Teacher. Leader. Advocate.

Denny Gonzalez (he/él series) hails from Newark, New Jersey, and has dedicated his career to a variety of independent schools in the greater D.C. area and beyond. Passionate about education’s power to shape not just minds but the future itself, he continually seeks ways to grow as a teacher-leader both inside and outside the classroom. As such, Denny describes his mission in leading both in and out of the classroom as the Work. The Work is formation: teaching students that their education should not make them better than anyone else but better for everyone else. His role, then, is to help prepare students to face—and ultimately shape—a future we cannot yet grasp. To that end, the Work involves helping students develop a sense of identity, community, purpose, responsibility, and justice—ideally, in that order. However, he has learned these goals cannot be pursued in isolation. Instead, they rely on a collective effort among teachers, administrators, families, and community partners to ensure that all students can learn and lead. Denny considers the chance to share this mission with others committed to transforming schools and organizations a gift.

Denny has worked at a host 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. He is currently Director of Institutional Equity and Strategy at Barrie School, a PK–12 progressive school outside the nation’s capital. This dual role affords Denny the opportunity to think broadly about the school’s mission and scope, framing everything through the lens of community and belonging. He is excited to work with students and teachers, administrators and families to gain the competence and confidence necessary to create anti-bias, anti-racist spaces of leading and learning.

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 examined 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, where 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 explored perceptions of teacher autonomy at independent schools in a polarized age. He soon hopes to pursue a doctorate in the history of American independent schools, since he believes that true students of history can apply the lessons of the past to inform the issues of the present and offer solutions for the future.

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. Additionally, Denny sits on the Advisory Council of the Association for Academic Leaders, One Schoolhouse’s organization that equips school administrators with the nine competencies that they need to serve their schools well and move their communities forward.