Renee Owen, EdD

Associate Deputy Director

Dr. Renee Owen serves as the Associate Deputy Director, Western Region, at the Center for Educational Improvement. A scholar-practitioner in adult education and educational leadership, Dr. Owen brings decades of experience helping schools and organizations cultivate equity, innovation, and systemic transformation.

In addition to her leadership at CEI, Dr. Owen is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at Southern Oregon University and Managing Editor of the Holistic Educational Review, an open-access journal dedicated to transformative learning and whole-child education. She earned her Doctor of Education degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, specializing in Organizational Development with a focus on transformative learning. Through her consulting work with schools and businesses, she supports paradigmatic systems change that advances both human flourishing and organizational effectiveness.

Before entering higher education, Dr. Owen spent more than 20 years as a school leader. She founded Paradox Valley Charter School in Colorado—a place-based, project-based learning community recognized for closing the achievement gap among low-income rural students. Later, as Head of School at Rainbow Community School in Asheville, North Carolina, she was honored as an Ashoka Change Leader for her pioneering work in making holistic education more accessible. She also co-authored Changemakers: Educating with Purpose with a team of Ashoka Change Leaders.

Dr. Owen’s lifelong mission is to make education a vehicle for personal and societal transformation—one that nurtures the full potential of every learner. Her ultimate vision is of a flourishing, socially just society that lives in harmony with the natural world.