Crescent City Schools Leadership

Christopher Hines is the Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel at Crescent City Schools. Chris graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and began his career in education as a Teach for America corps member. As a corps member, Chris taught 3rd and 5th grades at Tull Waters Elementary School in Atlanta and served as the grade level chairperson. Chris’s students achieved a 100% pass rate on the state-mandated standardized tests and made annual average growth gains of 1.5 years.

Chris then moved north and began working in the operations and finance of school reform. He joined the Harlem Success Academy - the first school of the Success Academies network - during its first year of operation as the Associate Director of Operations and was quickly promoted to be the Director of Finance and Operations of the network. In this capacity he helped grow a single high-performing school into a network of 4 high-performing schools. Chris managed all of the finances, non-instructional operations, and family affairs at the 4 schools as well as at the central office. While working at Success Academies, Chris also worked with the ProTesters providing SAT tutoring to low-income students in the New York City area.

Looking to further develop the impact he could have on education, Chris chose to attend graduate school and pursue a joint JD/MBA program at Yale University. While a graduate student, Chris spent one summer doing program design and business modeling at the “I Have A Dream” Foundation and another summer as a legal intern at New Leaders.

After graduation, Chris moved to New Orleans excited about the opportunity to work in a city with so many exciting things happening in public education. He brings his strong operational and financial background, as well as his legal training, to Crescent City Schools and is dedicated to its mission of raising student achievement and preparing students for college.

Karen Johnston received a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education with a minor in Curriculum and Instruction and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, both from The University of Southern Mississippi. Karen began her career in education more than 13 years ago at Hattiesburg Public Schools where she was chosen to lead her grade level team, design district level curriculum, serve on the Superintendent’s Advisory Board and was also recognized as Teacher of the Year during the 2010 school year. In 2011, Karen moved to New Orleans to join the founding staff of Harriet Tubman. Since then, she has taught on the 3-4 Red Team, helped pilot the K-1-2 program, served as the Black Team’s Team Leader as well as an ELA Academic Leader. Karen is currently the Chief of Staff for the Blue Campus.