Heather Y Anichini

Heather is a committed leader in the Chicago education community. She has experience building new teams and initiatives within education nonprofits, accomplishing ambitious goals as a teacher and administrator in Chicago Public Schools, and providing meaningful direct service in grassroots organizations serving Chicago’s students.

Since 2012, Heather has served as the President and CEO of The Chicago Public Education Fund. The Fund is a nonprofit philanthropy that improves Chicago’s public schools by investing in the talented educators who lead them. As CEO, Heather and her team have raised over $90 million to help grow and keep strong principals and to enable educator teams to reimagine school. A study by the Boston Consulting Group revealed that principals who participate in Fund programs are 60% more likely to improve than their nonparticipating peers. They are also more satisfied with their jobs and stay longer. In the same time period, a study by Stanford University revealed Chicago’s students were learning six years of content in five years.

Heather began her education career working on Chicago’s West Side, working with a nonprofit at Manley High School and teaching middle school social studies at Goldblatt Elementary. She also worked in CPS’ Office of Planning and Development during the Arne Duncan administration and helped Teach For America build its alumni infrastructure, including efforts to build principal pipelines nationwide.

Heather is a certified teacher, administrator, and superintendent in Illinois and teaches at the college level whenever she can. She is an appointed Illinois Literacy Foundation Board member and serves on the Teach For America Chicago/Northwest Indiana advisory board. She actively mentors several new executive directors in Chicago.

Heather is married to Brennan Young, a former Biology teacher and football coach at Farragut Career Academy and the current CEO of their household. They have four school-aged children – Devan, Garrett, Delaney, and Cora.