Literacy Design Collaborative: Student Work, Teacher Leadership and Systemic Change

Dr. Kami Lewis Levin

Chief Learning Officer at the Literacy Design Collaborative. 

Kami believes that in order to truly increase student outcomes, we must attend to the adults who support our students. Catalyzed by her experience as a brand new high school teacher in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and the lack of adequate teacher preparation she received, she has dedicated her career to supporting teachers and leaders across the nation to grow sustainable, holistic, internal adult learning programs and pathways. As Chief Learning Officer at LDC, she enacts her values and skills by overseeing the design and implementation of leadership programming and leveraging LDCs resources and tools both within the organization and with our school and district partners. All of this is undergirded by Kami’s people-centered approach to systemic change.

After teaching in the New York City Public Schools, and serving as a teacher mentor to graduate-level student teachers, Kami shifted her focus from directly serving children to reforming the system. To do this, she became an instructional coach, first in NYC and then in Cambridge, MA and has since held the roles of Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment at New Visions (NYC), Director of Emerging Leaders and Leading Instruction at New Leaders (national), Chief Learning Officer at the Public Preparatory Network (NYC), and Professional Learning Specialist at Gradient Learning (national). For the past three years, as an independent consultant, she served as Special Advisor to the Deputy Chancellor of Teaching and Learning for New York City Public Schools. Kami is also a current faculty member of the Summer Principals Academy (SPA) at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Kami holds an Ed.D in Adult Learning & Organizational Leadership from Teachers College, where she received the Provost Doctoral Dissertation Grant (DDG) and the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame James P. Pappas Scholarship. She earned an MA in Secondary Social Studies Education from NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, and a BA in American History and in Dance from Barnard College.