Project Description
Danielle Drayton, Fellow
Oscar Mayer Magnet School
Chicago, IL
Danielle Drayton is the Principal of Oscar Mayer Magnet School, a Chicago Public School located in Lincoln Park. She has been in education for the past 20 years, 14 years as a classroom teacher and 6 years as a school administrator. During her tenure as a teacher, she had the opportunity to serve as the Math Lead leading curriculum work and as a facilitator of different professional development focused on Math instruction. She began her leadership journey in the New Leaders Emerging Leaders and Aspiring Principals program where she completed a year long residency at her current school. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management and a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education. She is currently pursuing her doctorate degree in Leadership, Equity, and Inquiry through Illinois State University where she anticipates using this knowledge to disrupt and dismantle many of the inequities that exist in education. She is a leader committed to changing the world, one student at a time.
Sarah Roche, Ally
Assistant Principal
Oscar Mayer Magnet School
Chicago, IL
Sarah Roche serves as the Assistant Principal of Mayer Magnet Elementary School in the heart of Lincoln Park. Immediately after graduate school Sarah began teaching abroad and for nearly nine years worked as a teacher in Thailand, Haiti and the Dominican Republic to develop her cultural humility and the skills required to serve diverse populations of students found in Chicago Public schools. While working abroad, she saw the need for educators to learn about serving neurodiverse students in the classroom and went back to school for special education and developed her understanding of multi-sensory approaches to learning. Sarah began her career as a bilingual special education teacher in Chicago serving students who were both struggling with disabilities and learning English. She worked as a teacher leader on the Instructional Leadership Team, coached her peers in both literacy and math practices, as well as lead the Diverse Learner team at her schools. After over ten years of service in American Public Schools, Sarah was accepted to the UIC, served as a resident in the Chicago Leadership Collaborative and is finishing her doctoral work in Urban Education Leadership. Her passions lie in meeting students where they are to push them to the next level, using culturally responsive and differentiated instruction, as well as considering the whole child to inform instructional decisions.