ConnectEd Team Coaching Profiles

Rob spent 28 years with San Diego Unified School District as a teacher, Program Manager, Director of the School-to-Career department, and Director in the Office of Secondary School Innovation. Rob spent the last year and a half as the High School Transformation Associate Superintendent for Atlanta Public Schools and is now the Acting Principal for North County Trade Tech High School, a new charter school in Vista.

As Director in the Office of Secondary School Innovation and as Associate Superintendent, Rob has been involved in transforming large comprehensive high schools into small, career-theme schools or smaller learning communities. The transformation includes not only making schools smaller and more personalized, but also improving instruction through real-world relevant curriculum designed to engage students. Rob has worked closely with the business community to garner their support and input into the redesigned high schools, enhance the career theme, and immerse students in internships, job shadowing, and other workplace learning opportunities. Rob is now putting what he has learned to the test through developing North County Trade Tech High School, which will use engineering, architecture, and construction trades as themes to engage students in meaningful career-related coursework that prepares them for college and careers. This charter school will ultimately house 400 students in grades 9-12 and gradate its first class in 2012.

She also works as a Public Program Coordinator with the Career Academy Support Network (CASN) at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Education. Through her work with CASN, Patricia serves as a professional development provider for schools and districts, coach, technical assistance provider, and/or third-party evaluator for high schools and districts engaged in transforming themselves into smaller communities of learning that prepare all students for college and career. Additionally, she works with individual academies/pathways on all aspects of design, implementation, and enhancement. At the same time, she collaborates on a variety of CASN initiatives, including recent projects related to developing a College and Career Going Culture, a Guide to Scheduling Academies and Smaller Learning Communities, a-g course development, and support for the California Partnership Academies. In the past, Patricia has worked with EastBay Learns, a regional School to Career Partnership; Jobs for the Future; the Autodesk Project-Based Learning Network; United Way; the Urban Schools Network; and other state and national organizations.

Patricia served as the original Planner and Director of the Oakland Health and Bioscience Academy. She also has coordinated numerous curriculum and college access demonstration projects, as well as career pathway consortiums in teaching careers, health and bioscience, law, and the media. Currently, she serves on the Technical Work Group for the U.S. Department of Education Smaller Learning Communities Initiative and on the Technical Assistance Team for the California Partnership Academies.

His teaching background includes helping to found Drake's Communications Academy, a project-based program for 11th- and 12th-grade students that integrates social studies, English, advanced drama, and advanced video productions. He also taught AP U.S. history, psychology, government, and economics; served as Staff Development Coordinator; led two successful accreditation reviews; and presented at numerous conferences on project-based learning. Theron was named Drake's “Teacher of the Year” in 2000. As Assistant Principal, he managed Drake's testing, technology, facilities, and athletics programs in addition to sharing teacher evaluation and student discipline duties.

In his consulting practice (Swanson & Cosgrave Consulting), Theron works with educators nationwide on a wide range of instructional issues including project-based learning, school and small learning community design, assessment, leadership development, asset mapping, strategic planning documents, and whole-school reform coaching. He also writes web content and training materials for national education organizations. Theron holds a B.A. in Political Science, an M.A. in Education from Stanford University, and a M.A. in Education Administration from San Francisco State University. His areas of technical expertise include instructional design, project-based learning, design and implementation of small schools and learning communities, and strategic facilitation.

Robert has been a teacher, teacher leader, and district and county coordinator for multiple school reform efforts including smaller learning communities and California partnership academies. In addition, he has worked nationally as a consultant on implementation of smaller learning communities and has presented at national conferences. More recently, he worked as a Researcher and Evaluator for Small Learning Community grants for the state of Hawaii and the city of Philadelphia.

This past summer Robert completed a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and taught classes on educational leadership in the master's program at San Jose State University. Robert is currently working with Alameda County Office of Education as a Curriculum Coordinator and collaborating with the California State University system to develop professional development opportunities in order to systemically improve STEM education for schools and afterschool programs.

In this capacity, she currently works with superintendents, district office administrators, principals, and teacher instructional leadership teams in California and several other states.

Before taking on this role, Maria worked with American Institutes for Research as the Project Manager of the Gates-funded High School Reform Project in San Diego and as Assistant Superintendent for Instruction in Chula Vista, CA. She also held several positions with the New York City Board of Education, including Superintendent, Chief Executive for Instructional and Student Support Programs, Executive Director in the Divisions of Professional Development and Bilingual Education, principal, and teacher. She holds an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Educational Administration and an M.S. in Bilingual and Urban Education, both from Long Island University, and a B.A. in Elementary Education from Universidad Interamericana, Puerto Rico.

Jill holds a B.A. in Diplomacy and World Affairs from Occidental College and a Clear Single Subject credential in Social Studies from Mt. St. Mary's College. She has been involved in multiple pathways as a faculty member of the Multilingual Teacher Training Academy at Kennedy High School and at the Los Angeles High School of the Arts, a pilot school for LAUSD. In both schools, Jill collaborated across the curriculum with other departments and created special schoolwide teach-ins covering the elections and Cesar Chavez Day. An international traveler, Jill has lived, studied, and worked in Asia, Europe, and various parts of the United States.

Before becoming a teacher, Jill worked as a legal assistant in civil litigation, including insurance defense, personal injury, construction defect, and family law. She was appointed as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for foster children through the Los Angeles Children's Court, where she advocated for the children's best interests, coordinating with attorneys, social workers, and families.

Jill's heart is in mentoring, and that is shown in her professional and personal life. While at Kennedy High School, Jill coordinated the Link Crew Program, in which 100 juniors and seniors mentored the 800 incoming freshmen for the entire freshman year. In her personal life, Jill was a Big Sister Volunteer for 10 years with Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Los Angeles and won the Big Sister of the Year award in 2007. Her areas of expertise include designing and implementing career pathways, creating integrated curriculum with authentic assessments, and building community and industry partnerships.

In that capacity, she provided administrative leadership and was responsible for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of districtwide school-to-career, CTE, ROP, career academy, and service learning programs. During the past three decades, she has secured millions of dollars from federal, state, local, foundation, and industry sources and has served as director of numerous projects primarily related to preparing all students for successful postsecondary outcomes.

Devi was a charter member of the State of California WorkAbility project and helped to design and implement this successful model throughout California. She was also responsible for securing one of the first Urban/Rural School to Work Grants in 1987, and since then has maintained a local group of industry and higher education partners, CBOs, unions, trades people, parents, and community members who convene monthly to support West County programs. Devi has served as a member of workforce and community boards and as a chair of Youth Councils, and she has also been a teacher, career counselor, principal, CTE and Service Learning Coordinator, and Director of several projects, including the ConnectEd Multiple Pathways Planning Grant that was successfully funded before she retired.

Devi's expertise is in working closely with communities to secure support for the implementation of school and work-based learning activities such as job shadowing, internships, mentoring, service learning, and student support. Her strengths include managing budgets and funds, achieving compliance for various accountability systems, and leveraging dollars to achieve goals. She is also accomplished at building teacher teams, problem solving, developing resources, and streamlining functions for efficiency.

She is recognized nationally for her work in cultural proficiency, personal and organizational leadership, professional and small learning communities, curriculum design with an emphasis on problem-based learning, research-based instruction, and performance assessment.

As co-author of Culturally Proficient Learning Communities: Confronting Inequities Through Collaborative Curiosity, she works with organizations to address equity and social justice issues and to raise the bar for professional learning communities through the use of cultural proficiency. Linda, who was recognized as Educator of the Year for Region 10 by the California League of High Schools (CLHS), coordinated the Center for the Advancement of Small Learning Environments, which transformed 19 high schools in 11 southern California school districts into small learning environments and benefited more than 75,000 students. She also received the 2008 Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) Wilson A. Grace Award, recognizing her as a leader who motivates personal and professional growth in others.

With experience as a cancer researcher at the University of Nebraska, Linda made problem-based learning (PBL), which transforms students as they connect to real-world problems, succeed in the science classroom. Now, she enjoys teaching others the instructional design of PBL. As a member of the Alliance for Education, she joins more than 1,200 business, community, and faith-based organizations in making learning relevant and in bringing PBL partners to students in Southern California.

Her areas of expertise include inspiring educators to be culturally proficient leaders and innovators in educational reform and to engage in research that provides evidence of the impact of best practices. As adjunct professor in Pepperdine University's Educational Leadership, Administration and Policy Doctoral Program, Linda challenges educational leaders to identify their core beliefs, values, and assumptions through collaborative research. Also, her work with national cohorts of educational leaders provides her with insight into a wide array of current educational issues and challenges.

He recently retired from the San Ramon Valley Unified School District where he was Superintendent for 13 years. Rob is currently associated with two organizations—Springboard Schools and Total School Solutions—which assist school districts in improving student achievement and their operational effectiveness. Rob provides executive coaching to school administrators and leadership support services and professional development to superintendents, boards of education, and district-level management.

Rob also is an adjunct faculty member at California State University, East Bay, where he teaches School Finance and Human Resources. He has received extensive training as an executive coach and has led the implementation of a highly effective system of coaching and support for administrators in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District. Rob is especially proud of his work in San Ramon Valley, particularly the high levels of performance for all groups of students and the development of strong partnerships among teachers, classified staff, employee associations, administration, and board members. In recognition of these efforts, Rob recently received a number of awards, including the WHO Award for service from the San Ramon Valley Education Association chapter of CTA, the Golden Oak Award from the San Ramon Council of PTAs, and the Marcus Foster Memorial Award from the Association of California School Administrators.

Olivia is currently an educational consultant and founder of ReFresh Education and has served as Director of Practice for Education Trust West. From 2004 to 2007, she was Director of Professional Learning at the School Redesign Network at Stanford University, School of Education. In addition, she founded the Partnership School, a public elementary school in New York City, whose mission was to engage educators, parents, and community in the academic and social success of their students. Olivia was the founding Principal of the School for Academic and Athletic Excellence (SAAE), a New York City middle school that focused on teaching the whole child through academic rigor, athletic participation, and engagement in the arts. In 2001, she became the founding Director of Bronx New Century High Schools, an initiative that produced 50 new small high schools for students in the borough, and later served as Local Superintendent.

She serves as Adjunct Professor of Educational Leadership at Patten University in Oakland and previously served in a similar capacity at Bank Street College of Education in New York City. She is a board member of What Kids Can Do and the Los Angeles Small Schools Project.

Olivia received a B.A. from New York University, an M.A. from Adelphi University, a professional diploma from The City University of New York, and an Education Doctorate from Mills College in California. She was also a Revson Fellow at Columbia University.

During the last 14 years of his career in West Sacramento, Ron served as a Program Specialist and CTE Coordinator responsible for directing the River City High School Engineering Academy and the District ROP, and for managing the Carl Perkins Vocational Education Grant. He served for six years as a board member of the West Sacramento Chamber of Commerce and served on the board of Project LEED (Linking Education and Economic Development) in Sacramento. Ron received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Riverside, where he also received a Lifetime Secondary credential (Social Studies and Economics Authorizations) and a Ryan K-12 Multiple Subject credential.

Currently, Ron is working part time as a Career Counselor for Einstein Education Center in Woodland; Co-coordinator of Sacramento Office of Education (SCOE) Regional Occupational Programs (ROP) Self-Study for Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC); Supervisor of Interns for Project Pipeline, Sacramento office; and Chair of the Yolo County Youth Council/Workforce Investment Board.

After an unsuccessful first year as a middle school math teacher, she moved into the private sector. In 23 years at Hewlett Packard (HP), primarily in Information Technology, she developed skills in management, planning, quality control, team formation, and change management. HP gave Hudi the opportunity to serve for two years as a loaned executive to a group of schools funded by Joint Venture Silicon Valley that were engaged in systemic school reform. This work allowed her to reconnect with her passion for public education and to transfer her business management skills to educators and their key stakeholders.

Subsequently, Hudi left HP and became the Executive Director of the Coalition of Essential Schools (CES), a national school reform organization. Her experience with CES allowed her to study some of the most promising high school reform efforts in the nation. Since leaving CES in 2002, Hudi has served as a consultant and external evaluator for high schools involved in small learning community redesign efforts, applying her skills as a facilitator, planner, and data analyst. She is considered to be particularly effective in bringing together stakeholders with divergent views and helping them develop a shared vision and a realistic plan for realizing it. Hudi currently serves on the board of AchieveKids, an independent school for students dealing with autism and other learning challenges.

She is the co-author of the California Department of Education's high school grade span document Aiming High and directed the development of California's CTE standards and curriculum framework. As President of Organizational Consulting Services, she developed the federal monitoring guide for the Smaller Learning Communities initiative; authored publications on teaching and learning for the U.S. Department of Education, such as Improving Student Outcomes: A Resource Guide for High School Reform; conducted evaluations of educational policy, which included producing a report for the California State Legislature on California Partnership Academies; and coordinated the federal New American High Schools reform initiative. She currently acts as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Labor–Job Corps on academic program development for disadvantaged, out-of-school youth.

Eileen holds two undergraduate degrees from California State University, San Bernardino; a Master's degree in Education from Azusa Pacific University; and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of LaVerne. She also holds Professional Clear Multiple Subject, Single Subject, and Designated Subjects (Vocational) California teaching credentials as well as a Clear Administrative Services credential. Her areas of technical expertise include organizational development (systems change, teambuilding, etc.); the design and development of standards-based lessons that meet the needs of all students; integrated curriculum; the use of vocabulary in literacy development; and professional development.