Cheryl Hibbeln

Cheryl Hibbeln is the Founder and President of IlluminatED Collective, a group of transformative educational consultants who partner with business, nonprofit, higher education and school districts to support strategic planning and change management in service of equitable outcomes for all. Cheryl spent over twenty years in the San Diego Unified School District where as a principal she was part of the successful transformation of a large urban high school into four award winning small schools, and as an executive director where she designed efforts to align the district graduation requirements to the UC entry course requirements, expanded the dual enrollment program with the colleges, and redesigned secondary master schedule efforts. Cheryl knows what it takes to lead diverse district teams to achieve challenging systemic efforts in service of equity. In addition, Cheryl built impactful partnerships with business/industry, philanthropic, higher education, nonprofit and cross-district leaders to design transformative experiences for students across the city of San Diego.

Cheryl’s contributions to the work in San Diego Unified has been highlighted in several recent reports including the LCFF Case Study: Giving Learning & Graduation New Meaning: One Student at a Time (UCLA), the San Diego Positive Outliers Case Study (LPI), ERS Districts at Work Series: San Diego School District: Building Paths to Graduation for Every Student, and the SDUSD Board Select Committee on Graduation Standards and Strategies. In addition to her extensive large urban school district experience, Cheryl has recently participated in National Institute for School Leadership (NISL) and National Equity Project professional development opportunities.
Cheryl holds an MA in Education from Chapman University, a BA in Literature and Writing Studies from California State University, San Marcos, and Professional Clear Administrative and Teaching Credentials from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.

You can follow Cheryl on Twitter at @CherylHibbeln.

Connect with Cheryl on Linkedin.