Rebecca Baelen is thrilled to begin her role as Executive Director at the Center for Reaching & Teaching the Whole Child (CRTWC), leading the organization into its newest chapter – CRTWC 2.0! She and the CRTWC team deeply appreciate Dr. Nancy Markowitz’s leadership and vision over the past 15 years. Nancy’s embodiment of the CRTWC Anchor Competencies Framework through her growth mindset, collaborative spirit, and community-building has set a strong foundation for Rebecca to build upon.
CRWTC is the first organization that Rebecca has come across that explicitly focuses on the integration of social, emotional, and cultural competencies in teacher preparation. With context at the center of the Framework, CRTWC is unique in preparing teachers to support all students with a deep understanding of the context they bring. Rebecca is passionate about CRTWC’s mission and approach to equipping new teachers with the competencies that set them up to thrive and support the social and emotional development, thriving, and academic success of their students.
Over the last 15 years as an educator and education researcher, Rebecca has been driven to understand and identify ways to promote teacher and student thriving. Her interest in this began during her early years as a classroom teacher. Two realizations surfaced: her students, regardless of context, lacked the skills needed to thrive in school and in life, and many new teachers were receiving little guidance on how to foster the social and emotional dimensions of students’ lives or their own well-being. In light of this, she embarked on over a decade of research studying programs, strategies, and policies designed to cultivate student and teacher thriving, particularly approaches to set new teachers on a trajectory to excel and support the whole child. Much of Rebecca’s motivation for coming to CRTWC was born out of a desire to continue this research, translate it into practice, and promote practical and policy-level change in teacher preparation.
Over the last nine months, Rebecca has served as the Director of Research and Development at CRTWC, working closely with each member of the team. She is inspired by their educational experiences, wisdom, compassion, and dedication to this work. Each interaction solidifies her commitment to CRTWC and her conviction that they are well-positioned to make incredible changes in teacher preparation and education more generally.
Rebecca’s goal as Executive Director is to collaborate with the team, advisory committee, donors, and community partners to expand CRTWC’s impact. They are involved with transformative efforts in Oregon and the Minneapolis Public School District, reforming how teachers are prepared at the state and district levels. Rebecca sees more of this work in the future, with CRTWC helping to make practical and policy-level changes, guided by research.
Rebecca is excited to lead CRTWC because she believes in their paradigm-shifting approach to preparing teachers. She believes all students deserve to be taught by teachers who create classroom environments where a growth mindset is fostered. To do this, teachers need to be reached as early as possible, and all who work with them need to be equipped. That, she believes, is the power of CRTWC!
