Karen Hawley Miles
President and Executive Director
617.607.8961
Karen founded ERS and oversees ERS’s work with urban districts to realign resources to create systems that make high-performing schools the norm rather than the exception. This work has two major components: partnering with urban dsitricts to deeply analyze their resource use and then working side-by-side with them to change the district’s resource strategies in ways that improve school performance. ERS focuses especially on helping districts to redesign their funding systems;create new schools that organize talent, time, and technology to maximize learning; restructure teaching to encourage individual and team effectiveness; and develop powerful school turnaround strategies.
Karen supports the thought leadership in all ERS partnerships while also documenting what works and sharing findings from the field in numerous publications and her book, The Strategic School, co-authored with Stephen Frank. She also oversees the development of support tools for leaders working to implement these research-based strategies in their own districts.
Karen has taught district and school leaders in partnership with districts, reform organizations, and universities including Harvard University, New Leaders for New Schools, and the Broad Insititute for School Boards. She serves as a key advisor to the Aspen Institute Urban Superintendent’s Network and co-directs the Aspen Urban CFO Network.
Prior to her work at ERS, Karen worked at Bain & Company as a strategy and management consultant for hospitals and corporations. She brings her decade of experience supporting Fortune 500 corporations to the ERS partnerships with public schools.
Karen enjoys spending time with her twin boys and husband, reading a book a week, running, biking, and being outdoors anywhere but especially in the mountains.
Recent Publications:
Making Strategic Resource Decisions, a chapter in Smart Money edited by Jacob Adams, 2010.
