Wednesday, August 6, 2014

A new Johnny Appleseed of school choice--Gabriela Fighetti joins IIPSC

The Institute for Innovation in Public School Choice (IIPSC) has announced a new hire, Gaby Fighetti. There's a brief announcement on the IIPSC webpage, and Neil Dorosin writes as follows:

"I am thrilled to announce that Gabriela Fighetti is joining our team at IIPSC! We have known Gaby for many years, most recently through our partnership during her tenure at the Louisiana Recovery School District where she led the effort to design and implement OneApp, a model system that continues to inspire people in cities across the United States. Gaby will bring her substantial skills and expertise to cities across the country as they update their enrollment and choice systems. She is a brilliant and thoughtful person, and she will make IIPSC better as we continue to support this critically important work.
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Gabriela Fighetti joined the Recovery School District in July 2011. She is responsible for developing enrollment policies and systems to ensure equitable access to the portfolio of school options in New Orleans. As part of this work, Fighetti manages the implementation of OneApp, the New Orleans Public School Enrollment Process, the process by which over 10,000 students apply annually to attend nearly 90% of the public schools in New Orleans.

Prior to joining the RSD, Fighetti worked for the New York City Department of Education (NYC DOE). During her seven year tenure at the NYC DOE, Fighetti held numerous leadership roles in the Division of Portfolio where she managed the enrollment projections process for the system of 1,700 schools, and the facilities and expansion plans of charter school operators. Fighetti studied at Columbia University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree at Barnard College and a Master of Arts degree in public administration at the School for International and Public Affairs. "
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Gaby's story is a little bit like Neil's. Neil was the director of high school operations for the New York City Department of Education when Atila Abdulkadiroglu, Parag Pathek and I helped design their high school choice system. Neil saw what well-organized school choice can do, and founded IIPSC with our support, to sow the seeds in other cities.

Gaby oversaw IIPSC's work in New Orleans, and is joining IIPSC to keep planting those apple seeds...

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