UEI and Urban Labs appoint communications strategy expert Dayna Dion to advance national impact

OCT. 13, 2015 — Dayna Dion, an expert in large-scale brand, media, and communication strategies, has been named the Senior Director of National and Global Engagement of the University of Chicago Urban Labs and the Urban Education Institute (UEI).

In this new role, Dion will lead strategy and outreach to policymakers, educators, and leaders in the business and civic communities who can engage the work of UEI and Urban Labs to improve schooling and the quality of life in cities across the country and around the world.

Dion’s appointment is part of an ambitious plan to advance inquiry and impact at both Urban Labs and UEI.

Building on the momentum of its launch in March 2015, Urban Labs announced at Chicago Ideas Week the winners of $2.15 million in grants for its first innovation challenge. The grantees Chicago Jobs Council, Elevate Energy, and Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities were presented with their awards at a ceremony officiated by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Pritzker Director of Urban Labs and Chairman of UEI Timothy Knowles. Selected from a national pool of applications, the winners will partner with Urban Labs to test and develop the power of their programs to address poverty, environment, and health in Chicago.

UChicago Urban Labs were established to help cities make smarter bets to improve human lives at scale. Each of the five labs focuses on a critical dimension of urban life: crime, education, poverty, health, and energy & environment. The Labs design and test promising urban policies and programs and partner closely with civic leaders to catalyze broad adoption of the most effective and cost-efficient initiatives.

The Crime and Education Labs, the first of the five labs to be established, have already had remarkable impact on reducing youth violence and bringing successful educational initiatives to scale. Both continue to grow in Chicago and across the country.

“The knowledge produced by UEI and Urban Labs has the power to improve the human condition at broad scale,” said Knowles. “Dayna brings the expertise and leadership we need to reach policymakers and practitioners globally, and fully leverage the work we have underway.”

Alongside the successful establishment of Urban Labs, UEI has continued to grow rapidly over the last few years. Its research arm UChicago Consortium has informed school policy and practice in Chicago and nationally for two decades and the Consortium model has inspired replicas in New York City, Los Angeles, Newark, Baltimore, San Diego and other major cities. In 2014, the Consortium released reports confirming significant, district-wide improvements in high school graduation rates and linked improvements in college attainment as a result of schools applying findings from the Consortium’s seminal research on freshmen on-track. UEI’s not-for-profit UChicago Impact delivers tools and supporting services to thousands of schools in over 60 cities and 31 states nationwide, with recent wide-scale adoptions in Maryland, Florida, California, and elsewhere. Graduates of the University of Chicago Urban Teacher Education Program remain teaching in urban schools at more than double the national average and its successful context-specific preparation program continues to serve as a national model with a recent feature in the new book Inspiring Teaching. The UChicago Charter School, which serves more than 1,900 students in grades PreK-12, celebrated its fourth consecutive year of 100 percent college acceptance for graduating seniors and was highlighted as a uniquely effective program by two Harvard economists in the 2014 book Restoring Opportunity. UEI also hosted the 2015 Education Writers Association national conference, bringing together hundreds of education journalists and community members from across the country to convene in and learn from Chicago.

“We are proud that UEI's work has contributed to significant increases in high school graduation and college attainment rates in Chicago,” said Sara Ray Stoelinga, the Sarah Liston Spurlark Director of UEI. “We are focused on continuing to extend our influence across the country to dramatically improve outcomes for disadvantaged children. Dayna’s experience and leadership will be instrumental to this work.”

Dion has 15 years of experience leading brand and communications strategies at global advertising and media agencies. At Ogilvy & Mather and Optimum Media Direction (OMD), she led high-profile campaigns and directed research and development in the new areas of cultural strategy and analytics to better understand and respond to the shifting landscape of modern America. Dion served as an urban issues reporter during her time at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and completed her MA in international relations at the University of Chicago. She has developed and led large-scale projects for Dove and the American Medical Association and has spoken at professional conferences as an expert in modern marketing and brand strategies.

Dion’s new position will combine her expertise reaching audiences across sectors and positioning organizations in local and global context for maximum impact.

“UEI and Urban Labs are doing incredible work, discovering and disseminating what matters most for improving the lives of students and citizens,” said Dion. “I’m thrilled to continue cultivating the impact of these two powerhouses, making sure lawmakers, educators, families, philanthropists, and practitioners in every sector know about the new knowledge that can make a difference for human life in our cities.”