STAFF
William J. Slotnik, Founder and Executive Director, has overseen the growth of the Center into one of the nation’s foremost providers of technical assistance, evaluation services, and policy support in the fields of education and community development. CTAC annually assists more than 90 organizations, school districts and state departments of education. He has provided extensive assistance to state education agency leaders, superintendents, state and local boards of education, unions and leadership teams throughout the United States. He has guided and supported the development of replicable systems of assessment, evaluation, and accountability to determine the performance and effectiveness of school districts, school by school, classroom by classroom, teacher by teacher, and student by student. He has led technical assistance and evaluation initiatives nationally which address such issues as student learning objectives, teacher and administrator evaluation, systemic reform, compensation reform, professional development, state-to-school and state-to-district interventions, and transforming underperforming schools. He has been the lead or co-lead author of numerous evaluations (including Pathway to Results, and Catalyst for Change the first comprehensive, longitudinal evaluative studies of the impact of performance-based compensation on student achievement, teacher effectiveness and systems change) and articles, and provides briefings to members of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Department of Education, state legislatures and departments of education, and the media.
Peggie Brown, Senior Associate, National School Reform, previously served as an award-winning Principal and Vice President of the Administrators Association in the Cleveland Public Schools. Her areas of expertise include school improvement planning and implementation, curriculum development, and union-management relations. She also has expertise in reading theory and practice, including the alignment of standards, instructional materials, and assessments. She led CTAC’s interview team for Denver’s landmark pay for performance initiative. She has served as a facilitator of school planning, working with district leaders, principals, teachers, and parents to make databased decisions. She is the Center’s expert on parent and community involvement. She is also an adjunct faculty member at Kent State and Ashland University.
Judith Clary, Ph.D., Senior Associate, National School Reform, previously served as the Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources and as Assistant Superintendent for Research, Development and Accountability in Albuquerque Public Schools (NM). She has extensively developed policies and procedures to meet education regulations, and state and federal regulations and laws. In addition to cultivating relationships with community organizations, business communities and universities, she has been responsible for research, technical assistance, accountability, and restructuring frameworks for schools. She also serves as a mediator for Alternative Dispute Resolution, and as an Educational Diagnostician.
Jeffrey Edmison, Senior Manager, National School Reform, is responsible for key CTAC education initiatives relating to teacher and principal evaluation, performance-based compensation, school turnaround, and state-to-district collaboration. Mr. Edmison currently serves in a lead role for the Teacher Effectiveness project for the state of New York and provides organizational leadership for CTAC’s engagements around the nation. Mr. Edmison previously served as Chief Operating Officer for the Christina School District, Delaware’s largest district, providing leadership for the New Directions in Christina systemic reform effort. Through a methodical implementation of the Standard Bearer Schools process, the district significantly increased student achievement and created foundational changes in the organization. In addition, he has served as the Associate Superintendent of Operations for the West Contra Costa Unified School District located in Richmond, California and as the Regional General Manager for EdisonLearning, Inc. As a reform-minded leader, in both roles, Mr. Edmison led multiple system-wide efforts improving the educational and organizational outcomes for students.
William M. Eglinton, Director, Management, Finance and Policy, previously served as Chief Operating Officer of Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM: a Fortune 200 company), and Chairman of the Board for all corporate subsidiaries. Under his leadership, PNM introduced performance-based compensation. In addition to being a key-team member for many of CTAC’s partnerships, Bill has served as CTAC’s co-project director for the TIF-supported Leadership for Educators’ Advanced Performance Initiative (LEAP) with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, directed CTAC’s National Urban Reform Network, led site research and evaluations teams in Christina (DE) Denver (CO) and Newark (NJ) and trained district leadership teams, community collaboratives, corporate leadership groups and policy making bodies at local, state and national levels. His areas of expertise include school/corporate collaboration, performance-based compensation, executive assistance to superintendents and boards of education, and education policy.
Joseph P. Frey, Senior Project Director, Senior Associate for National School Reform, is responsible for key CTAC education initiatives relating to teacher evaluation, teacher licensure and certification, performance-based compensation, teacher preparation, state-to-district and state-to-school assistance, and college readiness. Mr. Frey previously served as the Deputy Commissioner, New York State Education Department (NYSED), Office of Higher Education. His prior positions included the Associate Commissioner, NYSED, Office of Higher Education, and Assistant Commissioner, NYSED, Office of Quality Assurance. Mr. Frey made substantial contributions to the successful New York State’s Race to the Top grant award, and NYSED's successful Teacher Incentive Fund grant award. Additional career highlights include Smart Early College High School Program and implementation of an initiative to transform school leadership in New York State. Mr. Frey developed a data-driven Statewide Plan for Higher Education that engaged all four sectors, and a data-driven approach to policy decisions in higher education in New York State. He has played a leadership role in the creation of the state teacher supply and demand analysis. He worked on the development of the Regents' Teaching Policy, Teaching to Higher Standards: New York’s Commitment and was responsible for the implementation of the plan and development of the first alternative teacher preparation program in New York State’s history.
Donald B. Gratz, Ph.D., Senior Associate and Director, National School Reform, is Director of Graduate Programs in Education at Curry College. He previously served as Executive Director of the Alliance for Education. He is one of the nation’s leading experts on performance-based compensation. He coordinated the first phase of CTAC’s evaluation of Denver’s pay for performance initiative and guided the implementation of systemic reform initiatives in large districts throughout the United States. He is widely published in the area of performance-based compensation, including the recently issued The Peril and Promise of Performance Pay: Making Education Compensation Work.
Geraldine Harge, Ed.D., Senior Associate, National School Reform, has extensive experience in project coordination and performance management, and serves as CTAC’s project director of the federally funded TIF-LEAP partnership with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. She provides on-site assistance to superintendents, district and school leadership teams, principals and teachers. She previously served as Superintendent of Schools in Berryessa Union School District, San Jose (CA) and Nye County School District, Tonopah (NV), Director of Special Education in San Mateo Foster City School District (CA), and as Regional Superintendent, Principal, Counselor and Classroom Teacher in the Albuquerque Public Schools. Dr. Harge has nationally recognized expertise in rural education, special education, and systemic reform. She was honored as Nevada Superintendent of the Year.
Barbara J. Helms, Ph.D., Senior Associate, Evaluation and Accountability, has guided CTAC’s landmark work in the area of data driven decision-making and the impact of performance management. She is the research and evaluation expert on the instruments and methodologies that CTAC uses to gauge student achievement and other indicators of school progress, and provides professional development to districts using CTAC’s data analysis instruments. She previously served as Coordinator, Demographics and Assessment, for the East Hartford Public Schools in Connecticut. She has also served as President of the Northeast Educational Research Association. Dr. Helms has also conducted multi-year evaluations of state and federally funded grants awarded to urban school districts, and was a Switzer Distinguished Research Fellow. She has extensive experience in student achievement data analysis, design and implementation of district data systems, statistical methodologies, and the creation and use of relational databases in teacher evaluation and performance-based compensation reforms.
Jiefang Hu, Associate, Research and Evaluation, performs quantitative data analysis and conducts comprehensive research for the Teacher Incentive Fund projects in Prince William County, VA, Henrico County, VA, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC. She is a Ph.D. candidate in the Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation program at the Lynch School of Education in Boston College. She previously conducted both quantitative and qualitative research in numerous national and large scale projects at Boston College, including TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center and the Teacher for a New Era project. She has also conducted extensive training programs worldwide.
James A. Kadamus, Senior Director of Program and Policy, is responsible for key CTAC education initiatives relating to performance-based compensation, teacher evaluation, state to school district collaboration and school turnaround. For the last five years, Mr. Kadamus has served as Vice President and Partner at Sightlines LLC, an education management consulting firm working with higher education and K-12 institutions. From 1994-2005, Mr. Kadamus served as Deputy Commissioner, Office of Elementary, Middle, Secondary and Continuing Education, at the New York State Department of Education, Albany, NY. In that capacity, he implemented standards-based preK-12 reform in New York’s school districts serving 3.1 million students, resulting in higher levels of student achievement. He also oversaw the development of New York’s school finance program and managed the $18 billion school aid program. Before his service as Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Kadamus served as Associate Commissioner, Office of Finance, Management and Information Services; Assistant Commissioner, Office of Higher and Continuing Education; Assistant Commissioner, Office of Elementary, Secondary and Continuing Education; and Chief, Bureau of Proprietary School Supervision-all at the New York State Education Department.
Susan E. Kirkendol, Ph.D., Senior Associate, National School Reform, previously served as a Senior Research Program Analyst for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ Leadership for Educators’ Advanced Performance initiative. In that capacity she worked with teachers and administrators in low-performing schools to improve teacher effectiveness through the use of data to inform instructional practices. She also designed and implemented teacher professional development opportunities related to using data in a cycle of continuous improvement and the best practices in assessment, and helped facilitate a district-wide data-driven instruction initiative. Additionally, Susan has served as a Professor and Dean at Pfeiffer University and an Associate Professor at Clemson University.
Richard Larrabee, Senior Associate, National School Reform, provides technical counsel related to the implementation of SLOs and evaluation services as senior member of CTAC’s team for the federally funded TIF-LEAP partnership with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Mr. Larrabee guides the implementation of CTAC’s turnaround services at school and district levels nationwide. He also led CTAC’s field services team that conducted the groundbreaking professional development audit of the Schultz Center for Teaching and Leadership and the Duval County Public Schools. He previously served as Supervising Superintendent (overseeing all district regional superintendents), principal of a distinguished school (one of the nation’s first CTAC-assisted Standard Bearer Schools), and as Director of Information Services during 30 years of service to the Cleveland Public Schools (OH). His areas of expertise include designing and implementing SLOs for purposes of teacher evaluation and performance-based compensation, using data to drive instructional improvements, school and district improvement, and data-driven accountability at classroom, school, and district levels.
Cathi R. Leone, Director, Finance and Management Systems, has served as a senior member of the CTAC team guiding the Teacher Incentive Fund project “Leaders for Educators’ Advanced Performance Initiative” in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina since 2007. She also serves as a senior member of the CTAC evaluation team for the Teacher Incentive Fund projects in both the Henrico County Public Schools and the Prince William County Public Schools in Virginia and the Northern Humboldt Union High School District, McKinleyville (CA).
Joan McRobbie, Senior Associate, National School Reform, manages projects on teacher evaluation and compensation reform in several states, including directing CTAC’s Teacher Incentive Fund project in Henrico County, Virginia. Previously she served as Chief of Staff and Ethics Officer in the San Diego Unified School District. She has held senior policy and communications positions at WestEd, focused especially on issues of urban school systems and their leadership. Her work has included studies of student achievement within and across states, analyses of the context, policies, structures, and practices affecting achievement, and convening numerous policy seminars to provide state policymakers with the best research and thinking on issues of urgent concern. Previously, as a journalist, she won numerous national, state, and regional awards.
Natalie Nier, Manager, Administration and Technology, provides numerous program, management, and research services at CTAC. She is responsible for both organizing and providing project management support, as well as spearheading CTAC’s communication and technology initiatives. She serves on the CTAC team which guides school turnaround initiatives nationally, manages national symposia, and coordinates multiple leadership and networking summits in CTAC’s community development initiatives. Additionally, Ms. Nier provides all technical support to national headquarters and field staff.
Donna Ogden, Administration Manager, provides program and administrative support to the CTAC team, assists with accounts payable, payroll, and benefits administration, and manages the constituent database. In addition, she is responsible for managing Board of Directors’ affairs, meeting planning and logistics. Ms. Ogden has extensive experience providing executive level support. Immediately prior to joining CTAC, she was an office manager and executive assistant for a local church for almost 10 years.
Scott Reynolds, Senior Associate, National School Reform, previously served the Broad prize-winning urban district of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools for over a decade in the capacity of educator, facilitator, mentor, administrator, professional developer, and curriculum specialist. Mr. Reynolds’ work has focused largely on improving student learning in low-performing schools by leading teachers and administrators to improve instructional practices and implement data-informed decision-making. As the district’s first SLO Specialist, he spearheaded the SLO work affecting all levels of the school system under the Leadership for Educators’ Advanced Performance initiative, funded by the Teacher Incentive Fund, which has garnered national attention. Mr. Reynolds has served at the state level of North Carolina as a professional developer for its teacher academy, which has trained teachers and administrators in every LEA across the state. In addition to speaking at state and regional conferences, he also served as Vice President of the Classroom Teachers Association of North Carolina, where he helped to grow the once Charlotte-based organization statewide as it concurrently forged its partnership with the Association of American Educators. He currently serves the Center’s educational reform efforts in the areas of systemic planning, training, implementation, and publication.
Sylvia Saavedra-Keber, Senior Associate, Community Capacity Building, previously served for over thirteen years as the executive director of a Latino organization in the Greater Boston area which focuses on the cultural, social, economic and educational development of Latinos affected by poverty. Her areas of expertise include community building, community organizing, and educating and mobilizing communities of color. She has taken leadership roles in community efforts that have been successful in the areas of immigrant voting rights, housing, accessibility to education, equal employment opportunity, and quality health care, including accessibility to interpretation and translation services. A community trainer and mediator, Ms. Saavedra-Keber is a member of the Community Dispute Settlement Center of Cambridge and is a board member of the Cambridge Foundation. Ms. Saavedra-Keber has a background in management, was the Assistant Director of the Immigrant Unit at the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants, and also served for many years as the Equal Employment Opportunity Director for the Massachusetts Department of Employment and Training.
Maribeth D. Smith, Senior Project Director, Professional Development, Curriculum and Instruction, is one the leading practitioners and evaluators of SLOs nationally, and has guided design team efforts in Denver, Austin, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg. She serves as lead evaluator and technical assistance provider within CTAC initiatives in educator evaluation systems, systemic reform, and performance-based compensation. She previously served as Associate Superintendent for Educational Planning and Development in Fremont Union High School District (CA). She has provided assistance at the school, district, state, union and board levels throughout the country. She was the co-lead author of Tying Earning to Learning: The Link Between Teacher Compensation and Student Learning Objectives; Focus on Literacy: Professional Development Audit; Catalyst for Change (the summative Denver report on performance-based compensation); and New Directions in Christina (the summative report on systemic reform in Delaware’s largest district). She is one of the nation’s leading experts on school reform and redesign, pedagogy and evaluation, and instructional strategies to improve the student achievement of high needs learners. She was honored as Curriculum and Instruction Administrator of the Year in California.
Lynn Stinnette-Barbour, Senior Associate, National School Reform, has led numerous initiatives at CTAC including the implementation of the Standard Bearer Schools process in multiple districts throughout the nation. She also served as the Director of Urban Education and Director for School and Community Development for the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, and Senior Associate for the National Center on Education and the Economy. Previously, she served as an award-winning school principal in the Chicago Public Schools. She is a leading expert in urban education, curriculum alignment, standards-based instruction, and data-informed decision-making.