Eileen Shakespear

Consulting Practitioner Eileen Shakespear Sullivan leads ERC’s efforts and focus on school and teacher culture, and co-teaching as catalyst for instructional improvement, teacher development, performance and retention.

Eileen enjoyed a sterling career in the Boston Public Schools, first as a middle school English teacher, then as a founding Humanities teacher at Fenway High School and creator of Fenway's Senior Humanities Seminar. She was a co-creator of the Tufts University Urban Teacher Training Collaborative (UTTC), a defining teacher development initiative supported by the Barr Foundation. She served as Teaching Internship Coordinator in the UTTC at both Fenway HS and the Boston Arts Academy and as a resource to the Boston Pilot Schools Network. 

These experiences inform her current professional interests in building school cultures that offer rich and varied intellectual opportunities for students, authentic and expansive teacher development, and a healthy, rewarding professional life.

In addition to her ERC work and extensive travel, Eileen has worked in program and teacher development in Boston at Fenway High School and the Boston Green Academy.  She has also served as a Coach/Mentor for union and school district collaborative teams through grants from the National Education Association Foundation’s Institute for Innovation in Teaching and Learning.

Eileen holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Boston College and a Master’s Degree in English from the University of London, School of Education, and achieved National Board Certification in 2003. She also received the Harvard Club of Boston 2003 Teacher Award, the Boston Partners in Education Service Award, and was a finalist for Massachusetts Teacher of the Year. Her publications include “Good Teaching is a Conversation,” in the spring 2008 Horace magazine, and “What I’d Tell a White Gal,” a chapter in Inside City Schools (1999, Teachers College Press). She has co-authored two on-line publications, Preparing Urban Teachers: Uncovering Communities and Stretch, Bend, and Flex: the Experiences of First Year Teachers from the Urban Teacher Training Collaborative (in partnership with Jobs for the Future and Tufts University).