Stephanie Pace Marshall

Educational Trailblazer, Founder and President Emerita of Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA)

Looking into Stephanie’s career and life is like gazing into a kaleidoscope: She is a synthesizer, a weaver, an integrator, and a “perturber.” Her work has led to major, ongoing and colorful shifts in the fields of education and leadership.She is also a woman that asks no small questions:

“ What would it take to create a generative and life-affirming system of learning and schooling that liberates the goodness and genius of all children and invites and nurtures the power and creativity of the human spirit for the world? ”

That query is the inspiration behind her book, The Power to Transform, and the founding of IMSA. She is a powerful, provocative and articulate voice for educational transformation and a true advocate for designing learning environments that unleash the abundant potential in all of our children. Her students use terms like “learning arboretum” to describe IMSA because she has helped them understand that learning is a human system, and therefore by definition a living system. It’s this insight that encapsulates much of Stephanie’s approach to the world and serves as her compass as she maps new paths to discovery for tomorrow’s leaders.

We are not doomed by our DNA. Our potential is not fixed. Our brains are not finite. Every time we learn a new skill, we are re-wiring our brains—we are creating new paths for contribution.