Dr. Renée Heywood
Assistant Superintendent Equity, Diversity & Inclusion for Brockton Public Schools
Dr. Renée Heywood began her career in education over 25 years ago as a Spanish language teacher in public, private, and graduate school settings. She served 11 years as an educational leader in juvenile justice education for the Department of Youth Services. In 2018, she was appointed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as the Director of Educational Services, directing educational programming for all incarcerated youth for the state. As an internationally published writer, recording artist and speaker, Dr. Heywood has traveled the world to support education and music in places like Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Australia and has presented her work on racism in education at multiple venues including the Social Justice Conference in Finland.
Dr. Heywood has a B.A. in Spanish Language & Literature from Brandeis University, a M.Ed. in Educational Leadership from Bridgewater State University, and a Ph.D. from UMass Amherst where she served as the School of Education Fellow. Her doctoral studies focused on Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies with a concentration in Language, Literacy and Culture focusing on racial and equity issues in education. She is the Assistant Superintendent of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion for Brockton Public Schools, Advisor to the PLEDJJ (Preparing Leaders in Education, Disability, and Juvenile Justice) Consortium, is the Professional Development Chair of AMSEL, is an appointed member of the MA DESE Racial Imbalance Advisory Council and is the CEO of Real Talk Leadership. She has been married for 32 years, had 3 children and 2 grandchildren.
