About Christopher Habetler
The record, and what I build at home. Twenty years inside schools.
Twenty years inside schools. Now I build custom AI tools with school leaders. Done with you, and there’s always a human in the loop. AI is the newest tool in that job.
- The record
- 100+ engagements across 15+ states. 91% of clients came back year after year. 200+ leaders coached; one earned Louisiana Principal of the Year, then became a network CEO.
- Most recently
- Senior Director, High School Advancement, KIPP Foundation, 2024 to 2026.
- Before that
- Habetler Consulting, since 2010. Achievement First, Explore Schools, DREAM, NYC Public Schools, LA Unified, Collegiate Academies, Harvard GSE, UVA Darden.
- Co-founded
- DeansList. I built v1 and v2, named it, and grew it from 0 to 275 schools; it's now in 1,000+. I'm no longer working with DeansList but still a big fan of the product.
- Wrote
- Building Culture Back Better (opens in a new tab), a book about rebuilding school culture.
- On the build side
- Advisor and board member at Ople (opens in a new tab). Educational advisor at QWZRD. Founder of the NYC EducAItion Lab.
New Orleans, post COVID. Day one of school for my daughter. Overwhelmed with emotions, equally excited and terrified. I realized I was handing over the most precious thing in my life to a group of strangers. I was putting a tremendous amount of trust in these folks to treat her with the love and care that I did, and to see her as this beautiful, special person. And it really hit home for me, the weight of the trust that parents and families had been putting in me for years.
Saturday Night Sister Storiesnine chapters and counting
A bedtime series I’ve been writing for Emmy and Isabel, where they and their friends find a golden tree in the schoolyard that opens into a candy kingdom. I ended up running it off a story bible and a build script, for the same reason I would at work: I couldn’t keep the details straight past chapter three. Nine chapters in, Emmy still checks whether I got her friend’s name right.
Dad Slaterunning weekly
An agent that wakes up on its own every week and goes looking for what’s happening in Brooklyn, weighed against our calendar and the weather, and against whether a five year old and a seven year old will actually want to go. I built it because I kept defaulting to the same playground, and honestly the only part I use is the one starred pick, because it saves me from deciding.
The Expanding Galaxylive, and never finished
A Star Wars app I built for the girls one weekend and then, for what it’s worth, couldn’t stop improving: an interactive galaxy map, the Skywalker family tree, a full saga walkthrough, and a cockpit flight nav that Isabel uses more than all the rest of it put together. Fifty-five characters in, and I’m fairly sure I’m the one who wants the next one.
Tell me what your week looks like and we’ll figure out the first move together.
Book a 30 minute call (opens in a new tab) Or write me: chris@habetlerconsulting.com