Will Hobart Email & Phone Number

Boston, Ma, Us

Founded in 1997, Bottom Line is a nationally recognized nonprofit organization with a mission to partner with degree-aspiring students of color from under-resourced communities as they get into college, graduate, and go far in life. We achieve this mission by providing one-on-one guidance during the college application process through college graduation and the successful launch of their careers. Our vision is to dramatically transform urban communities by producing thousands of new career-ready college graduates. As the Executive Director of the Chicago Region, I oversee Bottom Line's programmatic impact and raising and sustaining critical resources and partnerships to ensure talented Chicago students have the opportunity to experience the transformative impact of having a highly trained Bottom Line Advisor coaching and supporting their journey to get into college, graduate, and go far. Bottom Line currently partners with over 2,000 Chicago students each year. Since the Chicago region launched in 2014, we have supported over 700 students graduate with their bachelor's degree.

Chicago, Illinois, Us

As Chief Advancement Officer, I oversaw a unique blend of external affairs and internal functions including fundraising, stewardship, communications and marketing, corporate and foundation relations, Board of Directors support, strategy and planning, and workforce development programming.One Million Degrees accelerates community college students’ progress on career pathways to economic mobility. Currently supporting nearly 1,000 scholars in the greater Chicago-land region to enroll, stay on-track, and graduate from community college ready and connected to a job and/or a 4 year college degree.

Chicago, Illinois, Us

Chicago, Illinois, Us

Youth Guidance Mission: Youth Guidance (YG) creates and implements school-based programs that enable children to overcome obstacles, focus on their education and, ultimately, succeed in school and in life.Oversaw all Youth Guidance programs and 300+ staff that served over 13,000 youth across Chicago, Boston, King County, Washington, and Los Angeles. Services include evidence-based counseling and prevention programs, Becoming A Man (BAM) and Working on Womanhood (WOW), as well as community and after school, parent/family engagement, and youth workforce development programs. Supervised and guided the agency's evaluation and quality improvement department.Served as staff liaison to the Youth Guidance Board of Director’s Program Strategy and Legal Affairs and Governance Committees managing up to the Board to drive key programmatic initiatives, organizational risk and compliance, and general Board member engagement.Guided the evolution and replication of evidence-based programming at YG; worked to shape policy priorities; monitored relevant shifts in the regional and national landscape; and developed systems and relationships to ensure YG is positioned to leverage opportunities to expand its reach and impact. Created and executed critical structures and change management activities to steward the unique culture of YG through a time of transformational growth (agency’s operating budget increased $15M to $31M from FY16 to FY20.)

Chicago, Il, Us

The Office of Student Support and Engagement (OSSE) provides comprehensive supports to help students become more connected to and engaged in school, including re-engagement services for out-of-school youth, resources to eliminate barriers for Students in Temporary Living Situations, attendance and truancy guidance for students, families, and schools, and extended learning opportunities to enhance all students’ core academic experience and engage parents and community members in school-led activities. As Executive Director, Will led 62 employees across 7 Departments.•Oversaw a $31 million annual budget inclusive of ten Federal and State grants worth $11.1 million. Developed annual spending plans to drive sound fiscal management and compliance with grant requirements to fund student and community engagement programming in 134 schools and to provide one-on-one student mentoring supports to reengage 3,000 dropouts through the District’s four Student Outreach and Reengagement Centers.•Developed and implemented office-wide strategic plans and direct central processes to provide after school programming for 100,000 students, to support the 20,000 homeless youth, and to deliver targeted attendance supports to 256 schools struggling with attendance.•Built toolkits for schools and data dashboards to monitor program implementation metrics and student academic, attendance, and behavior outcomes across OSSE initiatives to ensure efficient use of resources, high quality programming, and school-level capacity building to sustain student programs and activities.•Served as a strategic partner and leader to advocate for Student Support and Engagement initiatives (e.g., middle grades to high school transition) and leveraged relationships with partner organizations, funders, and City of Chicago agencies to cultivate resources that directly supported CPS students.

Chicago, Il, Us

The Office of College and Career Success (OCCS) works with schools, networks and communities to ensure that every student at every grade level is provided individualized supports and opportunities to keep them engaged, on-track and accelerating toward success in college, career and life. OCCS includes 6 core offices: Student Support and Engagement, Social and Emotional Learning, School Counseling and Postsecondary Advising, Magnet, Gifted, and IB Programs, STEM Initiatives, and Early College and Career Education.•Advised and supported the Chief Officer of College and Career Success in the launch of and overall management of OCCS goals and objectives.•Managed high-priority projects in support of District and OCCS 5-Year Vision. Projects included the University of Illinois and Chicago Public Schools Joint Committee, College and Career Counseling Suites, Middle Grades to High School Transition, OCCS Professional Growth Seminars Series, OCCS Customer Service Strategy, and Thrive Chicago.•Served as key liaison to CPS Offices (e.g., Accountability, Administrative Office, Law) to ensure high level of collaboration in planning and executing cross-functional processes critical to supporting student success (e.g., budgeting, data management, vendor contracts).•Assessed and responded to atypical and time sensitive issues confronting the CPS as directed by the Chief Officer. Included briefing on status of key projects and programs with the Office of the CEO, the Office of the Board of Education, and the Office of the Mayor.

Chicago, Il, Us

•Managed team of program supports responsible for oversight of daily operations, accountability and compliance for CPS’ 9 Alternative Learning Opportunity Programs and Regional Safe School Programs, which served 2,815 students.•Authored and executed CPS’ Request for Proposals (“RFP”) process to solicit high quality charter and contract school and program providers to serve the out-of-school youth population. Efforts resulted in the authorization of 3,050 seats (40% increase to total seats in alternative schools) to serve the nearly 60,000 out-of-school youth for the start of the 2013-2014 school year.•Developed and implemented a system of supports to serve the 2,000 students each year at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center which resulted in an increase from 15% to 60% student reentry from 2009 to 2013. Efforts included redefining one-on-one student counseling process, improved communication approach, and strategic partnerships with Probation, DCFS, and the juvenile courts.•Oversaw program staff responsible for outreach and administrative support to 347 expelled and emergency placed youth into Safe School programs for serious behavior violations during the 2012-2013 school-year. Team managed 118 transition meetings for expelled youth to transition back to traditional and alternative schools.•Directed CPS’ U.S. Department of Education Title 1, Delinquency and Illinois State Board of Education’s Regional Safe Schools annual grant applications with a net worth of $2 million. Managed compliance in planning and spending of grants and oversaw all funded programs, partnerships, and research projects.

Chicago, Il, Us

•Engineered the groundwork of a CPS’ first alternative accountability framework: a common set of metrics to hold schools and programs that served re-enrolled dropouts accountable. Coordinated data-driven discussions with stakeholder groups and developed an information technology strategy to support.•Led Area 30’s implementation of quarterly Performance Management for the 20 schools and programs in the Area 30 portfolio, which included analyzing performance on seven student outcome metrics on the alternative accountability framework, identifying root causes of outcomes, and creating action plans and cycles for follow-up. •Completed comprehensive analysis of student age and credit accumulation of CPS’ out-of-school/dropout population which resulted in categorizing youth based on age and distance to graduation. Segmentation analysis resulted in CPS senior leadership committing to the development of a growth strategy to increase the number of options to educate the nearly 60,000 out-of-school youth.•Created, trained, and launched Individual Success Plans for students on SharePoint leading to the adoption of comprehensive data collection, goal setting, and progress monitoring for 20 schools and programs serving over 3,000 students.

Chicago, Illinois, Us

•Served education advocacy organization with a long-term, student-focused vision of educational reform.•Researched and analyzed policy strategies and produced best-practices updates for the senior management and Board of Directors, legislative staff, and advocacy leaders.

New York, Ny, Us

•Participated in prestigious national fellowship working to train, connect, and inspire a coalition of education reform leaders engaged in a mission critical consulting project for a leading educational organization.Consulting Project with Teach For America: Redesigned Teach For America’s process for measuring corps member impact on student achievement through a multi-variant regression analysis of student Developmental Reading Assessment data. Efforts led to the introduction of new growth goals for teachers in the East North Carolina region.(www.educationpioneers.org)

New York, Ny, Us

•Chosen to join a selective national service corps of recent college graduates commit two years to teach in under-resourced public schools and become lifelong leaders and advocates of education reform and closing academic achievement gaps.•Instructed, evaluated, and monitored student progress in literacy and math to 20 inner city eighth graders living in poverty with learning disabilities and emotional disturbances resulting in a year and a half growth in both mathematics and literacy skills each academic year.•Served on the behavior support team with key school leadership to identify students in need of specific behavioral and academic supports, articulated desired outcomes (e.g., increased attendance, grades or decrease in pink slip referrals) and backwards planned to guide teachers, administrators, and students to achieve stated outcomes using data. •Led the administration of monthly Edison School Benchmark Assessments for fifth through eighth grade in three subject areas: mathematics, language arts, and literacy. Analyzed data and presented results and recommendations to all impacted teachers which resulted in more strategic use of instructional and remedial education time based on student progress and identified weaknesses.

M.P.P., Education Policy And Public Policy Analysis

M.Ed, Elementary Education And Special Education

B.A., Psychology And Sociology

Spanish Language And Culture