Digital Principal award winners are honored for integrating digital media in their efforts to improve instruction, student achievement, and their own leadership.

2019 Digital Principal Award Winners

Beth Houf

@BethHouf
Fulton Middle School
Fulton, MO

Beth Houf is the co-author of Lead Like a PIRATE: Make School Amazing for Your Students and Staff. Beth also serves as a facilitator for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Leadership Academy, providing monthly training to state educational leaders, and is active in her local, state and national principal associations. In her 11 years as principal, she has worked to implement a technology-infused vision among various stakeholders through initiatives including transforming the teacher evaluation program through technology; implementing Fulton Middle School Passionate Learning, a digital innovation focused on personalized learning; and utilizing social media platforms to improve communication with parents and modeling digital citizenship and leadership for students.

Chris Lehmann

@chrislehmann
Science Leadership Academy
Philadelphia, PA

Chris Lehmann is the founding principal and CEO of the Science Leadership Academy, an inquiry-driven, project-based, 1:1 laptop school that is considered to be one of the pioneers of the School 2.0 movement nationally and internationally, and the Science Leadership Academy Schools network, a network of three progressive science and technology schools in Philadelphia. Since the school’s inception in 2006, Chris has focused on fulfilling its vision that technology should be ubiquitous, necessary, and invisible. He has created a Tech Team to manage and maintain the school’s technology, a web portal to allow students to work publicly on school blogs and learning tools, and, overall, an environment that empowers students to leverage technology in new and powerful ways.

Allison Persad

@apersad
The Young Women’s Leadership School of Astoria
Astoria, NY

Allison Persad, principal of The Young Women’s Leadership School (TYWLS) of Astoria, has spent nearly 20 years as a student, teacher, coach, adjunct professor, and now principal of an all-girls public school in New York City. She is a graduate of St. John’s University educational leadership Doctor of Education Program and holds a master’s degree in Educational Leadership from C.W. Post, as well as bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from Queens College. Allison sees her role in implementing a shared technology vision in her school as similar to a motherboard: She offers agency and creative freedom to her teachers, students, and staff. In her tenure at TYWLS of Astoria, she has focused on a mission to ensure that all students have access to computer science, implementing a seven-year Software Engineering Program designed to help students think and solve critical problems in creative ways through the use and understanding of technology. In an effort to empower and educate girls through technology, the school became a 1:1 laptop environment that allows for the incorporation of technology in every course throughout the day.