English, Career Guidance, MentoringDr. Billy Bludgus has spent the past 15 years in the education and non-profit sectors both domestically and abroad. Billy initially earned his teaching degree in mathematics at the University of Miami, and took his first teaching job internationally at a high school in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. During his years in East Africa, he founded the House of Blue Hope Foundation (HBH), a non-profit organization which provides basic needs to vulnerable youth while enrolling them in formal schooling and private enrichment programs. HBH currently operates five residential and community centers in Dar es Salaam, supporting dozens of youth with wrap-around services.
The foundation’s successful alumni — leaders in their communities and professional fields — continue to prove that access to quality education can be simply transformational.
In the U.S., Billy has been involved with Jesuit schools and Cristo Rey schools across the country. He most recently spent a year building the groundwork for a future Cristo Rey school in Miami, FL. Prior to that, he served as the Founding Dean and Assistant Principal at Cristo Rey San José Jesuit High School in San José, CA, and saw the school through its first five years of stabilization. Cristo Rey schools form a nationwide network aimed at providing a top-notch, Catholic, college-prep education for families, who otherwise would not have such access. Earlier in his career, he spent six years at Loyola School on New York City’s Upper East Side, as a teacher, coach, and program director.
Billy holds an M.S.Ed. in Educational Leadership, Administration, and Policy from Fordham University, and an Ed.D. in Catholic Educational Leadership from the University of San Francisco. His research has focused on urban education, school culture, student formation, faith-based schools, and specifically on Jesuit, Cristo Rey schools. Billy has served on a number of education and non-profit boards, including two-terms overseeing the school budget as the Finance Chair at All Saints Catholic Academy in his hometown of Bayonne, NJ.
