“Mind-shaping is world shaping.”
– Stephanie Pace Marshall
Stephanie Pace Marshall is internationally recognized as an educational visionary, thought leader and pioneer.
Her work is grounded in generative system leadership, transformative learning and schooling and the design and creation of life-affirming learning systems and environments that flourish and “learn as life does.”
Stephanie is a storyteller and a map maker. An inspiring speaker, author, writer and advisor, she illuminates the inextricable connections between the future of learning and the future of humanity, and offers a fundamentally NEW STORY of learning grounded in the principles of living systems and how life creatively organizes itself to thrive. Her work has helped shape the re-imagination and redesign of learning.
Stephanie’s career and life’s work has been dedicated to a singular truth: “Learning must liberate the goodness and genius that resides within each child; and its design must ignite and nurture the power and creativity of the human spirit for the world.”
Dr. Marshall is available for speaking and consultative engagements.
Stephanie Pace Marshall
Writing & Collaboration
“We are all connected in the web of life and learning is the process of life.”
Her award-winning book The Power to Transform: Leadership that Brings Learning and Schooling to Life was recognized as groundbreaking in its translation and application of living system principles within the natural world to the transformation of learning and schooling. Offering a "new STORY, MAP and LANDSCAPE for generative and life-affirming learning, The Power to Transform is a call to engage in a new conversation that can bring learning and schooling to life. This emerging global conversation led to her work with educational and governmental leaders and institutions in the United States, Australia, Canada, England, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Russia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.
Dr. Marshall’s newest book, SEED +SPARK: Using Nature as a Model to Re-Imagine How We Learn and Live, builds upon her pioneering work, The Power to Transform. As a lead collaborator with 180 Studio, her thinking and application around a new story of learning and schooling are integrated into a visually dynamic framework in print and digital form. In addition to reimagining how we learn, this collaborative design project between 180 Studio and the architectural firm Eckenhoff Saunders broadens the lens to include how we live and work. Designed with stunning graphics, powerful interviews and case stories, SEED +SPARK invites us to reimagine the world we seek to create, and bring it to life by design.
Go here to see more of Dr. Marshall’s writing and collaborations.
“The Power to Transform began with a question: What will it take to create a generative, and life-affirming system of learning and schooling that liberates the goodness and genius of every child and ignites and nurtures the power and creativity of the human spirit for the world?
My response to this question was and is: It will take a new story. It will take new map and it will take a new landscape of learning and school. This is our invitation...”
– Dr. Stephanie Pace Marshall
IMSA President Stephanie Pace Marshall at graduation ceremony.
Leadership
Dr. Marshall is the Founding President and President Emerita of the internationally recognized Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) the first three-year public residential secondary institution for students academically talented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in the United States. She was the Founding President of the National Consortium of Secondary STEM Schools (NCSS) and President of the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) one of the world’s largest professional educational associations. She has held multiple leadership roles in K-12 and higher education and served on several philanthropic and corporate boards. She continues to write, speak and serve as an advisor to educational and corporate leaders and leadership teams, who seek to manifest the “new story” of leadership and learning within their organizations.
Opening of the Convocation, Stephanie Pace Marshall, PhD, Chancellor
Honors
Stephanie is a lifetime Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in London, a member of the President’s Society of the National Academy of Sciences and a member of the Society of Fellows of The Aspen Institute and a member of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
She has been honored for her innovative work in education by the United States Marine Corps, the Boy Scouts of America, the National School Boards Association, the international Women’s Association, and numerous professional associations universities and organizations.
As a result of her achievements she received the Order of Lincoln from The Lincoln Academy of Illinois and was designated as a Lincoln Laureate, the state’s highest honor, for achievement that “contributes to the betterment of mankind.” She was appointed by the Governor of Illinois as a Regent of the Lincoln Academy and served as Chancellor from 2016-2019, the first women to hold this role in the organization’s over 50-year history.
Stephanie, family and Masai friends in Kenya, 2019
Education—Formal & Experiential
Stephanie received her Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Chicago, and her PhD in Organizational Development and Leadership from Loyola University of Chicago; she studied with educational pioneers Bruno Bettelheim, Benjamin Bloom, and Philip Jackson and worked with Neil Postman, and Howard Gardner. She is the recipient of four honorary doctorates.
Stephanie’s leadership in the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) led her to over 30 counties where she was privileged to learn from and engage with educational and government leaders, meet with teachers and students, and visit schools. She also travelled to remote areas of the world to learn from indigenous and eastern cultures—the Pitjantjara Aboriginal Tribe in Australia, the Masai in Kenya and the Bhutanese in Bhutan.
Her active participation in the Clinton Global Initiative (at the invitation of President Clinton), The State of the World Forum (at the Invitation of President Mikhail Gorbachev) and the Canadian organization Free the Children, led to her philanthropic work in Kenya, helping to create the Kisaruni High School for Girls—the first all-Girls Secondary School in the Masai Mara.