Lives of Consequence
Barbara Deane-Williams ’77
Rochester City School District Superintendent
As a school administrator for more than 30 years, Barbara Deane-Williams '77 has spent her career working on behalf of students and teachers in public schools throughout the northeast. When she joined the Rochester City School District (RCSD) as superintendent in 2016, Deane-Williams became the first woman to lead the school system on a permanent basis in the district's history. As the Editorial Board of the Democrat and Chronicle reported during her first year in that role, she has brought to the RCSD an "endless supply of energy and an extraordinary commitment to achieving results."
"Education is the great equalizer and every child, every child, deserves to achieve a high school diploma. And the role of public educators is to keep that as a central and defining focus," says Deane-Williams, who counts among her priorities as an educator: educational equity; relational capacity; coherence across systems and programs that serve children; innovation; and accountability for action.
After graduating with her B.A. in individual studies from HWS and a M.Ed. in Counseling from the University of New Hampshire, Deane-Williams began her career in special education in Massachusetts before returning to upstate New York. She served in counseling and leadership roles in six school districts, earning a reputation for improving schools, closing achievement gaps and embracing strong labor management collaboration. As Superintendent of the Lyndonville Central School District, the district significantly increased its graduation rates and student achievement, and improved its standing in the Buffalo-based Business First journal's annual rankings of western New York schools to the highest performing Orleans County School District.
From 2011 to 2015, she was superintendent of the Greece Central School District, New York State's ninth largest school district, where she established equitable access to high quality schools and programs for all students to ensure college and career ready high school graduates. She and her team earned statewide recognition for the development of career ladders and a new brand of teacher and principal leadership focused on transforming schools to meet the needs of 21st century learners. Graduate rates improved steadily under her leadership and achievement gaps were reduced for African-American students.
Prior to joining the RCSD, Deane-Williams served as the senior deputy superintendent of Boston Public Schools, where she was responsible for the redesign of the central office to serve schools, labor relations, safety, school operations and long range facilities planning.
"An equal and high quality education is every child's civil right," says Deane-Williams, who credits her parents and the civil rights activism of the Episcopal Church for her sense of social justice, the key to her philosophy on education. "As educators, we must be devoted to eliminating the opportunity and education achievement gaps for urban youth."
She has continued as a strong national equity leader in Rochester and created a strong equity driven teacher and principal pipeline model to disrupt long standing patterns of failure. She has also led a Path Forward plan to align neighborhood based Community schools with strong city-wide partnerships and collaborators.
In addition to her B.A. from William Smith, she holds an associate's degree in liberal arts and sciences from Monroe Community College, a M.Ed. from the University of New Hampshire and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Administration from the State University of New York at Brockport. She has also completed doctoral work at Syracuse University in Teaching and Leadership.