Success for African American and All Students of Color

2016 Professional Development Summit

FEATURED SPEAKERS Bios

 

 

Ahmadi Parvin, M.Ed., has been the Superintendent of the Castro Valley Unified School District since 2015.  She started her career as a teacher in San Jose, then served as a vice principal, principal, director, and assistant superintendent in the Fremont Unified School District. She became the Superintendent of the Pleasanton Unified School District in 2010, and worked with the PTA to implement the School Smarts Parent Engagement program in two elementary schools.   She also teaches the Instructional Leadership module to new and upcoming superintendents attending the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) Superintendents Academies in Central and Northern California.

 

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Michele Anberg-Espinosa, Ed.D., is an Instructional Reform Facilitator in San Francisco Unified. She serves at a site with a Spanish Dual Language Immersion Program, whose English speakers are almost entirely African American. Prior to this assignment, oversaw the district's Dual Language Immersion and World Language programs, Pre-K-12 for three years. She has also served as a consultant at the CDE, overseeing Two-Way Bilingual Immersion (TWBI) and Title III programs. Her twenty-five year career in language education includes work in the U.S, México, and Japan, in various teaching and administrative capacities.

 

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Andrea Bennett is the Executive Director for the California Educational Technology Professionals Association (CETPA), the lead sponsoring agency of the CTO Mentor Program. Prior to becoming CETPA’s Executive Director, Andrea served as a director at two of California’s largest school districts; the East Side Union High School District and Oakland Unified.  In total, she has 26 years of experience within K-12 education, including service as a programmer and database manager. At CETPA, she works with the Board of Directors in visioning and planning, and leads and manages programs to accomplish all CETPA goals and objectives. She is also CETPA’s liaison activities with external organizations on both local and national levels. 

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Carolyn Bennett Murray, Ph.D., is a full Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of California, Riverside. She was awarded a four year grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute of Mental Health (NIH) to conduct a pioneer longitudinal study of the socialization processes of African American families and their children; assessing the normal development processes of African American children and socialization techniques used by their families. Her earlier research and published work is in the area of attribution and affective consequences of negative stereotypic expectations for academic achievement. Her most recent research investigated the role of physician-patient communication in understanding health-disparities.

 

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Turshika Bennett, M.Ed., has been on staff at Bishop O' Dowd High School in Oakland for over a decade. Turshika served as an Academic Support Coordinator for student-athletes, faculty in Physical Education and shared the role of Head and Assistant Track & Field Coach. Turshika's research interests include addressing social justice and inequity in the hidden curriculum of social class, educational policy and academic support for urban students. ____________________________________________________________________

 

 

Dr. Ayanna Blackmon-Balogun is a professor of literacy at the University of Redlands and an assistant principal at Kolb Middle School in the Rialto Unified School District. For several years, she has reviewed proposals for AERA and presented at several conferences on cultural responsiveness. In addition, Dr. Blackmon-Balogun served as a School Board Member in the city of Fontana.  Her first children’s book was published in 2009, entitled Because I Love You So Much: The Influence of Motherly Love. For the past four years, she has also been a contributing author to Zoe Life Inspired: A Daily Devotional. 

 

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Jeff Breshears is the administrator for the Local Agency Systems Support Office (LASSO) at the California Department of Education (CDE). His office is responsible for review and approval of the county office of education LCAPs as well as providing guidance and technical assistance to LEAs regarding the development, implementation, review and approval of LCAPs. Prior to moving to the LASSO office, Jeff served as the interim director of the Title I Division and administrator of the Title I Policy and Program Guidance Office. Prior to coming to the CDE, Jeff was in the classroom for 12 years, teaching students with exceptional needs and students in alternative education settings.

 

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Hardy Brown II - Trustee, San Bernardino County Board of Education & Executive Director, Black Voice Foundation

Since 2013, Hardy has served as Trustee to the San Bernardino County Board of Education, which represents 33 school districts and 412,000 students in Southern California. He has over 18 years of experience in nonprofit development, organizational leadership, and community volunteerism, and has worked with several national nonprofit organizations, including the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), United Way of America and his alma mater, Wilberforce University, the nation’s first HBCU.  Over the last 19 years, the Black Voice Foundation, under the leadership of Brown, has helped school districts increase parent engagement and culturally relevant curriculum, by taking over 800 educators and parents on historical tours of the Underground Railroad. Brown works on several educational committees in San Bernardino and Riverside County, addressing overall student’s needs, student success, and cultural history in the classroom.

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Nabeehah Brumfield serves as an Administrator in the Office of Special Projects at Compton Unified School District.  She has been a classroom teacher, a curriculum specialist, and elementary and middle school assistant principal.  Her current work is directed towards enhancing family engagement in schools with a focus on college and career readiness.  A committed advocate for family and community engagement in public schools for more than 20 years, she has been a PTA President, school site and district advisory council member and trainer.  She was a vital member of the team that oversaw the realization of a District Parent Center, as well as school site parent centers.

 

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Dr. Donna Campbell is a Principal in the Palmdale School District. She is also an adjunct faculty member at California State University, Bakersfield, within the Graduate School of Education.   Her doctoral research focused on African American parent involvement, inequities in discipline, and issues of trust in education. 

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Dr. Dennis L. Carpenter has 18 years of experience in public education and is the Superintendent of the Hickman-Mills C-1 School District. He was named Superintendent, after serving as a Senior Level School District Administrator for six years. In a previous assignment, Dr. Carpenter served as Deputy Superintendent for Operations in a metropolitan district with more than 19,000 students. In this capacity he served on the Superintendent’s Executive Leadership Team and was responsible for the budget, finance, human resources, capital projects, transportation, purchasing, plant services and school nutrition functions in the district.

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Marci Carver is a full-time educator at the elementary level, committed to closing the achievement gap for African-American, Latino and other underserved children. A kindergarten teacher for 25 years, her students have gained 2-4 levels on the pre and post CELDT scores for the past 3 years. She is an expert at the Project Moving Forward early childhood kindergarten program and has trained educators throughout California.  She assisted in implementing the Project Moving Forward Vocabulary Program that boosted the state testing scores for African-American students by 51 points at Hendrick Elementary School in the Moreno Valley Unified School District.

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Dr. Angela Clark-Louque is Professor and Department Chair of Educational Leadership and Technology at California State University, San Bernardino. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications, grants, and reports. She has co-authored a book entitled, “Exposing the ‘Culture of Arrogance’ in the Academy: A Blueprint for Increasing Black Faculty Satisfaction in Higher Education” (2005). Her most recent article, “Cultural Capital in the Village: The Role African-American Families Play in the Education of Children” was published in the Fall, 2014 edition of Multicultural Education.

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Dr. April Clay is a graduate of Chapman University with a Bachelor and Master of Arts degree in Psychology. Culminating her education and counseling training, Dr. Clay attended the University of Redlands where she attained a Pupil Personnel Services Credential in School Counseling and a Doctorate in Education. Throughout her academic and professional career Dr. Clay has concentrated on counseling, mental health and equity in schools. Dr. Clay has delivered two keynote addresses and presented at nine esteemed research conferences.  She taught pre-service teachers and counselors in the university setting for seven years. Her commitment to service extends beyond the school as she has served on Local Control Accountability Planning teams, School Site Councils, non-profit organizations, and in her sorority, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated, where she currently serves as the president. She and her husband enjoy quality time with their six children who range from high school to college.

 

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Dr. Jamal Cooks is a tenured, Professor at San Francisco State University in the Department of Secondary Education. He has taught middle and high school Social Studies, community college English, and teacher education courses at the university level. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan with a dissertation entitled "Explicit Instruction, assumed skills, or something in the middle: Expository writing development in different learning environments with high school freshmen."  He has published a number of articles about language, literacy, and culture, including an examination of how to use hip hop in the classroom, building expository writing skills, and exploring experiences of African Americans in institutions serving urban students. Dr. Cooks serves as a Co- Principal Investigator on a National Science Foundation Grant on Advanced Technical Education.

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Ali Cooper, Restorative Schools Vision Project Executive Director, has spent two decades as a community political organizer and advocate with California's largest public sector unions. He has helped to shape policy across health & human services, public education and workforce development for the nation’s largest public sector unions.

 

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Michele Dawson serves as Senior Director of Educational Technology for the Compton Unified School District, where she leads 21st Century Learning, technology integration and organizational management.   With more than  20 years of experience as a teacher, administrator, and technology director, she has held positions in San Francisco Unified and the Napa County Office of Education, where she lead innovation by developing iPad programs and implementing Google Apps for Education. As an accomplished grant writer, Michele wrote the EETT competitive grant for PBL with Multimedia, for which she garnered the CSBA Golden Bell Award.  

 

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Yvonne Evans is an Education Programs Consultant with the After School Division (ASD) of the California Department of Education (CDE). There, she monitors the After School Education and Safety (ASES) and the 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) grant programs in Riverside, Inyo, Mono, and San Bernardino counties. Most recently she has been assigned to lead The Power of Discovery: STEM after school pilot program. In addition to her work with CDE, she has worked in the Mathematics and Science Leadership Office, where she implemented and supported the Mathematics and Reading Professional Development Programs and the California Mathematics and Science Partnership (CaMSP) grant program.  Prior to working with the CDE she was a high school mathematics teacher in the Elk Grove Unified School District.

 

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Elena Fajardo is the program administrator for the Language Policy and Leadership Office (LPLO) with the California Department of Education.  Her background includes over 40 years of working in education. She began her career as an instructional assistant in what was then an experimental bilingual program.  She has taught a multitude of subjects and grade levels in bilingual, Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English and English Language Development settings. Fajardo served as mentor teacher, District EL/Bilingual program developer, a teacher trainer for site and county levels, and most recently as a site and district administrator. As a consultant for CDE a few years back, she focused on EL program compliance and improvement in various offices at the CDE.

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Dr. Rex Fortune serves as director of research and evaluation at Fortune School of Education (FSE) in Sacramento.   His recent work in California educational reform includes supporting the Sacramento County Board of Education's authorization of five K-8 charter schools. He also serves on the board for Pacific Charter Institute, which has a charter school in Sacramento County and another in San Joaquin County. In 2012, Dr. Fortune authored BRIDGING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP: What Successful Educators and Parents Do. In his book Fortune challenges leaders, parents and teachers to make a positive impact by bridging the achievement gap and illuminates the way for change with proven strategies.

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Emilio Gallegos, MA is currently the principal of Seneca Elementary School, the Project Moving Forward Demonstration Site in the Moreno Valley Unified School District (MVUSD). He has 10 years of principal experience with MVUSD.

 

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Sherman Garnett and Joseph Taylor have been integral members of the California State SARB for the past 18 years, having been appointed as members of the Review Board by the current and Past State Superintendents of Public Instruction. Additionally, Garnett and Taylor were executive national Board members of the national Alliance to Defeat Truancy and serve as current executive board members of The California Association of Supervisors of Child Welfare and Attendance.

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Cynthia Glover Woods is the Senior Leadership Associate in the Leadership Institute of Riverside County at the Riverside County Office of Education. She has been an educator for over 25 years, serving as district administrator for 18 years in both Los Angeles and Riverside Counties.  During her career, she has served as an instructional assistant, teacher, curriculum specialist, professional development coordinator, curriculum director, and Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Support Services.

 

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Dr. Gustavo Gonzalez is an Education Program Consultant in the Language Policy and Leadership office in the English Learner Support Division at the California Department of Education. His public school career spans 12 years, teaching in the South Sacramento Meadowview community and in the Chula Vista Elementary School District, near the California-Mexico border.  His work in education emphasizes providing educational access for English learners and supporting students’ biliteracy and language development through implementation of effective instructional practices and establishing optimal learning environments.

 

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Reginald Grant, M.Ed., has been an English teacher since 2002.  He was the recipient of a “Spirit of AEMP” award by LAUSD’s Academic English Mastery Program. For the past four years, he has focused on research, teaching English as a Second Language and speaking.  In 2011, he served on the CASHEE – California State High School Exit Exam development panel for English. He is the author of two books “A Case for Bilingual Education. A Teacher’s View,” 2015 and “A Teacher’s View. Education in America,” 2014. He is currently completing his third book “Reaching and Teaching African American Males: Success Stories.”

 

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Dr. Marcie Graves Brown is the Principal at Norco Elementary School in the Corona-Norco Unified School District. She has been in education for the past 20 years and has worked in various capacities, including student advisor, teacher, teacher on special assignment and administrator.

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Wil Greer, PhD, is a tenure track assistant professor at Cal State University, San Bernardino    Dr. Greer has been a middle school teacher, district program specialist, assessment coordinator, high school assistant principal and non-profit director.  As a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Technology, his focus is on research, teaching, and service.  Dr. Greer currently has two papers in review: a quantitative study on the factors of data-driven instruction, and a critical race analysis of the formative moments that led him to earn a PhD.  Following his work on the early impact of the Local Control Funding Formula, Dr. Greer’s next project is a longitudinal study of 370 Black and Latino 8th grade boys.  

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Allison Haynes, MSW, is the Administrator of Pupil and Administrative Services at the Riverside County Office of Education. She has worked in the field of Education for 25 years, with the last eight focused on creating positive school climates and fair process strategies that reduce suspension and expulsion via the child welfare and attendance department.  Her experience ranges from working with elementary, middle school, and high school students as a school counselor and/or a site administrator. Her background as a social worker formed her calling as advocate for minors and her commitment and love for children, youth, and young adults.

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Dr. Chris L. Hickey, Sr. is the Founder and Executive Director of Each One - Teach One Alliance for Academic Access, Achievement and Success, an organization that focuses on efforts to heighten community awareness of the overwhelming importance of reforming educational practices targeting at-risk youth. He is also the CEO/President of the Admired Man Leadership Institute, where he lectures and facilitates workshops based on his four year national research, and resulting book, “Admired Man Why: The Making of an Admired Man.” His lectures, workshops book represents not only an easy to understand commentary of a number of profoundly provocative findings. They outline age specific, evidenced-based skills and strategies that are aligned with the Quality/Behavior/Characteristics (QBCs) for the making of an admired man.

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Tony Hicks is an educational consultant specializing in Parent and Community Involvement. He has worked in the public school system for more than thirty years. He has received extensive training in the areas of Child Development and Parent & Community Involvement – including being certified by the California Parent Center and San Diego State University Research Foundation in School, Family, and Community Partnerships. His experience includes working in the classroom, serving on councils/committees, coordinating the activities of parent liaisons, training parents, conducting workshops, mentoring students, training staff, hosting a Cable TV Show, and leading instructional audits. He also serves as Chairperson of the Black Parent Union and teaches for The Parent Institute (PIQE).

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Chad Horton, M.Ed., is the Counselor at Gifford C. Cole Middle School in the Eastside Union School District (EUSD), where he has served for two years.  Prior to that assignment, he served as a counselor in school districts in the Metro-Atlanta area and Charlotte, North Carolina.  

 

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Dr. Mack T. Hines III is a consultant, who excels at providing educators with the MOTIVATION, INSPIRATION, and EDUCATION to teach and reach African-American children. He is frequently requested by school systems across America to provide customized, organized, and personalized approaches to achieving African-American student success, as well as racial and cultural diversity in schools. His work centers on “self-conducted investigations on issues that influence the academic, relational and behavioral development of African American children and teachers’ abilities to achieve racial and cultural diversity in classrooms.”  

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Celia Jaffe, M.A., serves the California State PTA as Vice President for Education.  A parent leader in California for over 20 years, Celia has trained groups of parents on leadership skills, education advocacy, and many aspects of running a local membership association.  Last fall, Celia was the lead during California State PTA’s High-Quality Assessment Project, developing informational materials and speaking to parent groups all over the state regarding the Smarter Balanced Assessments.  Her experience in education incudes four years as a classroom teacher and 10 years as a school board trustee with the Huntington Beach City School District.

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Richard Jaffee Cohen, JD, Restorative Schools Vision Project Board Member, was a founding Professor of Law at New Zealand’s first bi-cultural law school. In NZ, he taught Restorative Justice to school counselors, law enforcement, and community stakeholders. He has taught law school courses in mediation and family law to professionals in NZ, Australia, and the U.S. 

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Edwin Lou Javius is the Founder/President/CEO of EDEquity Inc., an educational consultant firm. The company’s Key Principles of Equity framework have been nationally recognized as the foundation for implementing Equity in Common Core Standards. Edwin has authored several articles on the topics of closing the achievement gap and race culturally conscious leadership. Advocating for students and school equity are two of his many interests. He has established a reputation for inspiring educators to incorporate Educational Equity in enhancing school transformation.  He often says, “Equity is not a Strategy! It is a Mind-set!”

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Debra Johnson, M.Ed., is a Project Moving Forward Trainer in the Moreno Valley Unified School District. She is committed to closing the achievement gap for African-American, Latino and other underserved children.  Debra established the first African- American Advisory Council in her school district in October 2010, which is now district-wide. She assisted in implementing the Project Moving Forward Vocabulary program that boosted the state testing scores for African-American students by 51 points at Hendrick Elementary School.  She has trained teachers in the Project Moving Forward methodology in California Las Vegas and New Orleans.

 

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Mary Johnson, is a parent advocate and author of two 21st Century Parent Books. She is also an award-winning business results expert, who is living her purpose and passion.  She is a parent practitioner, who developed the seven advocacy standards for urban and rural parents that will enable them to navigate through low performing schools and into higher education.

 

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Cha Kwan Jones is currently serving as the Assistant Principal at Pinacate Middle School in the Perris Union High School District.  Since 2004, when she began her career in education, Cha Kwan has provided service at all three levels, meeting the needs of students of various backgrounds. With a focus of Differentiated Instruction and Positive Discipline Reinforcement, Cha Kwan has written curriculum and created courses to give students access to the academic and social skills that students need to be college and career ready.

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Dr. Martinrex Kedziora is the Chief Academic Officer for the Moreno Valley Unified School District, an urban California district serving 34,000 students. Dr. Kedziora has been a middle school teacher, special education coordinator, K-8 Principal and Professional Development Director during his 30-year career. He serves as President for the California League of Middle Schools, which serves teachers and administration K-12 and as an Education Faculty member for National and Brandman Universities. He serves as a team member of CLS for the California Department of Education and the Middle Schools Alliance. He is a committee member of the Urban Education Committee for ACSA. Additionally, he has leadership responsibilities as the Chair of the Advocacy Committee for the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades, Vice President of the Moreno Valley Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and on the advisory board for the Schools First Federal Credit Union.

 

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David Kopperud, MA, is an Education Programs Consultant with CDE, where he developed the Model SARB Recognition Program and took the lead in revising the 2015 SARB Handbook and in promoting Attendance Awareness Month. As a member of the CDE’s Local Control and Accountability Plan Support Team, he focuses on goals and strategies for reducing subgroup chronic absence rates.  His experience includes serving as the Child Welfare and Attendance Coordinator with the Fontana Unified School District; Director of Personnel and Student Services with the Washington Unified School District in West Sacramento; and as a teacher with the Brawley Union High School District and the Hemet Unified School District.

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Mary Kruppe,, MA, has been the Assistant Principal at Gifford C. Cole Middle School in the Eastside Union School District (EUSD) for nearly four years. Prior to that assignment, she served as a teacher at the school. She started her career as an elementary teacher in Illinois.  

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Dr. Aisha Lowe serves as Associate Professor of Education and Director of the Office of Academic Research at William Jessup University. Prior to joining Jessup, Aisha was the Director of Research and Evaluation for the California Charter Schools Association, where she authored landmark charter school accountability approaches and a seminal report about the performance of African American students in California. She is a former K-12 teacher and previously served as the Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of Fellowship Academy; and on the Board of Trustees and as President of the Alumni Association at The Urban School of San Francisco, both her alma maters.

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Stella Levy, JD, Restorative Schools Vision Project Board Member, has been a lifelong civil rights and peace activist. After retiring as a farm lawyer, Stella founded Restorative Schools Vision Project, a civil rights nonprofit dedicated to ending the school-to-prison pipeline through restorative justice advocacy, training and education. 

 

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Dr. David Macauley is a teacher/Administrative Designee and focus group leader at Valley View High school in the Moreno Valley USD.  With more than 20 years of teaching experience, he is charged with the task of leading a team of teachers to plan and implement interventions for underperforming sub groups. Dr. Macauley’s dissertation is an Action Research that addresses strategies to increase the enrollment of African American males in advanced mathematics and science courses, thereby preparing them to enroll and attain careers in the STEM pipeline when they attend college. _____________________________________________________________________________

 

Dr. Mark Marshall is the Superintendent of the Eastside Union School District in Lancaster. He has served as an educator for nearly 29 years.  Prior to his tenure in the Eastside Union School District, he held the positions of Special Education Teacher, Special Education Supervisor, Assistant Principal, Middle School Principal, and High School Principal. As a classroom teacher and administrator, Dr. Marshall has received numerous accolades and has been a featured presenter at local, state and national conferences.

 

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Dr. Beverley Martin currently serves as Assistant Principal at Quail Valley Elementary School in Palmdale.  HerdDissertation: An Exploration into the Effects of School Discipline Policies on the Academic Performance of African American Male Students, makes her a strong advocate of teacher and student learning. Her professional interests focus on communicative approaches with “protected dissonance” (a safe environment in which to take risks with ideas and ask tough questions). Dr. Martin was one of the recent presenters at the Women in School Leadership Conference, sponsored by the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA). 

 

 

 

Yvonne McFadzean is a Special Education Coordinator in the Corona-Norco Unified School District, focusing on middle and high school students.  She has been in education for over twenty- five years and has held numerous positions, including classroom teacher, program specialist, and high school assistant principal.  She is an active member of ACSA and has served in various capacities at the local, regional, and state level. She has completed her doctoral course work and is in the process of finishing her dissertation at the University of Southern California.

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Robert Meyer is the founder, President and publisher of Ventris Learning.  He has 19 years of experience in the K-12 publishing industry. Prior to founding Ventris in 2013, Meyer worked for Scholastic, Failure Free Reading, Knowledge Unlimited, MetaMetrics, and Advantage Learning Systems.

 

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 Dr. Cindy Moss is the Director of Global STEM Initiatives for Discovery Education, where she is charged with supporting school districts in their work to develop and deploy student initiatives to drive science, technology, engineering and math achievement nationwide. A nationally respected thought leader in STEM education and reform, she brings over 21 years of experience in district leadership, 10 years in classroom instruction and inquiry- based learning to her work as a champion for STEM engagement and career & workforce readiness. Dr. Moss was selected by the National Science Foundation to serve on the federal commission, which created the “National Action Plan for Addressing the Critical Needs of the US Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education System”

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Barbara Murchison, M.A., is the Administrator of the Educator Excellence Office at the California Department of Education (CDE). From 2011 through 2014, she led the CDE’s Common Core Systems Implementation Office and facilitated the Common Core Integrated Action Team for the CDE. Previously, Ms. Murchison taught for 17 years, serving students and families in urban, multicultural, multilingual California public schools. She has written curriculum for non-profit organizations and designed and maintained grants to implement science education programs in underserved communities.

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Dr. Barbara Nemko has served as Napa County Superintendent of Schools since 1997, and is currently in her fourth term. She served on the advisory board for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson’s “kitchen cabinet,” and was a member of his transition team. Locally, she serves on the Workforce Investment Board, NapaLearns, the Juvenile Justice Coordinating Council, and the P-16 Council. Since 2010, Barbara has used technology to improve learning for all children, especially for her Title I, EL, and underserved students.

 

Monica Nepomuceno, MSW, is an Education Programs Consultant at the California Department of Education, where she oversees the Mental Health Services Program. Her primary role is managing two grants: 1) the statewide CalMHSA project that includes the Training Educators through Recognition and Identification Strategies (TETRIS) workshops and the Student Mental Health Policy Workgroup (SMHPW) and 2) the federal "Now is the Time" Project Advancing Wellness and Resilience in Education State Educational Agency (NITT-AWARE-SEA) Grant, known as Project Cal-Well, from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).  Monica is passionate about helping all school staff, including certificated and classified personnel, increase their knowledge and awareness of student mental health issues and providing them with skills and resources to help students in a respectful manner.

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Charles Newman serves as Director of Pupil Services with the Perris Union High School District.  He has more than 18 years of serving students in urban environments. He has served as a Middle School Principal and an Assistant Principal at all three levels. His career in education began as a Language Arts teacher at Nimitz Middle School in the Los Angeles Unified School District.  

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Kris Nicholls, Ph.D., is the Director of Professional Development for the California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE). Previously, she served as the Dual Immersion Coordinator and the Title III co-lead for the Riverside County Office of Education (RCOE). She was instrumental in the development and implementation of the Riverside County Seal of Multi-literacy and co-led the Two-Way Immersion Network (TWIN), which sponsored professional development opportunities each year for its 100+ members. While at RCOE, she collaborated with a colleague on the Differentiated Instruction through Universal Design program, which won the Golden Bell Award from the California School Boards Association.

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Ebony Nicholson, M.A., is the Senior Program Specialist for Road to Success Academy (RTSA) with LACOE.  In her eleven years of K-12 experience, she realized that her desire was to ensure that all children receive a high quality education, no matter their circumstance. She taught English and Social Studies at RTSA-Camp Scudder, an all-girls Juvenile Detention Facility. While teaching the RTSA model at Camp Scudder, she witnessed her students re-engage and take ownership of their education.

 

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Dr. Bernard Oliver has served as Dean of Education, Professor, Director, and Professor of Educational Leadership at Syracuse University; Washington State University; University of Florida; St. Cloud State University and the University of Missouri, Kansas City.   Dr. Oliver has also served as Assistant Superintendent for High School Education for Virginia Beach City School District. He has received numerous postdoctoral fellowship awards, including being selected as an Eli Broad Urban Superintendent Fellow. He has published and presented over 70 articles focusing on college access, leadership, diversity and teacher education. He is currently on leave from the University of Florida, serving as Dean of Education at the United Arab Emirates University.

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Mignon Page-Broughton, MS, serves as a Deputy Probation Officer in San Mateo County. She provides intensive case management to youth with significant pathology and family issues. She has twenty years of family service experience and continues to focus on the entire family through the life span. Her research interests include higher education accessibility, educational motivation among adolescents, and psychosocial factors related to juvenile delinquency and education.

 

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Kafi Payne, is the Director of Talent Development in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), supporting recruitment and employee development.  She previously held positions as Manager of New Teacher Support & Development, Coordinator of Beginning Teacher Support & Assessment, Site Administrator, and middle and high school teacher within OUSD. She is currently a doctoral student at UC Berkeley in the Leadership for Educational Equity Program, where her research focuses on the development of coaching expertise.

 

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Diana A. Phillips, M.A., is an innovative 21st Century Learning Specialist with significant experience providing solutions for instructional challenges in inner city schools. An educator for nearly 20 years, she began her career as an elementary teacher in the Compton Unified School District and has since become an integral part of the central office team, having worked in a variety of leadership roles in the fields of language arts, Common Core, and educational technology. She is a Google Certified Educator.

 

 

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Francisco Pinto, MA, has served as the Principal at Gifford C. Cole Middle School in the Eastside Union School District (EUSD) for nearly four years. Prior to that assignment, he served as an Elementary Principal in EUSD, an Assistant Principal in the Lancaster School District, and an Instructional Coach in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

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Dr. LaFaye M. Platter is the Deputy Superintendent for the Hemet Unified School District, a suburban California district serving approximately 22,000 students. Dr. Platter has been a middle school teacher, assistant principal, site principal, human resources director, and assistant superintendent over her 23-year career in education. She is an active member of ACSA and serves as the Human Resources State Chair for CASBO. She currently serves doctoral students from all walks of life as a Cohort Mentor and Dissertation Chair at Brandman University. 

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Glen Price serves as a Chief Deputy for State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson at the California Department of Education. His most recent work supporting major statewide education initiatives includes facilitating and coordinating the development of: Blueprint for Great Schools; Greatness by Design; California Comprehensive Early Learning Plan; CDE Afterschool Division Strategic Plan; CDE Early Education and Support Division Strategic Plan; California Labor Management Initiative, and others.  He brings over 30 years of expertise in highly successful strategic planning, policy development, and high performance programming for a wide range of local, state, national, and international organizations. Glen has been the principal team leader for efforts that have raised over $1 billion dollars for the capital, program, and strategic planning needs of public and private agencies. Glen’s extensive work in public education includes serving two terms as an elected board member of the West Contra Costa Unified School District.

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Carrie Roberts is the Director of the Professional Learning Support Division at the California Department of Education. She has served as the Administrator and an Education Programs Consultant in the Literacy, History, and Arts Leadership Office within the Professional Learning Support Division. Before joining CDE, she was a Reading Specialist and elementary school teacher in the Eureka Union School District for 15 years.

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Colette Rudd has been the Vice President for Family Engagement of the California State PTA and member of the Board of Directors since July 2015. She has PTA leadership experience at many levels, having served as president of an elementary school PTA, a high school PTSA and 17th District (San Mateo County) PTA. She has trained many parents on their responsibilities as leaders of PTA.

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Dan Sackheim is a veteran Education Programs Consultant at the California Department of Education (CDE), who serves on both the State School Attendance Review Board and the Student Mental Health Policy Workgroup. Dan has extensive expertise in educational options, including community day schools. He also provides technical assistance in positive behavioral interventions and supports and in restorative practices. Dan’s work has had an impact on the current reduction in suspension and expulsion rates.  He is a key contributor to the CDE’s Local Control and Accountability Plan Support Team’s work on providing effective alternatives to suspension and expulsion.

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Janine Saunders, MPH, is a Project Director at the California School-Based Health Alliance, the statewide non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the health and academic success of children and youth by advancing quality health care services in schools.  Janine is responsible for working with school-based health centers (SBHCs) around the state to increase school integration and maximize the SBHCs impact on student health and learning. She  previously worked as the School Health & Safety Manager for the Alameda County Office of Education; the Prevention Coordinator for the Oakland Unified School District; and as a Program Manager for the California Healthy Kids and After School Resource Centers.  Janine's research interests include disadvantaged student populations, school health and full service community schools. 

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Michelle Schnack, LCSW, Restorative Schools Vision Project Board Member, specializes in early intervention and prevention work with at-risk, disenfranchised children and their families. Trained in Parent Child Interaction Therapy and Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Michelle helps clients to improve relationships and address life traumas. As a clinician working with youth who are frequently suspended, and sometimes expelled from school, she is aware of the negative consequences that can result from that form of discipline. 

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Eric Sheninger is a Senior Fellow and Thought Leader on Digital Leadership with the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE) and Scholastic Achievement Partners (SAP).  Prior to this, he was the award-winning Principal at New Milford High School.  Under his leadership his school became a globally recognized model for innovative practices.   He has authored and co-authored the following:  Digital Leadership: Changing Paradigms for Changing Times; Communicating and Connecting with Social Media: Essentials for Principals and What Principals Need to Know About Teaching and Learning Science.  He currently writes a blog, A Principal’s Reflection and has contributed to the Huffington Post.

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Gregory A. Spencer is the Director of Early Learning & Equity Access Initiatives with Footsteps2Brilliance.com, an award winning early literacy program for 0-5 year olds and PreK thru 2nd grade students. He has served as a teacher, school principal, school board member, city commissioner, and ministry outreach liaison. Spencer works with transformative school district and city leaders that understand that an innovative approach to eliminating literacy is necessary in order to make a sustainable difference in underserved communities. Greg is also a literacy advocate, best-selling author, and mentor.

 

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Symia Stigler is executive director at the Attendance Institute, a nonprofit organization with the core objective to substantially improve student attendance and, ultimately student achievement. Prior to accepting this position, she served as deputy director for Sacramento READS!, an initiative founded by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. In her role as deputy director Symia convened community-wide stakeholders to identify and implement local solutions to the literacy crisis in Sacramento. For nearly a decade before joining Mayor Johnson’s team, Symia served in management positions at School Innovations & Advocacy (SI&A), where her work included empowering and supporting school districts through attendance improvement, dropout prevention, regulatory compliance, special education and advocacy.

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Diana Velasquez-Campos joined LACOE as a mentor teacher who modeled standards-based lessons using best research-based practices. Her success in teaching has earned her many awards, including the L.A. County Probation Teacher of the Year, Juvenile Court and Community Schools Teacher of the Year, LACOE Teacher of the Year and L.A. County Bilingual Directors Association Outstanding Teacher, LACOE Division of Student Programs Central Office Administrator of the Year. In 2010, she headed a team that worked tirelessly on a research project that resulted in a promising innovative teaching program, the Road to Success Academy (RTSA) based on thematic interdisciplinary project-based learning. The program was a success, demonstrating measurable gains in student learning. The RTSA is now being expanded in all of Los Angeles County Juvenile Court Schools.

 

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Linda Ventriglia-Navarrette Ph. D., is Project Director of the United States Office of Education National Professional Development Grant, Project Moving Forward, which was awarded to help close the achievement gap. She is also Associate Professor and the Lead Faculty for the Best Practices in Teaching Specialization at National University. She authored Conversations of Miguel and Maria How Children Learn a Second Language, (Pearson), Santillana Intensive English (k-8) (Santillana USA) and the Best Practices in Teaching Series including, Best Practices Interdisciplinary Vocabulary Development The Rule of 3.

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Dr. Shannon Wells is the President and Co-CEO of Key Data Systems, an educational research and consulting firm based in Lake Elsinore. At Key Data Systems, Dr. Wells oversees the Assessment and Accountability Division, which works with County Offices of Education and school districts across the country. Her goal is to ensure the districts and schools with which she works, gain a clear understanding of both the state and federal accountability systems, and meet the increasingly high student achievement standards. Much of her work in recent years has been on assessment, with an emphasis on new ways of assessing student learning and implementation of the Common Core State Standards.

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Dr. Marguerite Williams is the Director of Linked Learning in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).  She oversees seventeen of the thirty-six pathways within LAUSD.  She brings nineteen years of experience as a teacher, assistant principal, principal and director at the secondary level.   She devotes her spare time to her “grassroots” organization, Brain Exchange, where she serves disadvantaged, underserved, and underrepresented minority families, providing them with coaching, mentoring, and academic resources to be college and career ready.

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Cassandra Willis currently serves as the Coordinator for Family and Support Services for the Corona-Norco School District. In this role, she supports families by providing them with the tools necessary to become academic advocates for their children. She is also involved in developing mentoring programs that target some of the most at-risk youth as well as supporting students in foster care. Previously, she served as principal of Home Gardens Academy and developed an award-winning parental involvement program that changed the dynamics of the school community and assisted in raising student achievement.  She has written parent curriculum programs that have been used effectively to engage families at various school sites. She is currently working on her doctorate in educational leadership.

 

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Laura Wilson, M.A., is currently the Senior Program Specialist of the Road to Success Academies (RTSA), an award-winning educational model within the Division of Student Programs at the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE). Her responsibilities include providing professional development and direct support to LACOE teachers and administrators. Prior to her current position, she held the positions of literacy specialist, high school teacher, middle school teacher and elementary school teacher for 13 years.

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Dr. Shelly Yarbrough serves as the principal of El Cerrito Middle School in the Corona-Norco Unified School District. She has received many accolades in the area of education and was responsible for leading her school to receive the designation as a California Distinguished School. She recently completed her doctorate at the University of Southern California in Educational Leadership.

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Dr. CynDee Zandes is a STEM fellow in the After School Division of CDE. Prior to joining CDE, she was the Chief Program Officer of an after school provider, where she had oversight of programs in 39 school districts. Her career in education includes serving as a classroom teacher for grades K-8, principal, Curriculum Specialist-Coordinator, and District Office Director of Extended Learning Opportunities. She also worked as an implementing partner with Orange County Regional Innovation Support Provider (RISP), Power of Discovery STEM2   working with the Boys and Girls Club, school districts, and CBOs and non-profits. _____________________________________________________________________________