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The Archdiocesan Department of Education has named Dr. Betsy Ferrer Okello as associate superintendent for curriculum and staff development. She will start her new position Monday, Aug. 24.
Dr. Ferrer Okello comes to the education department from Michigan State University (MSU), where she was a visiting assistant professor at James Madison College, MSU’s residential college of public affairs. There she taught in the Humanities, Culture and Writing program while engaged in research on youth in East Africa. In 2012 she received MSU’s “Excellence in Teaching Award.”
“I am delighted Dr. Betsy Ferrer Okello will join our team as the associate superintendent for curriculum and staff development,” stated Dr. Timothy McNiff, superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of New York. “Her years of experience teaching across the country and abroad, her academic work and research, and her clear passion for reaching all students will help us continue to move the needle and provide the highest quality Catholic education.”
While on an undergraduate study abroad program at MSU, Dr. Ferrer Okello taught in Kenya in 2014. The program combined course work studying youth in East Africa with field experience, working on community based projects including a community library, and a screening program to prevent the spread of malaria. She also taught in Tanzania in 2013 in the Maasai community and in the Philippines in 2002-2003 as a Peace Corps volunteer.
Her teaching experience is grounded in eight years as a high school and elementary school teacher at Catholic schools in three states: St. Augustine Catholic High School, Tucson, Ariz., 2008-2009; St. Louise Parish School, Bellevue, Wash., 2004-2008; and St. Thomas More Catholic School, Decatur, Ga., 2003-2004 and 2000-2001.
She holds a doctorate in education from MSU, a master’s in educational administration and a bachelor’s in anthropology from the University of Notre Dame, and a master’s in social science from the University of Chicago,
