Perry L. White, Founder and Executive Director

Perry started Citizens’ Academy in 1999 out of the conviction that the primary challenges in urban education are not the students or their parents. He believes that urban students will excel to the extent that their school’s decisions are based on what is best for children.

During his career, Perry was a clinical social worker with children and adolescents for Children’s Aid Society and Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, the founding department director of services to adults with mental illness for Jewish Family Services of Cleveland, a psychotherapist in private practice for over ten years, and a school reform and program evaluation consultant in the Cleveland and Cleveland Heights school districts.

Perry is a member of the Leadership Cleveland Class of 2007 and served as Chair of the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools Steering Committee. He is a graduate of Antioch College, Smith College School for Social Work, and is ABD from Cleveland State University’s doctoral program in urban education.