Education Faculty

Ronett Jacobs is an assistant professor of Education at Alverno College, where she has taught since 2018. She also serves as the director of the Thea Bowman Institute for Excellence and Leadership, a full-tuition scholarship program for Black undergraduate students with a strong desire to serve as leaders. In addition, Jacobs co-leads the college’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Jacobs has dedicated her life’s work to improving lives through education. For more than 25 years, she has focused on innovative student-centered practices, designing creative learning environments, coaching teachers, and advocating for students subjected to marginalization. Through her advocacy, Jacobs has been deeply involved with learning spaces and organizations that include Beyond Diversity and My Brother's Keeper, and serves as an educational equity leadership partner with The Network at DPI. Jacobs is also on the committee for the ASPIRE Program for The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), which seeks to increase the diversity of the biomedical workforce through a 10-week summer cardiovascular fellowship at MCW for 13 undergraduates from underrepresented groups in science and medicine each year.

Prior to coming to Alverno, she spent 17 years working as a classroom teacher and an instructional coach. She spent more than a decade as a classroom teacher with Franklin Public Schools where she was named Teacher of the Year by the Walton Corporation and received the Distinguished Teacher Service Award from Franklin Education Foundation. She also served as Children's Ministry Coordinator at Faith Christian Fellowship and Eastbrook Church and as a Title I Instructional Coach for the Wauwatosa School District. She was also a facilitator of the Retention of Teachers of Color Team, among other initiatives. Jacobs currently uses her professional experience to consult with organizations to design and implement programs to benefit students and schools. She shares coaching facilitation skills with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction to develop the Coaching Competency Practice Profile (CCPP) virtual learning modules for K-12 schools. She also consults with Coaching for Success, a program designed in partnership with Rogers Behavioral Health, Milwaukee College Prep, Boys and Girls Club, and Milwaukee Public Schools to develop the skills of mental health professionals who desire to serve as transformational coaches.

Jacobs earned her Bachelor of Arts in Education from Alverno College, her Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction from Marian University in Fond du Lac, Wis., and a EdD in Educational Leadership from Alverno College. Jacobs coordinates the partnership between Teach For America and Alverno’s education division, and is the director of Leaders Advancing Culture and Climate in Schools (LACCS) which promotes character education in Wisconsin schools. She has also committed her time as a School Board member at Eastbrook Academy, a panel member at Cardinal Stritch University - Ladies in Leadership, and a keynote speaker for both the Servant Leadership Conference and the Center for Urban Teaching.