Earlier today, the School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Tony B. Watlington, Sr., Ed.D., announced changes in order to accelerate the efforts to make the District's become the fastest improving large, urban school district in the country. 

Focusing on achieving the Board’s Goals and Guardrails, and having the most impact on three focus areas (student attendance, teacher attendance and dropout rates); a reorganization in the structure will be made. The Academic Division will be reorganized into six offices that report to the Deputy Superintendent for Academics.  

Evelyn Nuñez will become the Associate Superintendent of Elementary Schools and Tomás Hanna the new Associate Superintendent for Secondary Schools. Occupying important positions, they were both born in Puerto Rico and raised in Philadelphia. 

Evelyn Nuñez

Leading the Elementary Schools Office, Nuñez will be transitioning out of her current role as Chief of Schools, which will be eliminated. In her new position, she will supervise 11 Assistant Superintendents responsible for elementary schools.

Nuñez was born in Puerto Rico and moved to Philadelphia when she was three years old. From elementary to high school, Nuñez studied in the School District of Philadelphia. She was also a first generation college student, when she went to Chestnut Hill College —  from where she earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education and Teaching. 

She has been working with education for almost 30 years. Nuñez’s first contact with it was at Ferguson Elementary School in the School District of Philadelphia, as a teacher. Between that first experience and now the Associate Superintendent for Secondary Schools; she has served as: a Bilingual Literacy Coach, Principal, Assistant Superintendent, Chief Academic Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Officer at a charter school.  

Earlier this year, Nuñez was selected as a recipient at the Powerful Latinas Awards — which recognizes the most outstanding Hispanic women of the year. You can read more about it here.

Tomás Hanna

Similar to Nuñez, Hanna will lead the Secondary Schools Office — also supervising Assistant Superintendents. Philly-raised, but with Puerto Rican roots; he is a University of Puerto Rico in Cayey Alum.

Hanna currently serves as the Chief Talent Officer at the Pennsylvania Department of Education, but he has a long list of working in important roles. He previously served as the Superintendent of Coatesville School District, Chief Human Capital Officer in the New York City Schools, and principal of Kensington High School in Philadelphia.

To learn more about the District’s reorganization, click here.