Penn GSE Student Named CEO of Charter HS

May 18, 2011 - Penn GSE student Gabriel Kuriloff has been named CEO of Arise Academy Charter High School, the nation’s first public charter high school dedicated exclusively to students in foster care. Kuriloff, a doctoral student in Penn GSE’s Educational Leadership program, will take the reins at the high school for the 2011-12 school year. 

In announcing the appointment, Jill Welsh-Davis, president of the Arise Board of Directors said, “Gabriel is an exceptional, proven leader. His approach to school leadership is innovative, compassionate, and purposeful.”

Kuriloff has seven years of teaching and administrative experience, including six as a teacher and achievement coordinator at a charter school in North Philadelphia. The former executive director of the REAL Schools Network, a start-up non-profit school design consultancy, he currently serves as a leadership development consultant for schools.  

The focus of his research at Penn GSE is school design and school leadership, and he has written about leadership, the “achievement gap,” programs that support students on their paths to college, and civic education. He is the co-author of funded research paper entitled Developing Student Support Programs: A Report to the Save a Mind Foundation.

Kuriloff holds his BA from Brown University in Urban Studies, where he wrote his honors thesis on the politics of school reform in Philadelphia. He earned his master’s degree in educational leadership and his Pennsylvania state principal’s certification from Penn GSE.  

Founded by the Urban Affairs Coalition in 2009, Arise will hold its second annual graduation ceremony in June 2011. Last year the school successfully graduated 10 students who all went on to higher education.

Media contact: Jill DiSanto-Haines / jdisanto@upenn.edu / 215-898-4820