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Courtney Collins-Shapiro is a co-founder and partner at DesignBuildDo Ventures, an action-oriented education consulting practice based in Philadelphia, PA. Her team works with school systems and networks, non-profits, and philanthropists regarding the design and implementation of strategic education initiatives. Most recently she served as a Partner at The Drexel Fund, a non-profit venture philanthropy fund focused on new and scaling high-quality private school networks serving low-income and other disadvantaged student communities. Prior to Drexel, she dedicated seven years as the chief innovation officer for the Mastery Public Charter Schools Network, the largest turnaround-focused charter network in the country. In this role, she led new initiatives (R&D), strategic planning and charter expansion, external relations, development & grants, board governance, postsecondary programming, and family-community organizing for the 24-school charter network. Major accomplishments include leading network growth from 2,000 to 14,500 students over seven years and raising more than $75 million in private and competitive public funds to support expansion and innovative programs. Her roots in K-12 education started in 2002 where she founded the School District of Philadelphia's multiple pathways to graduation division. Here Courtney managed the portfolio of school options for overage, under-credited youth in the fifth-largest school district in the United States. Key initiatives included creation of the nation's first re-engagement center for disconnected youth, management, and expansion of 14 accelerated high schools serving 5,000 former dropouts, and serving as the district lead on Project U-Turn to create a systemic, citywide approach to solving the dropout crisis. Prior to her time in K-12 education, Courtney spent five years working and teaching in higher education at the University of Maryland, College Park. She has a bachelor's degree from Villanova University and a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania. She and her family live and work in Philadelphia. She is a Fellow of the 18th class of the Pahara - Aspen Education Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
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