Rhonda Zajac G’07 joined the Syracuse University School of Education as Assistant Teaching Professor in the Educational Leadership program in 2025. With extensive experience in K-12 teaching and leadership, Zajac was most recently Director of English Language Arts (K-12) in the Syracuse City School District (SCSD), where she oversaw ELA curricula and assessment, data collection and analysis, teachers’ professional development, compliance with state regulations, literacy action plans, and more.
Before joining the SCSD central office, Zajac was Dean of Students of Grant Middle School and Secondary Literacy Instructional Coach at Clary and Danforth middle schools, both in the Syracuse school district. She also served as Instructional Specialist at Cayuga Onondaga BOCES (Auburn, NY). She began her career at Hughes Academic Magnet School in Syracuse, as a reading specialist, then branch teacher, before becoming an administrative intern.
A member of The Reading League and National Council for Teachers of English, Zajac has presented on the “Maintenance and Decline of Rigor in Academic Tasks,” “Systems and Structures to Support Effective Curriculum Implementation,” “Leading Data-Driven Instruction Through Professional Learning Teams,” and “Applying Building Leadership Framework Indicators to Instructional Leadership in Literacy.”
Zajac holds a Certificate of Advanced Study in Educational Leadership (2007) from the School of Education, as well as an M.S. in Education (1999) from SUNY Oswego and a B.A. in English (1992) from Hobart and William Smith Colleges.