Alliance for Catholic Education
“In a way, ACE has always been a part of me.” Elizabeth recounts warmly, “Both my parents worked in Catholic education for more than 40 years.”
Born in San Francisco, Elizabeth Watters Schwartze grew up with parents who were bulwarks of the Catholic school community. Elizabeth’s mother taught in San Francisco Catholic schools for 45 years, and her father for 42. Catholic education was in the air she breathed, and her parents “instilled in [her] a deep sense of the values of Catholic education and of teaching and leading.”
Holding to these values allowed Elizabeth to grow into the gracious, dedicated, and outstanding Catholic school leader she is today, and why she has been honored with the Michael Pressley Award for Excellence in Catholic Education by the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE).
Two awards are given annually to ACE graduates who have distinguished themselves in making significant contributions to the ministry of Catholic education. Joseph Augustinsky, science teacher at Saint Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, and a member of ACE 18, also won the 2024 award.
Driven to live up to her parents’ legacy, Elizabeth (ACE 20) seized her own moment as a fresh college graduate. Her first assignment took her from the City by the Bay to Brownsville, Texas where she taught fourth grade at Incarnate Word Academy.
Elizabeth’s experience in ACE “changed the trajectory of [her] life.” Her cohort was a group of people “wonderfully committed to bettering themselves and creating a positive learning environment.” ACE as an organization, Elizabeth asserts, excels at engaging with its partner school communities. It emphasizes fostering “communities that focus on creating relationships with students.” Its teachers learn in an environment where the students come first, and community is instrumental to developing as a teacher and a person. “A great bond was created within my cohort,” Elizabeth recalls. Taking classes over two summers on Notre Dame’s campus contributed to her formation as a teacher. Learning alongside fellow blossoming teachers, “I was surprised by what meaningful connections I was able to make in such a short time,” Elizabeth marvels, “Connections I can recall so vividly.” The relationships she formed with her fellow teachers “made [her] the teacher [she is] today.” Then she adds a little playfully, “I’m also biased: I met my husband Brian in Teaching Fellows.”
Elizabeth and her husband have two children, who, “by our calculations, if they are called to Catholic education, which they will be,” she jokes, “they would be part of ACE 52 and 53.”
“My first teaching assignment became my calling,” Elizabeth says. She continued to teach after graduation, and then decided it was time to return to ACE to focus on developing as a leader. She pursued her second master’s degree as part of the Remick Leadership Program during the height of the pandemic. “I loved every minute of it,” says Elizabeth. After several years in the classroom, Remick offered her the occasion to gain a new perspective on herself. The program “challenged me to grow as a leader–to look at Catholic education through a different lens.” Pivoting from a teaching role to a learning posture with a focus on leadership allowed Elizabeth to think about teaching in a new light: “You see things differently being back in a learning setting. And thinking specifically of myself as a leader.”
She found it valuable to learn from both the experienced and first-year leaders who comprised her cohort. Each leader’s willingness to be vulnerable, to collaborate on learning, and to share their experiences expanded Elizabeth’s own sense of herself as a leader. Once again, Elizabeth gained a community: “ I got very close to my cohort.” Alongside her cohort, she felt she “learned what kind of leader [she] wanted to become.”
In the fall of 2021, Elizabeth was appointed vice principal at her school, St. Elizabeth Seton in Palo Alto. The following summer, “after 10 years teaching in the classroom,” she became St. Elizabeth Seton’s principal.
The Bay Area and its Catholic education community are intertwined with Elizabeth’s life. Her parents both left their mark on San Francisco’s Catholic schools through their forty-plus year careers as educators, and Elizabeth continues to follow in their footsteps. She is devoting her life’s work to serving its children and providing them with high quality and faith-filled academics.
This year is proving to be a particularly rewarding season for Elizabeth. When she received the Michael Pressley Award for Excellence in Catholic Education, Elizabeth expressed how she herself was deeply impacted by Dr. Pressley. Conversations with him, and an awareness of his research “were inspiring to [her] as a teacher and as a leader.” Receiving the award holds a special significance for Elizabeth, as she feels “This is as much for my parents as it is for me. This award is for no work of mine, but for theirs.”
“And I welcomed my school’s first ACE teacher this year,” she says with pride, “And we have more coming next year.” The combined legacy continues.