Davis Chicago is hiring a founding Head Librarian to build the library of tomorrow and the Capstone program it powers: a true library in the classic sense, books worth loving and real research help, that is also a makerspace, a home for learning games and game design, and the school’s launch pad into downtown Chicago — and to teach in it every day. As a founding leader, the Chair is a member of the team opening a school from scratch. Therefore, the person needs to be a builder-leader: someone who can take a bold founding vision and turn it into a living school, then run a department in that school at a level of excellence every student, parent, and teacher can feel.
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Warm, Relational, and High-Performing – Kind, emotionally intelligent, intellectually rigorous, and committed to excellence.
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An Inquiry Evangelist – Makes research feel like detective work, not homework.
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A City Connector – Builds internship and mentor relationships across Chicago.
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A Builder of the Library of Tomorrow – Books worth loving and a makerspace, research help and game design, in one space students actually want to be in.
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An Entrepreneurial Builder – Thrives in ambiguity, solves problems, and creates programs, systems, and traditions from the ground up.
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A Curious and Courageous Thinker – Embraces learning, evidence, critical thinking, and meaningful debate.
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Rooted and Forward-Looking – Honors tradition while embracing innovation, technology, and AI.
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Committed to Jewish Life and Community – Values Jewish identity, the diversity of Jewish thought, and meaningful engagement in Jewish life.
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A Collaborative Culture-Builder – Balances accountability, care, and results while elevating everyone around them.
The Head Librarian & Capstone Chair is the academic and instructional leader of the school’s research, information literacy, library, Capstone, and internship / partnership programs and serves as a key member of the school’s academic leadership team. Reporting to the Principal, the Chair provides vision, leadership, supervision, and support for a culture of inquiry, scholarship, and academic excellence across all disciplines. The Chair carries all five roles the profession names for a school librarian — leader, instructional partner, information specialist, teacher, and program administrator — plus a sixth that is particular to Davis Chicago: the person who connects the school to the city.
This is a founding seat. Build the research program, the library, and the internship pipeline that put downtown Chicago inside every student’s education, and make Davis Chicago a destination for exceptional scholarship. The Chair will establish and steward the systems, programs, and experiences that cultivate advanced research skills, information literacy, ethical scholarship, meaningful work-based learning, and intellectual independence. The Chair will partner with faculty across disciplines to develop a vertically aligned research curriculum, oversee Capstone experiences, and ensure students are prepared for the rigorous research and analytical demands of college and beyond.
This is a teaching role as well as a program-building one, and the balance evolves by design. In the launch years, the Chair teaches research and information-literacy instruction while building the library and Capstone program from scratch. As the school grows, the role carries increasing dedicated time for curriculum development, faculty collaboration, and partnership building — the steady state Davis Chicago is building toward.
Davis Chicago Capstone is a distinction, not a requirement. Students begin as early as ninth grade, apply after a first-year course, and commit to a multi-year sequence, in tracks running from engineering and computer science to business, law, the performing arts, and the College Board’s AP Seminar and AP Research route. Every Davis Chicago student learns to find, judge, and use evidence; Capstone students carry it further into original work they present and defend before people who do that work for a living, and wear the distinction at graduation. The Chair builds the research spine underneath all of it, runs the library as the front door that pulls students toward Capstone, creates meaningful partnerships with institutions, and holds every track to one standard.