About

Claire Riccardi M.A.T

Claire Riccardi (she/her) works as a Leadership Coach with PowerTools, supporting Principals with early college program design, graduation pathways revision, and the refinement of instructional systems. She loves to support growth in individual teachers and leaders, and to help teams untangle logistical and philosophical barriers.  

Claire has worked in transformative school design, leadership coaching, instructional and curricular design, teacher coaching, and strategic planning for whole school improvement. She is passionate about helping school teams do their best work so that students thrive. Claire’s career is rooted in the classroom, where she began working in the mid-nineties as a high school social studies and humanities teacher in NYC public schools. She then spent eighteen years in school design, development and support. As a core member of CUNY K-16’s Early College Initiative, she developed and supported multiple early college schools, grades 6-12. In 2011, she helped to develop and launch the PTECH early college and career model in New York City for grades 9-14. After serving as Associate Director of the Early College Initiative, Claire went on to design a progressive high school model for a charter school in New York City.  

Most recently she served as the Director of Curriculum & Instruction K-12 for Inwood Academy for Leadership, supporting the development of strong instructional systems across three school divisions: elementary, middle and high school. Claire believes that rigorous, engaging and creative curriculum taught by empowered, supported teachers is at the heart of excellent schools, and that collaborative learning communities transform young people’s lives. 

In addition to working at PowerTools, Claire is an adjunct instructor in the Inclusive Childhood Teacher Residency Program in the Office of Teaching and Learning at New York University.

Claire holds a Masters in the Teaching of Social Studies from Teachers College, Columbia University.