Liz Monge-Pacheco

Liz Monge-Pacheco is the Associate Director of Organizational Culture with the UChicago Network for College Success (NCS). In addition to organizing staff development, Liz co-facilitates the internal equity work of the organization through iGroups. She firmly believes that we cannot change the trajectory of public education without engaging in anti-racist equity work, where we can reflect as individuals to understand who we are and as a result shift our practices to transform our educational landscape.  Liz also helps develop organizational culture through rituals, ceremonies, and the inclusion of staff voice as life events are experienced in the community.  In her role, Liz also serves in the Senior Leadership Team (SLT).  She also collaborates with teams through process observations and team building.

In her trajectory at NCS, Liz is a founding member of the postsecondary leadership team and College Counselors’ Collaborative (now known as the Counselor and Coach Collaborative), which was a professional learning community that initially included both charter and public school counselors and postsecondary coaches.  This community of practice evolved as the research from “Potholes on the Road to College,” informed the capacity of counselors and coaches to  lead effective programming around the college search, application and enrollment process in their schools. Liz’s background of 20+ years in education includes working as an academic advisor at Moraine Valley Community College and founding the counselor at Nuestra America Charter School and the Young Women’s Leadership Charter School (YWLCS).  At YWLCS, the school achieved college enrollment rates of over 90% for five graduating classes. Her passion for supporting students to succeed in college comes from her own experiences, which also shapes her view on college access as an issue of social justice.

Liz is a proud Chicago Public Schools graduate.  She received her B.A. in communications from Northern Illinois University. She completed her Master of Arts in Educational Leadership as an ENLACE Fellow at Northeastern Illinois University.