Office of the Chief Executive Officer

Head of the Department:

• Andrés A. Alonso, Ed.D.
  Chief Executive Officer

CEO's Team:

• Tisha Edwards, Special Assistant to the CEO
• Kerry Whitacre Swarr, Executive Assistant to the CEO
• Verna Norris, Executive Secretary to the CEO
• Clarene Wilkins, Executive Secretary to the CEO
• Ralph Askins, Executive Protection
• Edie House Foster, Director of Public Information

CEO's BIO:

Speaking no English when he arrived in the United States from Cuba with his parents at age 12, Andrés Alonso attended the Union City, New Jersey public schools, where he found many mentors before graduating Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University in 1979. He went on to earn a J.D. from Harvard Law School and worked at the New York City law firm of Hughes, Hubbard & Reed before changing course to become an educator.

From 1987 to 1998, Dr. Alonso taught self-contained, emotionally disturbed special education adolescents and English language learners in Newark, New Jersey, where he was also a staff developer, program coordinator and mentor teacher, writing the  bilingual special education guide and helping to write the ESL curriculum for the school district.  Dr. Alonso was selected to Harvard University’s elite Urban Superintendents Program in 1998, where he focused on urban education. He was awarded a Doctorate in Education, with a concentration in Administration, Social Policy and Planning, in June 2006.

Dr. Alonso worked at the New York City Department of Education from 2003-2007, working closely with the Chancellor in planning and implementing the reform of the largest educational system in the nation.   He was part of the team that won the prestigious 2007 Broad Prize for Urban Education.  As Chief of Staff for Teaching and Learning, Dr. Alonso was responsible for helping manage the restructuring of the 40 disconnected districts serving over one million students into ten instructional regions, introducing a core curriculum, guiding schools in implementing supports for a new promotional policy, restructuring hundreds of schools, and leading the reshaping of  special education and bilingual education as part of the New York City Children First reforms.   As Deputy Chancellor for Teaching and Learning, Dr. Alonso led a team of over one hundred superintendents supporting over 1100 schools, and was responsible for curriculum and instruction for all 1450 New York City schools.  Dr. Alonso worked with the Chancellor on the ongoing restructuring of the system to provide schools with greater autonomy tied to greater accountability for improving student outcomes.  During Dr. Alonso’s tenure in New York City the district was a finalist for the Broad Prize in urban education, as a result of outperforming similar districts in the aggregate and across all student subgroups, for three consecutive years.   New York City students reached the highest performance levels and recorded their highest gains and cohort graduation rates, for all groups, since standards-based assessments were introduced to the City in 1999.

On July 1, 2007, Dr. Alonso was named CEO of the Baltimore City Public School System.   His reform agenda includes the implementation of Fair Student Funding which moves money and people from central administration to schools giving school leaders more flexibility over those resources.  He also implemented a Secondary Schools Transformation Initiative to open up to twenty-four new 6-12 schools over the next three years—giving students more options to prepare for college and career success.   

Contact Information:

200 E. North Avenue
Room 405
Baltimore MD 21202

(410) 396-8803
FAX (410) 396-8898
AAlonso@bcps.k12.md.us