FACEtime with Our Staff: Yolonda Edwards
Yolonda Edwards currently serves as the Operations Director of the Family and Community Engagement Office at the School District of Philadelphia. She’s no stranger to the School District of Philadelphia, as she was born and raised in Mt. Airy and still lives there now. She has worked in education in multiple capacities for nearly 10 years.
“I like people...I love computers,” Yolonda says about her Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Information Systems. She began her career in education as an Information Manager at a Philadelphia charter school. In this role, she utilized her passion for consulting and problem-solving, but came to a realization about schools and the education system: “Education is a totally different beast.” She learned to wear many different hats in the charter school to track progress, problem-solve, and grow the school from every perspective. “Data covers every aspect of a school...a lot of what I do is observe, then I write down what I observe, then I standardize and refine.” In the charter school, Yolonda had the ability to find an issue in a system, change it, and improve the system at the drop of a hat.
This changed once Yolonda started at the District. After taking time for her family and going on maternity leave, Yolonda began work in the School District of Philadelphia in July 2014 as a Data Specialist for the ELECT Program and shortly after became the Data Analyst for the FACE Office. She now serves as the Operations Director in the FACE Office.
The administrative structure in the central office of the District is much different from the structure Yolonda worked in at the charter school. “The District is different from charter schools because we have a lot more barriers and rules,” she says. Yolonda explains that the District, as a public entity, has the responsibility to represent all stakeholders; employees, faculty, students, families, and community members all have to agree.
Compared to her work in the charter school, where Yolonda had the autonomy to make changes as she saw fit, the new experience in the District may seem like a difficult adjustment. “But it makes me love it more than anyone else,” Yolonda says, “because I see both sides. Even though I worked in charter schools for eight years, I don’t think private companies should be running schools.”
“The people in this building are hard workers. They’re passionate about what they do. They are doing what they can, and they are passionate about education,” she says. Yolonda is among those she praises as dedicated and hardworking; she believes in focused work, smart decisions, and self care. “The last thing you want to do is burn yourself out, because then you stop enjoying what you do, and then you stop doing your best. The children and the families deserve someone who’s going to do their best.”
Through her experience in charter schools and her rapid advancement in the School District of Philadelphia, Yolonda has developed a passion for public education. She remains committed to what she does and the overall vision of FACE, and this translates to the high quality and detail-oriented work she does every day for the Family and Community Engagement Office.
