Chicago Beyond Increases Opportunities for Youth Programs
BY MARY DATCHER | SENIOR STAFF WRITER
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When you feed a child’s mind, you feed their curiosity for limitless opportunities. Former principal and educator Liz Dozier understands this clearly as she’s tackled the challenges of the Chicago Public School system and helped high school students meet their academic goals.
As the principal of Fenger High School, she was depicted on CNN’s eight-part series “Chicagoland” as the tough but caring principal guiding her faculty and students to an 85 percent decrease in the dropout rate and a 45 percent increase of freshman on track to graduate.
Her tenure at Fenger since 2009 was also featured her in Paul Tough’s New York Times Best Selling book, “How Children Succeed.”
Dozier has now taken on a new chapter in her professional career after resigning her post as principal and joining Chicago Beyond as the managing director.
She’s instrumental in delivering and creating opportunities that help young people access what they deserve in school, career and life.
“I’m just excited. I spent these last five months really building it,” Dozier says. “It’s designed to amplify the impact of other organizations because we don’t need to re-invent the wheel. There’s already people in our communities doing really good work, so why not support those organizations?
“What I found in my experience as a principal is if you don’t have research behind you in this day and age, it’s hard for organizations to get further funding.”
The new, privately held organization will focus on two kinds of investment initiatives – the GO Innovate challenge and GO Together investments.
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