Biography
Dr. Crystal Brown recognizes and respects the uniqueness of each child. As a teacher, her primary mission is to foster a love of learning in each student. In 2012, she followed her passion and returned to Chicago Public Schools as an Intermediate Mathematics teacher. In this position, she felt privileged to work with fourth and fifth grade students by advancing their knowledge and application of Mathematics while supporting the school’s leadership.
For three years, Dr. Brown was an assistant principal for Gary Community School Corporation (GCSC), she skillfully developed programs to support over 670 students’ social and critical thinking skills. In her daily encounters with students, she sought to uplift and guide them. As a result of her leadership, students learned to follow their curiosity, to think creatively, and to work independently and collaboratively with others.
Prior to serving GCSC, Dr. Brown worked for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) for 15 years. For four years,she was a district level administrator in Information & Technology Services. She facilitated the deployment of technology solutions for teachers to develop students’ 21st Century skills. Furthermore, she coordinated professional development for over 20,000 teachers and administrators in more than 400 elementary and high schools. Prior to this position, Dr. Brown was a CPS classroom teacher for 11 years. She taught middle school mathematics for most of her years of teaching.
Dr. Brown earned a Doctor of Education degree from Loyola University Chicago, where she also conducted post-doctoral research regarding education administration. Dr. Brown also attended the University of Chicago and earned a mathematics endorsement. Additionally, she earned a Masters of Arts in Teaching degree from Columbia College and a Bachelors of Science in Accounting from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Teacher
Dr. Brown was a classroom teacher for 11 years before becoming an administrator. After serving as an administrator for seven years, Dr. Brown decided to shift gears in her career and return to the classroom in order to better develop instructional materials for teachers to use with students. Currently, Dr. Brown is a middle school math teacher at a STEM school within Chicago Public Schools (CPS). She enjoys designing project based learning opportunities for students to construct knowledge for themselves. She makes the activities she designs within the projects and units of study available to other teachers via Teachers Pay Teachers and her blog. Dr. Brown also teaches collegiate math courses as an adjunct instructor for local universities.
Administrator
Dr. Brown served as an assistant principal for three years at an elementary school in Gary, IN. She supported over 35 teachers, 20 paraprofessionals, and 700 students and their parents. She assisted the principal in leading the school to achieving Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) two of the three years she served as assistant principal.
For four years, Dr. Brown served as an IT Program Manager for CPS. In this capacity, Dr. Brown was able to use her project management skills along with her teaching background to develop technology integration professional development for teachers. Her major achievement was migrating 30,000 end users from a native email system to a more collaborative, online solution. The training program she implemented led to increasing daily teacher usage from 8% to 80%.
Dr. Brown also works as a consultant for other institutions and faith-based organizations. Please visit Consultant page for services offered.