Eric Crespo is the Principal at Cantwell-Sacred Heart of Mary High School.
Eric decided to enroll in LMU’s Ed.D. Program because he wanted to make a difference as an educational leader. His goal was to create positive change for the school communities he worked within, and also to be supportive to teachers and help address the issue of teacher turnover in Catholic schools.
His dissertation, “Exploring Retention Practices in Catholic High Schools: Principal Perspective,” chaired by Lauren Casella, Ed.D., focused on addressing the challenge of teacher retention in Catholic schools. During his time as a teacher and academic administer, Eric saw a lot of good teachers leave the Catholic school system due to the challenge of working at a Catholic high school. He wanted to make a change by researching how we can better support high school leaders by providing strategies for teacher retention.
Eric became a principal while enrolled in the Ed.D. Program and was able to take what he learned from the program to support the faculty at his school and become an advocate for Catholic School teachers.