Finding Her Way Home: Michele Pomerantz’s Journey from Cleveland Student to Education Leader

In a bright office at Cleveland City Hall, Michele Pomerantz reflects on the winding path that led her to become the Chief of Education for the City of Cleveland. Her journey – from Cleveland school student to first-grade teacher to education advisor to the mayor – embodies the kind of trajectory she hopes to inspire in today’s students.

“I was a Cleveland school kid, a Cleveland School teacher, my son went to Cleveland schools,” she says with unmistakable pride. “And after a 22-year experience being a teacher, the mayor decided that he wanted that experience helping him advise and navigate… I’m excited, I get to do this work.”

Cleveland Roots

Michele’s story begins in the Cleveland public school system. As a young student, she experienced firsthand the challenges and opportunities of urban education during a period of significant change.

“I was a Cleveland school student. I went to Cleveland schools and then my parents decided to put me in a Catholic school,” Michele explains. This transition occurred during desegregation, when her parents made difficult choices about her education. “It was a time during desegregation where in their mind they did not want me to take a bus across town.”

This early experience would later fuel her passion for ensuring quality education in every neighborhood. “I want to make sure that there’s a quality choice in every neighborhood for every child so they can make that choice,” she says, “so they can choose and have the experiences in the classroom that are needed and necessary to grow and develop, become great Clevelanders.”

Finding Her Way Without a Map

As a first-generation college student, Michele navigated higher education largely on her own, without the family guidance many take for granted.

“I had to apply by myself. I had to find stamps in my mother’s desk, I had to figure out how to complete the financial aid forms,” she recalls. “It wasn’t that they didn’t want what was best for me. It was that they thought that they had given me a good high school education and that they were doing OK without college.”

Her first day at Cleveland State University coincided with her 18th birthday – September 19, 1984 – and was characterized by confusion and improvisation. “We just started getting in line to sign up for classes. And it was hot. And we were dressed up because we were in college… After an hour, we started picking which lines were the shortest because it was hot. It was already 10:30. None of the classes that we lined up for were open.”

Life threw more challenges her way when she became pregnant during college. “Everybody was like, ‘Okay, well, this is fun, we’ve let you have your opportunity,'” she remembers. She pivoted from communications to education, making a practical decision that would ultimately become her passion.

“I was going to be a communication specialist, a journalism major or somehow in communications, radio disk jockey or something, something fun and cool. And I was like, alright, reality has got to sit in… So I walked over to the education department and I thought, ‘This is something I can convince my family that is realistic.'”

Her practical reasoning for choosing teaching revealed an insight about her true calling: “If I become a teacher, I can close the door and communicate all day long. I have a full audience.”

The Classroom Years

Michele graduated when her daughter was four and began teaching at Harvey Rice elementary school. She would go on to teach first grade for 22 years, making an impact on countless young lives. During this time, she met her husband (the art teacher) at Ben Franklin school, where her son Jack would also later attend.

Her teaching career evolved into advocacy when she became involved with the teachers’ union, fighting for what she believed students truly needed.

“The reason I became involved in the union was because the state was telling us what the school day needed to look like. And I just felt that I knew my students better than some legislators,” she explains. “I felt that the kids needed a little more outside time, more time on reading and things like that, so I got involved in the union.”

A Career Coming Full Circle

Michele’s path took her from the classroom to increasingly influential roles in education policy and public service. She worked on political campaigns, including President Obama’s, spent time at the National Teachers Union in Washington, DC, and returned to Cleveland to work on the Cleveland Plan with then-CEO Eric Gordon.

She later joined County Executive Armond Budish’s team as the director of collaboration, then worked for Metro Health after the COVID-19 pandemic. Each role expanded her perspective and prepared her for her current position advising Mayor Justin Bibb on education policy.

“I look at myself as kind of like a truth teller and somebody that understands the top, middle, and bottom of the organizations, not just one, to make them all work better for the recipients, which are those children in the classrooms and their staff,” she says of her current role.

Mentors and Moments That Matter

When asked what helped her overcome obstacles, Michele points to key mentors who saw her potential and helped her believe in herself.

“Her name was Mrs. McDonald, Karen McDonald, and she was an 8th grade teacher,” Michele recalls fondly. “I’m super tall, I am super skinny, my hair is bright red, and I’m the dork from New York, and my parents had, you probably know by now, my homelife wasn’t all that stable. So I went from this school to that school to this school.”

During lunch periods, Mrs. McDonald would keep Michele and a few other “geeky girls” in her classroom, talking about Shakespeare and literature. “She would have a quote on the chalkboard about different things. ‘Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well’ was a quote I remember from that classroom on that day.”

What made this teacher special was “that ability to kind of move beyond the curriculum script and to know us personally and to help us dream about and just to say you can do whatever you want and to really believe you can really do whatever you want.”

Another influential teacher was Sister Marie Rose, her journalism teacher who “taught with love and community and not with fear,” creating “a real space of understanding that even though I was a kid, finally somebody saw that worth that said, let’s talk.”

Building Pathways for the Next Generation

Today, Michele channels her experiences into creating better opportunities for Cleveland’s youth. She emphasizes the importance of exposing children to a wide variety of experiences and career possibilities, both inside and outside the classroom.

“Between the ages of 13 and 18 will be the determination of what you do and how much money you make for the rest of your life,” she notes, explaining why she’s passionate about creating meaningful learning opportunities beyond school hours.

She describes her excitement about strengthening connections between schools and recreation centers. “While I say I want kids to have choices, I just think sometimes we have had a space in American education where we’ve said we need you to do this and then they turn 17, 18 and we’re like okay, goodbye, good luck.”

Instead, Michele envisions continuous support: “I see a ton of children that want be movie stars, and basketball players and doctors and lawyers. I want them for them. I want them to see themselves in those roles. I also want them to see them in the incremental steps to get to those roles.”

The Secret to Resilience

When asked what pulled her through difficult times without strong family support, Michele reflects thoughtfully. “I think it’s kind of, there’s a quote I remember in a book,  it was called ‘The Strong Winds Made the Vikings.’ And there were a lot of things that, you know, some adverse things that kind of started in and you kind of find a way to make the best of a situation.”

For her, authentic relationships were crucial. “It’s finding your pack and your crew. And it’s also kind of understanding that everybody that you encounter has value and worth.”

She also mentions the importance of showing up consistently. “It’s kind of like, ‘Oh, I don’t really want to go to the Stop the Hate Essay Awards Ceremony. I’m tired. I’ve been working so hard and they don’t need me there”’ And then it is the energy that you get from seeing these children perform, some of them for the first time, in a time when there’s so much hate.in parts of our worlds”

A Message for Today’s Students

Michele’s career journey offers powerful lessons for Cleveland students. As someone who navigated college applications alone, juggled parenthood with education, and consistently found her way back to serving Cleveland’s children, she embodies persistence and purpose.

She now mentors young people like Kelsey Ray, her former first-grade student who is studying to become a teacher herself. “I was a first generation college student. And I know how hard it is for people and families and my former first grade families to say, “All right, we can do this.”

For students who may not have family members who attended college or pursued professional careers, Michele represents what’s possible through determination and connection. Her grandmother was “an English war bride who came to America during the war,” giving Michele what she calls “that oomph and adventure and also in times of trouble moving in ways that you survive and not only survive, you thrive.”

Today, as Chief of Education, Michele Pomerantz continues to advocate for quality education in every Cleveland neighborhood. Her passion remains rooted in her own experiences as a Cleveland student, teacher, and parent.

“I really feel as though I was pulled out and I’d just been fighting my way to get back in,” she says of her connection to Cleveland schools. “And every time I go back away from Cleveland or Cleveland School somehow, there’s just something that lures me back in.”

That deep connection drives her work to ensure that today’s students have the support, experiences, and opportunities they need to discover their own paths forward—whether that leads them around the world or, like Michele, brings them right back home to make a difference in the city that shaped them.