Teacher. Leader. Advocate.

Denny Gonzalez (he/él series) hails from Newark, New Jersey, and he has spent his entire career working in a variety of independent schools, both in the greater D.C. area and beyond. He has a passion for education and its ability to shape not only minds but also the future, and he constantly seeks ways to improve his craft as a teacher-leader both in and out of the classroom. As such, Denny describes his mission in leading both in and of out the classroom as the Work. The Work is formation: teaching students that their education is not meant to make them better than anyone else but better for everyone else. His role, then, is principally to help prepare students to face and ultimately create a future that we cannot grasp. To that end, the Work includes helping students develop a sense of identity, community, purpose, responsibility, and justice: tenets inspired by the work of Britt Hawthorne, whose work in creating anti-bias, anti-racist classrooms has been a strong anchor for both his work and that of countless others. However, in his career, he has learned that these endeavors cannot occur in a vacuum. Rather, the Work falls upon a collective: of teachers and administrators, families and community partners to ensure that all students in the classroom can learn and then lead. He considers the ability to share this work with others willing to make a difference in their schools and organizations a gift.

Denny has worked at a variety of schools, starting out as a high school English teacher, then moving on to other roles such as dean, coordinator, even campus minister. He taught English and served as a diversity coordinator at School of the Holy Child, an all-girls, Catholic 5–12 school outside New York City. Later, he taught Upper School English at St. Albans School, an all-boys, Episcopal 4–12 school. There, he also was an Assistant Director of the Skip Grant Program, which offers both academic and social support to students from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented at the school.

Before his career began as a teacher, Denny graduated magna cum laude from Colgate University in 2013, where he earned High Honors in English and High Distinction in the Liberal Arts Core. His thesis was on literary renderings of London by both modernist and contemporary British writers. He later earned his M.A. from the Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English in 2021, wherein he wrote a capstone paper on writing assessment ecologies in independent schools. Denny also holds a master’s in education in School Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, where he studied alongside other school leaders and implemented what he learned immediately to his work at his host institution, as well as with other school communities and organizations. His thesis there examined perceptions of teacher autonomy at independent schools in a polarized age.

Denny currently lives in Washington, D.C., and spends the little free time he has immersing himself in the city’s numerous historical and cultural resources, becoming better at latte art, and hosting trivia nights throughout the District. He also sits on Colgate’s Alumni Council, an organization that helps to advance the University’s mission and to promote dialogue among alumni, students, faculty, university administration, and the Board of Trustees.