About Christopher Habetler
I’m Christopher Habetler. I build tools that give school and network leaders back time and mental space, so they can focus on the real work (that only they can do).
Here is the work record, twenty years of it inside schools, and what I build at home.
I build custom workflows, automations and tools with school leaders, done with you, and there’s always a human in the loop.
- The record
- 100+ engagements across 50+ schools and networks in 15+ states, and 91% of clients came back year after year. I coached 200+ leaders, and one of them earned Louisiana Principal of the Year and then became a network CEO.
- Most recently
- Senior Director, High School Advancement, KIPP Foundation, 2024 to 2026. A work sample from that role.
- Before that
- Habetler Consulting, since 2010, paused for KIPP in 2024 and resumed in 2026. Achievement First, Explore Schools, DREAM, NYC Public Schools, LA Unified, Collegiate Academies, Harvard GSE, UVA Darden.
- In schools
- Superintendent, Brooklyn Laboratory Charter Schools, 2021 to 2022. Chief Culture Officer, Collegiate Academies, 2016 to 2021. Co-founder of DeansList, 2010 to 2013. Dean of Students, Excel Academy Charter Schools, 2005 to 2010.
- Wrote
- Building Culture Back Better (opens in a new tab), a book about rebuilding school culture, and the network playbooks and policy manuals for 48 high schools, with the six-month roadmaps and train-the-trainer sessions for the leaders who ran them.
- Advising
- Advisor and board member at Ople (opens in a new tab). Educational advisor at QWZRD. Founder of the NYC EducAItion Lab.
If a teacher’s most difficult task is to make the most obscure skills feel instinctual, Chris is the best around. He did not change me; he did not manage me; he showed me a more complete version of myself and how to fill that role. He’s that good.
Dan Parsons · Blackstone Valley Prep
In Their Words
Our school leaders name his coaching and support as having very high impact, and they push hard to get as many ‘Chris days’ at their schools as possible. I would highly recommend Chris to any school, CMO, or district looking to make dramatic improvements.
Doug McCurry · Co-Founder, Achievement First
We built an organization culture that aligned to our mission by working with Chris. He built the capacity of our leadership team, created the systems and tools, and showed us what REAL change management looks like.
Kinnari Patel-Smyth · Explore Schools, now President, KIPP Foundation
Chris’s monthly visits were a catalyst for dramatic growth. On our network’s evaluation system, we went from the lowest-performing middle school to the highest-performing in the history of our network. Truly, Chris was no small part of that.
Tom Kaiser · Founder, Authentic Leaders · former Principal, Achievement First Endeavor MS
Chris spent two days with us, but his impression has left a mark for years. In minutes he could identify the root causes of culture breakdowns, and equally important, tools and strategies to dramatically and immediately change them. He is always there for us, to talk, share, empathize and then help me make tough decisions.
Rachel Yanof · Founder, ASU Prep South Phoenix
Amy D’Angelo · Executive Director, Connecticut, Achievement First
I’ve been struck not only by Chris’ unique skill in execution with students, but also by his ability to strategically think through building and improving school systems.
Kendra Engels · Vice President of Program, Achieve Twin Cities
He asked the right questions to get me to take a hard look at my practice and to make small shifts that made a big difference.
Stu Warshawer · Principal, Harriton High School · founding Principal, KIPP Camden
Chris not only helped us calibrate our bar for what excellence looks like in the classroom, but helped us create clear systems to achieve it.
Jeremy Abarno · Founder, Jeremy Abarno Consulting · former Principal, PAVE Academy
Chris is a keen listener and an insightful observer and has used his experience and skills to tailor his consulting and leadership development services to fit our school’s needs.
That is the work record. At home, I build things for Emmy and Isabel.
New Orleans, post COVID. Day one of school for my daughter. Overwhelmed with emotions, equally excited and terrified. I realized that I was handing over the most special precious thing in my life over 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, and reminded me of the absolutely tremendous responsibility that comes with that trust.
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 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.