELIP memory thus far?

Sharing a cubicle with Rebecca Scaife.

Senior Associate: Max Tuchman

Where do you come from?

I’m a dual citizen of Miami and New York City and am currently up in Boston doing a joint degree at Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Why did you choose UELIP?

I’ve had some experience with the Miami, Boston and NYC school districts and hope to one day return home to Miami to work for the 375,000 schoolchildren in our district. I realized I'd better learn from the best, and decided to come down to DC to learn everything I could about Michelle Rhee.

What are you working on during your time here?

I work in the Office of Secondary School Transformation and am working on creating a competitive grant to encourage schools to think about their time in a more innovative manner (i.e. extend the school day or year, mandatory after school tutoring, swing shifts, etc)

Name one interesting fact about yourself.

I love to watch world destruction movies. My favorite is The Day After Tomorrow, but I’m happy with a “what would happen if a meteor hit the earth” miniseries on the Discovery channel. Apparently, the other senior associates find this disturbing, yet wildly interesting.

What was your favorite subject growing up and why?

I’ve always been in art magnet programs and so I’d have to say my favorite subject was fashion design in high school.

What is your dream job?

Growing up, I wanted to be an international spy/ ninja. Now I want to be an urban superintendent. I’m not sure which is harder to achieve.

What’s your favorite UELIP memory thus far?

UELIP Retreat: Getting to know more UELIPers and hear Kaya speak was amazing! Watching people try and eat an Oreo off their forehead was a close second.

Chief Chat: Peggy O'Brien

Dr. Peggy O’Brien was appointed Chief of Family and Public Engagement for District of Columbia Public Schools in March, 2008, and leads the district’s work with parents and families, as well as community engagement, community partnerships, press and strategic communications.

Can you explain to us what you do?

I work on parent/family engagement, partnerships and strategic communication. Part of my work also includes working with the press.

Where are you originally from?

I originally come from a little town outside of Boston. I came to DC to attend Trinity College, which was the oldest Catholic women's college in DC. When I was enrolling in college, many of the best colleges and universities were not available to women.

When did you know you wanted to go into education?

I knew it when I was a junior in college in 1968. 1968 was a year when there was so much going on in this country, and a lot of them were happening right here in Washington! There was the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement, and the beginning of the women's movement all happening at the same time. It was a period of civil unrest but also a period of real dynamic change.

It was a time of incredible dynamism. MLK was assassinated in April of 1968, and Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June of 1968, but it was also the time of Woodstock and all that sort of stuff. It was wild. There was all this stuff going on. It was time when you felt that there could really be some change and that change was really important. I had never thought about being a teacher, but being in Washington where all these things were happening was just a gift. I started realizing that connecting people to the power of their own brains was the most important thing that you could do, so that’s why I became a teacher. I wanted to teach in DC Public schools and no where else. I knew that I wanted to be right here in high schools with kids from DC.

Can you tell us about your certification program?

I was in a program called the Urban Teacher Corps. It was a program that was created and run by DCPS. I started teaching summer school the June after my college graduation and then went into teaching English at Roosevelt High School. This country was desperate, desperate for teachers then, so there were loads of new teachers going into schools. It was a really interesting time to go into teaching.

What are you most proud of since being at DCPS?

I am proud to be a part of this reform. I'm here because I heard the chancellor when she first came and said what she wanted to do with these schools, with this system. She was focusing on children and not adults, and I just thought "Wow." I lived in this city all this time, and my children went to DCPS. I know the kids in this city are smart, yet these schools have consistently let them down, so I wanted to do whatever I could to be a part of what the chancellor was doing. I wrote her a letter and said "What can I do for you?", and now I’m here.

What were you doing before you joined DCPS?

I was Senior Vice President for Education at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I worked a lot on the television shows that go on the air for kids, like Sesame Street.

What do you find most challenging about your job?

What we are doing is so big, yet we are coming from so far behind, so our sense of urgency is very strong. We can't ever move fast enough. There is never enough time. It’s challenging, and you never feel like you are doing a good enough job because there is always so much more to be done.

Do you have any advice for our associates?

Just drink as deeply from all of this as you possibly can. This is a moment in time. This reform is a moment in time. Your role in this reform is a moment in time. Work as hard as you can. Go to as many seminars and classrooms as you can. Do whatever you can to wring every drop from this summer. Just know you will never be able to do everything you want to do, and part of that is throwing yourself into your work, but if there are people you want to talk to, DCPS is a very horizontal organization. If there are people here doing interesting things that you want to talk to, contact them. Everybody is glad for that. Everybody can fit that into their day because you guys are important.

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