After reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X in the ninth grade, Dr. Dennis Lacewell understood the magnitude of education being the most important vehicle in developing the minds, hearts, and potential of young Black men. Since that moment, he has been very focused in gaining the education and experience needed to be a major contributor to the community in educating urban young men. In preparation, Dr. Lacewell earned his Doctorate of Education in 2025, and earned his Master of Education in Supervision and Administration from National Louis University in 2009; graduated from North Carolina State University in the Spring of 1999 with a Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction. Prior to this, Dr. Lacewell graduated with Cum Laude Honors from Winston-Salem State University a Historically Black University located in North Carolina. As an undergraduate, he received several notable scholarships including the Winston-Salem State University Centennial Scholarship, an academic scholarship for all educational, room & board expenses; and the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship, given to young people who have made notable civic and community contributions that he continues today.
For the past twenty-six years Dennis has been in Chicago working hard to help develop the minds, hearts, and potential of urban young men. The first two years of his stay in Chicago, Dennis served as Social Studies teacher, football and basketball coach at Hales Franciscan High School, an all African-American male Catholic High School on the southside of Chicago. After his stay at Hales Franciscan, Mr. Lacewell served at North Lawndale College Prep, a westside high school in Chicago, for five years, where he was a history teacher, History Department Chairperson, Basketball coach and Assistant Athletic Director. More importantly, Dr. Lacewell, Co-founded Minority Men Exceeding the Norm (M2EN), a school wide organization focused on closing the gap between male and female achievement. The goal of the organization was to change the culture within the school to be one that the young men routinely strove for excellence within the classroom and outside the classroom.
April 2006 – June 2015, Dr. Lacewell served as the founding Principal of Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men – Englewood Campus, the nation’s first public charter high school for young men. During his nearly decade tenure as Principal, Urban Prep – Englewood Campus had six consecutive years of 100% of its graduates being accepted to four-year colleges and universities. In Urban Prep – Englewood’s short history of 6 graduating classes during Dennis’ tenure, they had 12 Gates Millennium Scholarship Winners, which was the most lucrative scholarship in the world during that time period..
July 2015 – July 2018, Dennis served as the Senior Director of Institutional Effectiveness at Urban Prep Academies. While being responsible for developing high impact programming solutions, codification and standardization of practices to improve the performance of Urban Prep’s network of schools, Dr. Lacewell was also responsible for Urban Prep’s national expansion plans. Dennis successfully led and spearheaded Urban Prep’s approval of the expansion application for Urban Prep – Las Vegas in Clark County, Nevada by the Nevada Achievement School District. Urban Prep’s first formal out of state approval.
Dr. Lacewell has served on The University of Chicago Consortium on School Research Steering Committee for 10 years (2008 – 2018). The last two years of Dr. Lacewell’s tenure, he served as the Co-chair of the Steering Committee of the University of Chicago Consortium. Since 2017, Dr. Lacewell has served as an Advisory Board member of the National Partnership for Educational Access (NPEA). Each of these organizations aligns with Dr. Lacewell’s visceral belief that educational access and opportunity are essential to all children, particularly children who have historically been neglected and ignored by society.
For the past eight years, Dr. Lacewell has served as the Chief Academic Officer at Urban Prep Academies. Urban Prep Academies operates a network of all-boys public schools which currently consist of two schools in Chicago, Urban Prep – Englewood Campus and Urban Prep – Bronzeville Campus. Urban Prep’s mission is to provide a high-quality and comprehensive college-preparatory educational experience to young men that results in our graduates succeeding in college. For 16 consecutive years, 100% of Urban Prep graduates have gained admission to a four-year college/university. This success is quite the opposite of the outcomes for Black boys in your typical high school as The College Board conducted a national study that found that less than 45% of African-American males graduated high school with the minimum requirements needed to be accepted to a 4-year college/university. Urban Prep schools are a direct response to the urgent need to reverse abysmal graduation and college completion rates among African-American males.
Lastly, Dr. Lacewell is also serving as the Interim CEO of Urban Prep Academies and recently completed his doctorate in May 2025, from National Louis University. The title of his dissertation is “Creating a College Going Culture in Schools for Black Boys”.