Noemí Cortés joins Teach Plus as Illinois Education Leadership Coach, where she will support and coach teacher leaders as facilitators and participants in the Illinois Affinity Group Network Fellowship. Prior to joining Teach Plus, Noemí has worked as a teacher at various grade levels, teacher educator in institutions of higher education, district level administrator, and instructional coach.
A graduate of the Chicago Public Schools system, Noemí spent eleven years in Arizona learning a new system and way of being in education. This, along with study in Cuba and Brazil, has informed her understanding of what else exists as possibilities for the education system. Noemí believes all children have courage, brilliance, and power they do not often see in themselves. It is from that position that she engages with people.
As an independent consultant, Noemí has supported the pilot design and execution of the Surge Academy, a 6-month fellowship program for education leaders in Kansas City and Indianapolis and the Truth, Healing, and Equity Fellowship program for Chicago-based organizations interested in furthering their equity design work. In addition, Noemí provides leadership coaching and infrastructure development for start-up non-profit and charter school leaders.
Ms. Cortes carries the belief that change begins with the hope that change can occur. She does not begin from a place of dismantling and disrupting but from a place of growing and building in solidarity and community. In part, this belief is heavily informed by her position as a mother of two young daughters whose future is yet to be determined.
