LCRE Conference 2025 Keynote Speaker: Decoteau J. Irby
Decoteau J. Irby is an associate professor in the University of Illinois Chicago’s Department of Educational Policy Studies, where he teaches primarily in the Urban Education Leadership Ed.D. program. He is a co-director for UIC’s Center for Urban Education Leadership, where he oversees the unit’s PreK-12 school and community-based organizational leadership research portfolio. He is the founding director of Brothers Teaching, a UIC-led initiative that works to increase 
the number of certified male teachers of color who work in Illinois schools.
His research explores how equity-focused school leadership can be used as a lever to improve Black children and youth’s academic achievement and socio-emotional well-being across a range of K-12 educational settings. His recent funded research projects include a William T. Grant Foundation Institutional Challenge Grant that supports a research-practice partnership with Chicago Public School’s Department of Principal Quality. The project focuses on identifying, modeling, and determining approaches to proliferate racial equity leadership practices that improve Black and Brown students’ educational experiences and outcomes. In 2019, he was awarded a Spencer Large Grant to study district-level racial equity leadership and how equity leadership practices are institutionalized and sustained by the era of the Equity Officer. Findings from this first-of-kind longitudinal research project will be published in the forthcoming co-edited book The Work of Equity Leadership for Justice and Systems Change (Teachers College Press).
His previously published books include Stuck Improving: Racial and Equity and School Leadership (Harvard Education Press) and the award-winning co-edited book Dignity-Affirming Education: Cultivating the Somebodiness of Students and Educators (Teachers College Press). He is widely published in academic journals and serves on the editorial board for Journal of Research in Leadership Education and Educational Researcher. He is a highly sought after thought leader and consultant who works with school and district teams to develop the capacity of their leaders to use racial equity leadership to improve schools and student experiences. He is UIC’s 2024 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Faculty Award recipient, in recognition of his leadership and advocacy to make UIC a welcoming and inclusive place to work and learn.
Learn more about Dr. Irby at decoteauirby.com and stuckimproving.com
Follow him on socials:
- Instagram: @decoteaublack
- X (Twitter): @decoteauirby
