Sheldon Berman

Sheldon Berman has been the Superintendent of the Hudson (MA) Public Schools since 1993. As superintendent, he initiated innovations in civic education, social-emotional learning, service learning, mathematics and science reform, high school restructuring, teacher evaluation, and computer technology.  He has provided the leadership to help Hudson become a site for research and development in instructional improvement. He was the developer and Co-Principal Investigator for the U.S. Department of Education Technology Challenge Grant “The Virtual High School Collaborative;” developer and Co-Principal Investigator for the National Science Foundation Local Systemic Change Grant "Critical Mathematics and Science Synergy;" and developer and Principal Investigator for the Massachusetts Department of Education Technology Challenge Grant “Mobile Inquiry Technology.”  The district has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Richard W. Riley Award for Excellence for a high school design and program that best exemplifies a school as a center of community (2005), the Civic Star Award for an exemplary school-to-career program (2004), the Stockholm Challenge Award for Global Excellence in Information Technology for its work on developing the Virtual High School (2001), the Vanguard Award for implementing fundamental school reforms that have enhanced student performance (2001), and the National District of Character Award for excellence in character education (2001). In addition, each school in the district has received either a state or national Service-Learning Leader School Award (1999-2001).

Brent Davies

Brent Davies is Professor of International Leadership Development at the University of Hull. He is also a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Visiting Professor at the Institute of Education (University of London), Special Professor at the University of Nottingham and a Faculty Member of the Centre on Educational Governance at the University of Southern California.

Carol Pelletier

Karen Mapp

Karen L. Mapp, Ed.D, is a Lecturer on Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  Her research and practice expertise is in the areas of educational leadership and educational partnerships among schools, families and community members.  Karen joined HGSE in January of 2005 after serving for eighteen months as the Interim Deputy Superintendent for Family and Community Engagement for the Boston Public Schools (BPS).  While working with the BPS, she continued to fulfill her duties as president of the Institute for Responsive Education (IRE).  IRE is a research, policy and advocacy organization that conducts research on and advocates for effective school, family and community partnerships that support the educational development of children.  Karen joined IRE in 1997 as Project Director for the Boston Community Partners for Students' Success initiative, which focused on the development of activities and programs to familiarize parents with the recently established Boston Citywide Learning Standards. She was appointed vice-president of IRE in May of 1998 and president in September of 1998.

 

Karen holds a Doctorate and Master's of Education from Harvard University in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy, a Master's in Counselor Education from Southern Connecticut State University, and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Trinity College in Hartford, CT.  In 1997, she was awarded a Spencer Dissertation Fellowship for her research on how and why families are involved in their children's educational development.  She is the author of "Making the Connection between Families and Schools," published by the Harvard Education Letter (1997) and "Having Their Say: Parents Describe How and Why They Are Engaged in Their Children's Learning" in The School Community Journal (2002). She co-authored with Anne Henderson A New Wave Of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family and Community Connections on Student Achievement, published by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory in January of 2002.

 

 

Jane Davidson

Jane Davidson is the Assembly Member for Pontypridd and former Deputy Presiding Officer for the National Assembly.  On 16 October 2000 she was appointed as the National Assembly Education and Life-Long Learning Minister responsible for all aspects of education, training and life-long learning, and re-appointed to the post following the Assembly elections in May 2003.

           

Jane Davidson is married with three children and lives in Gwaelod y Garth (near Pontypridd). Educated at Malvern Girls' College, Birmingham University and the University of Wales, Jane taught English, Drama and PE at Ysgol Uwchradd Aberteifi and Coedylan School, Pontypridd.  Jane is an experienced youth worker and former Cardiff City Councillor.  She was a member of the Arts Council for Wales and its Lottery Board, and Head of Social Affairs at the Welsh Local Government Association before her election to the Assembly.

 

 

Diana Pullin

Diana C Pullin holds both a J.D. degree and a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Iowa.  She is Professor of Education Law and Public Policy at Boston College.  She also coordinates the Joint Degree Program in Law and Education at the Law School and the Lynch School of Education at the University.

 

Dr. Pullin has served as Dean of the School of Education at Boston College and as Associate Dean of the College of Education at Michigan State University.  Dr. Pullin was staff attorney, co-director, and then President of the Center for Law and Education of Cambridge, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.

 

Dr. Pullin has represented students, parents, teacher unions, and educators in federal district and appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.  She is co-editor of the interdisciplinary scholarly journal Educational Policy and the author of numerous articles, book chapters, books, and technical reports.  Her publications have addressed educational testing, the rights of individuals with disabilities, education reform, and the preparation and licensing of educators.

 

 

Juan Manuel Moreno

Juan  Manuel  Moreno  is  currently Senior Education  Specialist at the Department of Europe and Central Asia of the World Bank,where  he  leads  the  education  teams of Bulgaria and Armenia.  He holds a PhD in Education  (UNED,  Spain)  and a Master of Education (Columbia University, USA).  Before  joining  the  Bank in 2002, he was Associate  Professor  of  Education at the Universidad   Nacional   de   Educacion  a Distancia  (UNED)  in  Spain. From 1999 to 2002   he served   as   Vice-Rector   of International Relations of UNED and as the Secretary  General  of  the Ibero-American Association  of  Higher Distance Education (AIESAD).

 

Dr.  Moreno  is  co-author,  with  Ernesto Cuadra,  of  the  World  Bank  publication (2005) Expanding    Opportunities   and Building  Competencies for Young People: A New Agenda for Secondary Education. He has published  8 books and some 70 articles on issues  of  education  reform,  curriculum development   and   innovation,   external support    to    schools   and   education leadership. He has been a visiting scholar at   SUNY   Buffalo   (USA),  and  at  the University  of Niejmegen (Netherlands). He has   also   served   as   consultant  and evaluator  for the European Commission and UNESCO  and has worked in education reform and development projects  in  over  20 countries.

 

 

Paul Revill

Paul Reville, a lecturer on educational policy and politics at HGSE, is president of the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy, an independent policy organization dedicated to the improvement of PreK–12 public education. The Rennie Center conducts research, convenes policy-makers and shapers, and advocates for solutions to Massachusetts' educational challenges.

 

Reville is former executive director of the Pew Forum on Standards-Based Reform, a Harvard-based, national education policy “think tank” which convened the U.S.’s leading researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to set the national "standards" agenda.

 

Reville was founding executive director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education (MBAE), an organization that provided key conceptual and political leadership for the Education Reform Act of 1993. From 1991 to 1995, he served on the Massachusetts State Board of Education, where he chaired the Massachusetts Commission on Time and Learning. From 1996 to 2003, Reville chaired the Massachusetts Education Reform Review Commission, which provided research and oversight for implementation of education reform. In 1985, Reville was founding executive director of the Alliance for Education, a multiservice educational improvement organization serving Worcester and central Massachusetts. He continues as chair of the Worcester Education Partnership’s Steering Committee, a key partner in a Carnegie-sponsored initiative to transform the city's high schools.

 

 

Irwin Blumer

Dr. Irwin Blumer is currently the chair of the Educational Administration and Higher Education Department and Research Professor in Educational Administration in the School of Education at Boston College. Prior to Boston College, Dr. Blumer was the Superintendent of Schools in Newton and Concord/Concord-Carlise, Massachusetts; Principal in Brookline, Massachusetts; Assistant Principal in New York and Newton; Counselor in Newton; Teacher Trainer in the first session of the National Teacher Corps in the 60’s; and Teacher in Easton and Wayland, Massachusetts.  He received his D.Ed. from Boston College and his M.A. and B.S. from Northeastern University.

 

 

Lynne Miller

Lynne Miller is Professor of Educational Leadership and Co- Executive Director of the Southern Maine Partnership at the University of Southern Maine.  Before moving to Maine, Lynne worked in Philadelphia as a high school English teacher and Teacher Director of a public alternative school, in Boston as liaison to de-segregation programs at Boston English High School, and in South Bend, Indiana as both a high school assistant principal and Associate Superintendent for Curriculum. An originating member of the National Commission on Teaching and America?s Future, she continues to be involved in teaching policy issues on the state and national levels. She has authored or co-authored numerous articles on teacher development, school reform, leadership, and teacher- constructed assessment and has collaborated with Ann Lieberman in writing or editing five books, the most recent of which is  Caught in the action: What matters in professional development (NY: Teachers College Press, 2001). Lynne views herself as ?walking the fault line? between theory and practice.?  She is currently engaged in a large scale high school transformation project in Maine and has particular responsibility for helping to develop pathways for under-represented students to attend college.

 

 

Dennis Shirley

Dennis Shirley is one of the foremost authorities on community organizing and educational change in the United States today. Shirley’s book, Community Organizing for Urban School Reform (University of Texas Press, 1997), described innovative strategies for improving public schools by linking them with community groups and is widely used by parents and community members to inspire and guide their change efforts. Howard Gardner wrote that “This book reminds us of what democracy is and what it can be in the United States,” and Seymour Sarason described it as “one of the best and best-balanced books on urban school reform I have read.” His books and articles are used in classes in schools of education, schools of social work, and departments of sociology and political science.

 

As an educational leader, Shirley has led three different school improvement efforts with over $13 million in funding.  He was the principal investigator and director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Teacher Quality and Student Achievement, a consortium of seven higher education institutions and eighteen public schools in Boston, Springfield, and Worcester. Shirley was also the principal investigator and director of Project QUEST (Quality Urban Education and Support of Teachers), which provides mentoring services for beginning teachers in the schools of the Massachusetts Coalition.  Finally, as Department Chair of Teacher Education, Shirley and his colleagues acquired a $5 million “Teachers for a New Era” grant from the Carnegie Corporation to improve teacher quality and provide new networks of support for beginning teachers.

 

 

Richard Ackerman

Richard H. Ackerman, a former school teacher and school head, is currently Associate Professor of Education at the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development.  He is the co-author with Pat Maslin Ostrowski of The Wounded Leader: How Real Leadership Emerges in Times of Crisis. Since the late 1980's, Ackerman has played increasingly active roles in professional development for school leaders, nationally and internationally.

 

He was cofounder of the International Network of Principals' Centers, a collaboration of professional associations, universities and education agencies. Currently, he serves as a national facilitator for Courage to

Teach/Courage to Lead Programs and the Center for Courage and Renewal.

 

 

Sarah Mackenzie

Sarah Mackenzie is an assistant professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Maine. She has been a public school teacher and teacher leader as well as a college administrator and instructor in teacher preparation programs. She co-facilitated a leadership development program for several years that has merged with the University of Maine's Master's/CAS cohort program in educational leadership. She has been a facilitator of the Team Leadership Collaboratives sponsored by the Great Maine Schools Project of the Mitchell Institute and is presently a co-facilitator of the Maine Principals' Association Coaching/Mentoring Program for Beginning Principals.

 

 

Joseph O'Keefe

Father Joe O’Keefe, S.J., currently serves as the Interim Dean of the Lynch School of Education at Boston College where he has been on faculty since 1991.  He continues to teach courses in the Educational Administration program and coordinate Lynch School outreach efforts to Catholic schools locally, nationally and internationally. In addition to his work at Boston College, Fr. O’Keefe also directs the National Center for Research in Catholic Education and co-directs Selected Programs for Improving Catholic Education (SPICE), a collaborative effort between the NCEA and Boston College that identifies and makes available for replication exemplary programs that address pressing educational needs.  As an internationally recognized expert on Catholic Education, Fr. O’Keefe is widely published and he has lectured around the world.  Fr. O’Keefe received his doctorate in education from Harvard University, concentrating on Administration, Planning, and Social Policy. He is a graduate of Holy Cross College and received a master's degree in French literature from Fordham University as well as a master's degree from Harvard in Educational Administration.  He also received a M.Div. and S.T.L. from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has been a member of the Society of Jesus since 1976.  In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of Catholic Education, Fr. O’Keefe was awarded the F. Sadlier Dinger Award in 2004.

 

 

Marla Ucelli

Marla Ucelli is Director of District Redesign for the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University.  In fall 2002, the Institute released its Portfolio for District Redesign.  In addition to describing a vision of “school communities that work” for both results and equity, the Portfolio offers a set of interrelated frameworks, tools, and resources to help local educators and communities make the transition to “smart districts”.  The district redesign work has received support from Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Rockefeller Foundation for its second, on-the-ground, phase:  redesigning districts to help create, support, and sustain high-achieving schools across entire urban communities.

 

 

David Crandall

David Crandall: Doctorate from University of Massachusetts at Amherst, co-founder of The NETWORK in 1969, Chief Executive Officer and Corporation President. Grew The NETWORK from a single-project to a unique multi-million dollar non¬profit organization blending research and evaluation, technical assistance, and direct work with schools. Provided the vision, risk-taking and perseverance to initiate and nurture to robust operation such successes as the National Center for Improving Science Education, the Center for Effective Communication and the Northeast Regional Lab as well as scores of more modest projects. Responsible for initiating and sustaining a strategic alliance with APS, one of the Netherlands’ three national pedagogical. Served as Chair of the Foundation for International Collaboration on School Improvement, a multi-nation network committed to research-guided improvement strategies.