Penny Bender Sebring '64

Sebring is senior research associate at the University of Chicago and founding co-director of the Chicago Consortium on School Research (CCSR) at the Urban Education Institute. She is a co-author of Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago (University of Chicago Press, 2010); The Essential Supports for School Improvement, published by CCSR; and Charting Chicago School Reform: Democratic Localism as a Lever for Change (Westview Press, 1998). Sebring was a Peace Corps volunteer and high school teacher. She graduated from Grinnell in sociology. She received a Ph.D. in education and social policy from Northwestern University, where she is a member of the policy advisory board for the School of Education and Social Policy. She serves on the board of directors for the Chicago Public Education Fund. Sebring received an Alumni Merit Award from Northwestern University in 2009, and, with her husband Charles Lewis, the John J. Dugan Award from Urban Students Empowered and The Golden Apple Foundation Stanley C. Golder Community Service Award, both in 2010.