Elizabeth Blessing

Liz Blessing has served as principal of Cristo Rey Philadelphia High School since 2025. In her first year of leadership, she implemented several high-impact initiatives to strengthen student outcomes and family engagement. She hired additional college counselors, increasing advising touchpoints fourfold and ensuring 100% of families participated in individualized meetings. She introduced MAP benchmarking assessments for incoming students and launched a summer skills program to support academic readiness. She also strengthened Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) teams and data tracking systems, contributing to a significant reduction in course failures — currently, only 2 of 135 ninth-grade students have a GPA below 2.0.

Liz is in her sixth year as a principal and has been an educator since 2010, serving in a variety of roles, including teacher, instructional coach, and school leader. She has served in Catholic Jesuit high schools in Boston and Washington, DC, the Singapore American School, and schools within the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. She served as Vice Principal of Academics at Cristo Rey Boston High School before serving as principal of Mount Saint Joseph Academy in Flourtown, Pennsylvania, where she founded the Learning Team and approximately 20% of students benefited from tiered supports.

Throughout her career, Liz has focused on advancing academic achievement in urban Catholic education through research-based instructional practices and strong systems of teacher collaboration. Her graduate work at Harvard University centered on leveraging team teaching to improve outcomes for diverse learners. She has consistently strengthened MTSS frameworks across the schools she has served, improving intervention systems and student support structures.

Liz grew up in Little Compton, Rhode Island and attended Tiverton High School.