Chana Benenson

Originally hailing from eastern Washington, Chana Benenson received her B.A. in Comparative Languages and Linguistics from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana in December of 2003. Months later she began her career in education teaching English Language Arts at Walter L. Cohen Senior High School in New Orleans, Louisiana as a member of the Teach For America, Greater New Orleans 2004 corps. After a 10-week stint teaching ESL in Thailand directly following the flood of New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina, Benenson began her career at The New Orleans Charter Science and Math High School in December 2005. For the following 5 years Benenson taught all levels of French and Spanish, led the Foreign Language Department, was an instructional coach, was the student culture coordinator, and taught certification courses for The New Teacher Project. For the 2011-2012 school year Benenson shifted from the academic side of school to overseeing student discipline and activities as the School Dean, and is greatly looking forward to next school year when she will be the Director of Student Development and School Culture. The New Orleans Charter Science and Math High School is an open-enrollment public charter high school that focuses on the dual challenge of maintaining an intense remediation program while simultaneously promoting the open Advanced Placement courses in the upper grades. Benenson had learned a great deal about educational leadership from her experiences in The School Leadership Center and Leading Educators, and she is greatly looking forward to taking it to the next level as a member of the 2012 SPA NOLA cohort.