Caroline M. Leonard

A native Oregonian, Leonard received her elementary and high school education in Portland public schools and her bachelor's degree in business from Portland State University. She was selected to be one of 300 fellows in the US to complete a master's degree in education with a focus on multicultural education and an emphasis on being a change agent in public education, specifically in middle school. After teaching at Whitaker Middle School, she became Coordinator of Multicultural/Multiethnic Education for Portland Public Schools. In this role, she directed the development of the African-American Baselines Essays which received national and international attention and impacted the structure of social studies and language arts textbooks in the United States. Under her supervision, the American Indian, Asian-American and Hispanic Baselines Essays were also created and published. Her contributions to the community are many, including the Urban League of Portland's summer tutoring program to improve the academic skills of students living in north and northeast Portland and her leadership of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Street Re-Naming Committee which overcame vocal opposition to rename Union Avenue after the late Dr. King.