Mark Bounds

Mark A. Bounds received his undergraduate degree from Towson University and was commissioned as a Distinguished Military Graduate from The Johns Hopkins University. He spent the next 20 years as an officer in the U.S. Army. After transitioning from the military, Mr. Bounds began a career in education. His education positions include serving as a team leader focused on challenged schools, executive director for South Carolina’s Communities In Schools, and director of the South Carolina State Department of Education’s Office of School Leadership. In October 2006, Mr. Bounds was selected as the deputy superintendent for the department’s Division of Educator Quality and Leadership. He possesses a Master of Science degree in Administration from Central Michigan University and a Master of Arts degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the College of Naval Command and Staff. He has a proven track record as a leader in the military, the nonprofit sector, and in public education.

Charlotte Danielson

Charlotte Danielson is an internationally recognized expert in the area of teacher effectiveness, specializing in the design of teacher evaluation systems that, while ensuring teacher quality, also promote professional learning. In addition to advising state education departments, she also advises both foreign and domestic departments of education and national ministries. She is in demand as a keynote speaker at national and international conferences and as a policy consultant to legislatures and administrative bodies. Ms. Danielson’s many publications range from defining good teaching (Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching, 2007), to organizing schools for student success (Enhancing Student Achievement: A Framework for School Improvement, 2002), to teacher leadership (Teacher Leadership That Strengthens the Profession, 2006), to professional conversations (Talk About Teaching! Conducting Professional Conversations, 2009), to numerous practical instruments and training programs (both on-site and online) to assist practitioners in implementing her ideas. She holds a BA in history from Cornell University, and advanced degrees (in philosophy, economics, and educational administration) from Oxford and Rutgers Universities.

Laura Goe

Dr. Laura Goe completed her undergraduate studies in Language and Learning Theory in Social Context at UC San Diego and then taught 7th-grade special education with Teach for America for 3 years. She completed her M.S. in Educational Policy and Leadership at the University of Memphis and received her doctorate from UC Berkeley’s Policy, Organizations, Measurement, and Evaluation program. She is currently a research scientist in the Performance Research Group at Educational Testing Service (ETS) and is a principal investigator for research and dissemination at the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (NCCTQ).

Dr. Goe has served as coeditor of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, as a visiting scholar to the National Education Association (NEA), and as an advisor on NEA’s teacher evaluation work. She also advises the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) as a member of their expert panel on teacher evaluation, and she serves as a consultant to the AFT’s Innovation Grant sites in New York and Rhode Island as they design innovative, comprehensive teacher evaluation systems. Dr. Goe’s current technical assistance work for the NCCTQ is focused on providing research-based support for states and regional comprehensive centers on topics such as evaluating teacher effectiveness, understanding growth models, and using multiple measures to assess teachers’ contribution to student learning growth, particularly in non-tested subjects and grades. She has produced numerous research syntheses and policy guides focused on teacher quality and effectiveness. Her research at Berkeley and at ETS has focused on using both quantitative and qualitative approaches to examining school improvement, the distribution of teachers, formative assessment, and teacher evaluation. She has observed hundreds of teachers around the country for various projects, designed and built quantitative databases, and conducted statistical analyses using national, state, district, and school databases. Her research interests include teacher qualifications, effectiveness, and quality measurement, and as well as their compensation, professional development, and equitable distribution. She also studies school finance and school and district resource use.

Lynn Holdheide

Lynn Holdheide, a Vanderbilt University Research Associate in the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality (NCCTQ), works on several projects related to evaluating teacher effectiveness and improving the preparation of teachers for students with at-risk characteristics and disabilities. Ms. Holdheide supports the NCCTQ’s work with states and regional comprehensive centers through the development of tools and resources related to teacher effectiveness and teacher evaluation. She presents to multiple stakeholder groups and provides technical assistance to states and districts as they design comprehensive teacher evaluation systems—with a particular emphasis on addressing the unique challenges in evaluating teachers of students with special needs. She also coordinates the TQ Connection, an online resource designed to serve both general and special education teacher preparation. Ms. Holdheide’s work also addresses response to intervention (RtI), inclusive services, and effective teaching practices. Prior to her current position at Vanderbilt University, she served for 9 years as project coordinator and education consultant at the Indiana Department of Education’s Division of Exceptional Learners. She served as the school-to-work transition consultant and directed a statewide study collecting post-school outcome data for students with disabilities. Data from this study were used to develop a statewide system to measure employability skills, modify curriculum, and direct state transition policy. Ms. Holdheide has experience as a teacher, transition specialist, vocational specialist, and residential provider. She holds an undergraduate degree in special education from Ohio State University and a master’s degree from Eastern Illinois University.

Cynthia Osborne

Dr. Cynthia Osborne is director of the Project on Educator Effectiveness and Quality (PEEQ) and is an associate professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. She is also the state evaluator of the Parenting and Paternity Awareness (p.a.p.a.) curriculum and a consultant to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission on the Raising Texas initiative. Dr. Osborne joined the faculty of the LBJ School in 2005 after completing a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Center for Research on Child Wellbeing at Princeton University. Her teaching and research interests are in the areas of teacher quality, social policy, poverty and inequality, family and child well-being, family demography, and school entry among disadvantaged children. Dr. Osborne holds a Ph.D. in Demography and Public Affairs from Princeton University, a master’s in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and a master’s in Education from Claremont Graduate University. Previously, Dr. Osborne taught middle school for 4 years in a low-income community in California.

Tony Thacker

Dr. Tony Thacker, an education administrator with the Alabama Department of Education, is currently the coordinator of the Commission on Quality Teaching. Prior to this position, he was responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Alabama Leadership Academy, the leadership-training arm of the department. Dr. Thacker has also been a science teacher, principal, at-risk coordinator, and Title IV coordinator, as well as a national trainer for the University of Alabama’s Integrated Science program and a middle school Teacher of the Year. He serves as a consultant for the Southern Regional Education Board and in that capacity has presented nationally on a range of subjects including leading school change; data-driven school improvement; organizing resources to optimize achievement; and driving school improvement by revitalizing the school mission, vision, and goals. He is a coauthor of three recently published books:

From At-Risk to Academic Excellence: What Successful Leaders Do
Creating School Cultures That Embrace Learning: What Successful Leaders Do
Schools Where Teachers Lead: What Successful Leaders Do

Darlene Brown

Dr. Darlene Morgan Brown is a project director with SEDL’s Improving School Performance program. Dr. Brown serves as the assistant director of the Southeast Comprehensive Center and coordinates the day-to-day planning and delivery of technical assistance and professional development to the states of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina. She has more than 25 years of experience in K-12 and higher education with special emphasis on leadership, teacher preparation, charter school development and building capacity for change. Dr. Brown has over 15 years experience in providing support to districts and schools in the area of school reform. Prior to joining SEDL in 2008, she was the director of the Capital One/University of New Orleans (UNO) Charter School Network.

Jackie Burniske

Jackie Burniske is a program associate with SEDL’s Improving School Performance program and works with the Texas Comprehensive Center (TXCC). She serves as the primary liaison to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and leads the provision of technical assistance, group facilitation, professional development, and information dissemination to the TEA to support teacher quality. In addition, she serves as the liaison to the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality. Ms. Burniske also provides technical assistance and professional development to build the capacity of state department of education staff and regional education service center staff in Texas to meet the goals and purposes of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and other federal mandates. Ms. Burniske’s interests include the instructional uses of technology, distance learning, innovative uses of technology for teaching and learning, professional development, and high school reform. She has over 27 years of experience in education, including 15 years teaching in international schools in Egypt, Ecuador, and Malaysia, as well as a high school in Massachusetts. Ms. Burniske holds a B.A. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.A. in curriculum and teaching from Michigan State University. She is a certified secondary school social studies teacher.

Glenda Copeland

Glenda Copeland is a program associate with the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC), part of the Improving School Performance program at SEDL. As a state liaison for the SECC, she oversees the planning and delivery of technical assistance and professional development in the state of Georgia and assists in providing similar services to other states that the SECC serves. In her previous work with SEDL, Ms. Copeland was a member of the Regional Laboratory Network Program, the Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Consortia, and the National Model Professional Development Award Program, helping plan the selection process and managing the site-visit process for the U.S. Department of Education. Ms. Copeland led the development and production of A Flashlight and Compass: A Collection of Tools to Promote Instructional Coherence for SEDL’s Promoting Instructional Coherence project. As project director of a national comprehensive middle and high school improvement program, she focused on leadership development and building collaborative relationships. Prior to joining SEDL in 1992, Ms. Copeland coordinated gifted programs in social studies, language arts, and mathematics for the Austin Independent School District and was a classroom teacher (K–12) for 12 years. Her degrees are in secondary education, mental retardation, and gifted education.

Vicki Dimock

Dr. Vicki Dimock is SEDL’s Chief Program Officer. In this position, she oversees SEDL’s core programmatic components including Research and Evaluation, Improving School Performance, Disability Research to Practice, and Afterschool, Family, and Community programs. She also directs the Texas Comprehensive Center, through which SEDL works with state and regional education agencies to assist schools and districts that are struggling to meet NCLB performance goals. Dr. Dimock has more than 30 years of experience working with educators to improve educational experiences and outcomes for children and youth. Prior to her current position, she served as program manager of the Science, Technology, and Mathematics Program at SEDL, as project director of SEDL’s Arkansas AdVentures in Networking project, and in SEDL’s Leadership for Change project. Before coming to SEDL, Dr. Dimock served as an education specialist at one of the Texas regional education service centers, coordinator of a district program for gifted students, and a K–12 teacher in mathematics and social sciences. Dr. Dimock holds a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2007, she coauthored the book, Technology as a Catalyst for School Communities: Beyond Boxes and Bandwidth.

Stefani Hite

Dr. Stefani Hite spent a decade in public relations and marketing before changing careers to become an educator. Since entering the classroom in the early 90’s, she has taught levels ranging from Kindergarten through graduate school and has been a curriculum supervisor, teacher evaluator, and deputy head of an international school in the UK. Dr. Hite earned both master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, and she continues to research and write for a dedicated audience of educators on her blog, Connections. Dr. Hite founded Tigris Education Solutions in 2009, providing consultation to schools interested in embarking on change initiatives. She continues to support educational reform efforts on a wide range of topics: grading practices, scheduling initiatives, curriculum development, high school restructuring, teacher evaluation, and strategic planning.

Beth Howard

Dr. Beth A. Howard works with the Southeast Comprehensive Center at SEDL, leading efforts in needs sensing, planning, and coordinating technical assistance and professional development in South Carolina and assisting with similar services to other Southeast states. Her work includes a strong focus on systems of support and turnaround for low-performing schools. As a former staff member for the South Carolina Department of Education for over 10 years, Dr. Howard gained extensive experience in providing direct support to low-performing schools. She was instrumental in developing the South Carolina Palmetto Priority Schools/Turnaround initiative, which provides a collaborative alternative to state takeover for schools characterized by high poverty, high leader and teacher turnover, and persistent low achievement. In addition, she has more than 5 years of experience as a graduate-level adjunct professor in counselor education and has served as a high school and middle school administrator, school counselor, and mathematics teacher.

Jack Lumbley

Jack Lumbley is a research associate with SEDL’s Research and Evaluation (R&E) program. He currently evaluates the work of the Southeast and Texas Comprehensive Centers (SECC and TXCC), with a focus on designing, implementing, testing, and refining a capacity building logic model. This model describes the past 6 years of comprehensive center work with the state departments of education for both the SECC and the TXCC. Mr. Lumbley joined SEDL in 1975 and has many years of experience in implementing large- and small-scale evaluation projects. These include multistate program efforts such as SEDL’s Regional Technology in Education Consortium, Comprehensive Assistance Center, Eisenhower Math/Science Regional Consortium, and Regional Educational Laboratory. He has also conducted evaluations of programs based in university, state department of education, and school district settings.

Robyn Madison-Harris

Dr. Robyn Madison-Harris is a program associate with SEDL’s ISP program. Her work includes assisting with school improvement and turnaround efforts in the states served by SEDL’s Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC). She is the SECC liaison to Louisiana, as well as to the Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center. Dr. Madison-Harris has assisted with clients’ educational leadership development, leadership program review, accreditation rubric development, statewide system of support work, alternative education policy development, school improvement process revision, standards alignment, and assessment policy revisions. She has several years of experience working with state and local education agencies, including the Louisiana Department of Education (LDE), to develop policy, training materials, and calculation tools related to accountability requirements in the No Child Left Behind Act. She also worked with the LDE as a research analyst, focusing on policy analysis and accountability data. Dr. Madison-Harris' dissertation focused on the causes of employment attrition and retention at the LDE. She has also served as a school and district assessment coordinator. In addition, she has provided district-level academic leadership in a state-operated school district for students with exceptionalities and school-level leadership at an alternative school for adjudicated adolescents. She taught high school English, African American literature and history, and publications. Dr. Madison-Harris has a B.S. in secondary education and an M.Ed. in administration and supervision, both from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge; and an Ed.D. in organizational leadership with an educational leadership specialization from Nova Southeastern University in Davie, Florida.

Robin Jarvis

Dr. Robin Jarvis is program director of SEDL’s Improving School Performance program. In this role, she leads a number of technical assistance initiatives targeted at improving achievement in low-performing schools and districts and at aligning instruction and assessment with rigorous academic standards. She currently directs SEDL’s Southeast Comprehensive Center and is codirector of SEDL’s Texas Comprehensive Center. These centers address state and local capacity building in key content areas and school improvement, the use of scientifically based research, analysis and use of data for decision making, professional development to improve the quality and effectiveness of teachers and leaders, as well as instructional strategies for diverse populations—English learners, students with disabilities, homeless students, children of migrant workers, and neglected or delinquent students. Additionally, she serves as lead for SEDL’s subcontract work with the Race to the Top (RT3) Reform Support Network, which provides planning, technical assistance, and training to states that have been awarded RT3 grants.

Prior to joining SEDL, Dr. Jarvis served as assistant superintendent with the Louisiana Department of Education, where she led the Office of Student and School Performance and the Division of School Standards, Accountability, and Assistance. She also served as interim superintendent for the department’s Recovery School District in New Orleans. Dr. Jarvis received a bachelor’s degree in elementary education; a master’s degree in elementary education, with a focus on early childhood; and a Ph.D. in educational leadership and research, with a focus on school effectiveness and school improvement, from Louisiana State University.

Mary Lou Meadows

Dr. Mary Lou Meadows is a program associate with SEDL’s Improving School Performance program. Dr. Meadows oversees the planning and delivery of technical assistance and professional development in Alabama, and she assists in providing similar services to other states served by SEDL’s Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC). Dr. Meadows, professor emeritus from the University of North Alabama (UNA), has a variety of experiences in the field of education. Prior to joining SEDL in 2002, she taught early childhood and elementary grades, as well as graduate level courses at UNA and Middle Tennessee State University. She also worked extensively in the area of teacher effectiveness with in-service teachers in Alabama and Tennessee. Dr. Meadows holds a B.A. in elementary education and an M.A. in elementary education with early childhood certification from the University of North Alabama in Florence. She earned an Ed.D. from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, with co-laterals in elementary education, early childhood education, and teacher preparation.

Debra Meibaum

Debra Meibaum is a program associate with the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) in SEDL’s ISP program. As an SECC state liaison, Ms. Meibaum oversees the planning and delivery of technical assistance and professional development in Mississippi and assists in providing similar services to other states served by the SECC. Her specialty areas include school improvement, implementation of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, and special education. She has 8 years of experience providing professional development and technical assistance on NCLB, having conducted more than 70 professional development activities with state departments of education, educational service centers, districts, and schools to aid them in understanding and implementing the law’s specific requirements. She has 27 years of experience in providing professional development and technical assistance to educators on multiple educational topics, including response to intervention (RtI), English language learners, parental involvement, grant writing, exploring federal resources, peer coaching, team building, conducting needs assessment, best practices for instruction, school improvement, and NCLB. Prior to joining SEDL in 1996, Ms. Meibaum worked at the Mississippi Department of Education for 13 years: 10 years in desegregation and bilingual education/ESL programs and 3 years in special education/speech pathology. She also worked for more than 7 years in the Mississippi and Louisiana public school systems. In 2002, Ms. Meibuam received SEDL’s Hindsman Award for excellence in service to children. She holds a B.A. in elementary education and speech correction from Southeastern Louisiana University and an M.A.T. in speech pathology from Tulane University.

Ada Muoneke

Dr. Ada Muoneke is a program associate with SEDL’s ISP program. Dr. Muoneke provides technical assistance and professional development to build the capacity of state departments of education staff and intermediary agencies to meet the goals and provisions of NCLB and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Her current work includes supporting Texas and five states in the southeastern region with response to intervention (RtI), special education efforts, and implementing state policy on accountability systems for educator preparation programs. Also, she serves as the Texas Comprehensive Center’s liaison for the Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center. Dr. Muoneke has served as an adjunct assistant lecturer/professor in the Colleges of Education at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas State University, and Southwestern University. She taught courses for preservice teachers in their professional development sequence and coordinated student-teaching field experiences. In addition, she has led the design and development of many inservice professional development activities for K–12 educators, coached and mentored novice teachers, and coauthored professional development manuals in reading and math for inservice educators. Prior to joining SEDL, Dr. Muoneke coordinated the Reading First Teacher Education Network (RFTEN) and the National Higher Education Collaborative (NHEC), a partnership project that provided technical assistance to university reading faculty to advance reading instruction for preservice teachers. Dr. Muoneke holds a Ph.D. in special education from the University of Texas at Austin.

Haidee Williams

Haidee Williams serves as the project director for SEDL’s Texas Comprehensive Center (TXCC), overseeing the center’s activities involving collaboration with the state department of education—the Texas Education Agency (TEA). The services she provides help build the capacity of TEA staff to meet the goals and purposes of the No Child Left Behind Act and other federal mandates. These efforts are part of the TXCC project, which provides technical assistance and support to the TEA to ensure that Texas has an education system with the capacity and commitment to eliminate achievement gaps and enable all students to achieve at high levels. She also provides consultations, training, and technical assistance in addressing standards-based science instruction and assessment. Prior to joining SEDL in July 2004, Ms. Williams worked for 5 years as a science specialist for the Texas Region 13 Education Service Center, where she managed the Title II cooperative and provided professional development addressing the needs of science education for grades preK–12. She also served as a curriculum coordinator for 2 years and as a classroom teacher for 21 years at Channelview Independent School District in Channelview, Texas.