Karin Newlin brings 40+ years of experience to LFCSA. She served as the founding principal/director of Los Feliz Charter School of the Arts for the first 6 years. In the 2011-2012 year, Karin is transitioning to the role of Curriculum/ Instructional coach. She is a specialist in curriculum and instruction, systemic change, team building, and leadership training. Ms. Newlin has pushed LFCSA to be a school that is visionary and innovative, demonstrating first hand that, just as the world has changed and progressed, so must education.
Prior to working with community members to found the school, Ms. Newlin was a professor with the Principal Leadership Institute at UCLA, as well as an educational consultant for the Galef Institute, DesignWorld, Inc., and the Unban Learning Center, working in school districts and corporations throughout the U.S. In public education, she worked as a teacher, counselor, and served as principal of eight elementary and junior high schools, three of which were identified as California Distinguished Schools during her tenure. Throughout her long career in public education, she has had the opportunity to work directly with a number of national educational leaders, notably John Goodlad, Madeline Hunter, Stephen Krashen, Elliott Eisner, Harry Brody, and Lou Tice.
Named California Administrator of the Year and a California Distinguished Principal, Ms. Newlin is a participating member of Educational Insights, a national education/corporate “Think-Tank,” which gathers leaders from around the country to solve some of the toughest issues plaguing education today. Additionally, she served on the National Advisory Board for the J. Paul Getty Trust’s, Institute for Education in the Arts, and was a team member for the State Department of Education’s California Restructuring Project.
She received her B.A. in English Literature her M.S. in Educational Administration, both from the University of Southern California, and has completed additional course work in the areas of psychological tests and measurement, counseling, and guidance.
