This week, we are excited to profile the extraordinary Elizabeth Jamison-Dunn, principal of Catalyst Circle Rock Charter School in Chicago.
As a young student, Elizabeth Jamison-Dunn was admitted to Whitney Young Magnet High School—one of Chicago’s esteemed selective enrollment high schools that has graduated some big names, including Michelle Obama and astronaut Joan Higginbotham.
The school’s namesake was a civil rights giant—an organizer of the March on Washington and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. When he delivered a eulogy at Young’s funeral in 1971, then-President Richard Nixon said that Young “knew how to accomplish what other people were merely for.”
Elizabeth had positive experiences with her education in elementary and middle school, attending a small Catholic school that she loved. But attending Whitney Young Magnet High School was even better.
“When I got there, I was like, ‘Oh my god. This place is amazing,” said Elizabeth.
Yet something didn’t feel right to her—her cousins, all attending their neighborhood schools, weren’t getting access to the same opportunities that she was.
“Their schools didn’t have a tenth of what we had,” she said. “So, I was able to see some of the disparities at 14 years old.”
Elizabeth went on to Howard University, majoring in political science, convinced that she’d head into politics or law. She interned on Capitol Hill and with law firms, but never felt like they were the right fit.
“I was still really frustrated with the gap that I saw for Black children and their peers especially,” she said. A friend told her about Teach For America—and she lit up learning about the organization and its vision. It felt aligned.
Coming back home
Elizabeth applied and was accepted to Teach For America’s 2007 corps in Chicago.
“For me, it was Chicago first, second, and third option. I did want to come back home,” she said. “I was very passionate about working specifically in the communities that I grew up and being able to have impact on the children in my family, on my block, kids in my community.”
Elizabeth landed at Catalyst Circle Rock Charter School in Chicago’s Austin community teaching seventh grade. It was the year the school first opened.
“I loved it,” Elizabeth said. “I got the bug.”
She enjoyed teaching and quickly became a mentor teacher, accumulating leadership experience little by little.
In 2012, she became the school’s Director of Instruction, providing coaching, professional development, evaluation and curriculum support. Elizabeth served in that role for nearly four years, but she isn’t one to get complacent—she focuses on accomplishing big things. So when the principal role opened up in 2015, Elizabeth landed the job.
She’s been in that role for 10 years. The school now serves over 500 students in grades K-8.
“I’m always concerned about stagnation or not being able to see some things because this is all I know,” she said. “I try to be intentional about seeing other programs.”
In that spirit, Elizabeth was a Surge Fellow in 2024. The Surge Fellowship is a Surge Institute program for emerging leaders of color in education. It supports participants in gaining the skills to serve at executive levels.
She’s also been involved with the Accelerate Institute, which trains school leaders to “systemically transform schools into healthy, safe environments that are culturally relevant and centered on student learning outcomes.”
Bringing in the joy
Elizabeth believes that the autonomy that charter school leaders have has contributed significantly to her successes at Catalyst Circle Rock.
“For me, I feel like I enjoy the autonomy I have as a charter leader to really make decisions for our school that I feel is in the best interest of our students,” she said. “I want to develop a culture of joy. I want my students and staff to be happy and love our school. I think that as a charter school leader in Chicago, I’ve been able to have that autonomy to bring that joy in.”
Elizabeth brings that element of joy and a serious focus on students into her work every day. She sits in the hallways, instead of sitting in an office, making herself accessible to students and staff. Six employees of Catalyst Circle Rock were once students at the school.
She’s also worked to create a school climate where students feel authentically heard. Catalyst Circle Rock students have even successfully petitioned Elizabeth for three major changes to school policy—including some changes to the dress code and cafeteria offerings.
“I want to let them know they have a voice, and it matters,” she said. “We try to be publicly responsive to the data—so when students express discontent, we publicly address it and talk about how to fix it.”
Under Elizabeth’s leadership, Catalyst Circle Rock has also worked to provide clubs and electives that appeal to every student. There’s an anime club, robotics and 10% of all the school’s students are in the school orchestra.
“I want a school where there’s something for everybody,” she said. “And if there’s anybody who feels like there’s nothing for them, then we need to figure out what to do so this child feels like ‘There’s something for me.’ I’m proud of creating a school environment and community that, if I had kids, I would send my children here. People are proud to be part of the Catalyst community, and that’s something I’m proud of.”
Members of the Catalyst community feel that pride, too. Hundreds of men—dads, brothers, uncles, grandfathers, father figures—have turned out for the school’s annual “Bring your child to school day.”
For all students to thrive
Elizabeth’s hard work and dedication was recently recognized—she just won Teach For America’s Outstanding School Leadership award.
She was also awarded Alumni Distinguished Teacher in 2012 by Teach For America – Chicago and she was a finalist for the 2019 Illinois Network of Charter Schools Charter Excellence Award for Principal of the Year.
“I believe strongly in school choice,” she said. “Until all schools have the resources, support and systems for all students to thrive, we need school choice. I don’t want students to feel like they have to go to the suburbs or to a predominantly white school to get a good education.”
Elizabeth regularly collaborates with other charter school leaders—she had just gotten off a call with one before we spoke—and encourages others to do the same. As Jed has written many times before, it’s not easy to be a charter school leader in Chicago.
As Elizabeth humbly put it: “It’s not that I have so much wisdom, I have questions too. Sometimes you might feel like the things you’re dealing with are only happening at your school—but there ain’t nothing new under the sun. It’s good to be able to reach out and collaborate with people who have sat in the seat.” She added: “A boulder is less heavy if there’s multiple people carrying it.”
Much like Whitney Young, Elizabeth is singularly dedicated to improving lives and expanding opportunities. She’s accomplishing what many people are “merely for.”
“I think the education space in America is a little bit tumultuous, but it’s important that we keep the ‘why’ at the forefront—and that’s our children,” she said. “The politics is noise. What we do matters, and it matters every day. We have to keep doing this work because our children deserve it.”