Jennifer Cheatham is a Senior Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Co-Chair of the Public Education Leadership Project (PELP) where she focuses on leading for equity and transformational change in urban school districts. Before joining the faculty at HGSE, she served for six years as the superintendent of the Madison Metropolitan School District in Madison, Wisconsin. Previously, she served as Chief of Instruction for Chicago Public Schools, a Chief Area Officer for Chicago Public Schools and the Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction for San Diego City Schools. She began her career as an 8th grade English teacher.