Committed to Educational Equity Through Raising Achievement for All Students

Kristina Arcuri is an Educational Services Manager with CORE. She is a superintendent with 24 years of experience in education sector, focused on driving growth and improving test scores by recruiting and maintaining high quality staff. She is a decisive leader and analytical problem-solver with solid track record of success.

For over 13 years, Kristina has worked with state, district, school and classroom level reform through professional development, coaching, collaborative planning meetings, data analysis, and curriculum support at all levels pre–K to 12. She supported state, district, and national standards development and implementation through effective instructional practices.

Kristina has coached and presented in over 22 states nationally and has provided professional development to schools through various federal projects including Reading First, Read to Achieve, No Child Left Behind, and Race to the Top.

Dean Ballard is the Director of Mathematics for CORE. Dean holds a Master’s degree in math education from Sonoma State University (SSU) and secondary teaching credentials for both mathematics and English. Dean has 18 years of experience in the classroom teaching all levels of math from 5th grade through AP Calculus. Additionally, he has 20 years’ experience as a math consultant providing professional development for both elementary and secondary math teachers, writing curricular and exam materials, directing programs, and speaking at local and national math events (NCTM, NCSM, NABE, CABE, CMC, TODOS and others). As CORE’s Director of Mathematics since 2010 Dean has developed CORE’s math trainings, overseen CORE’s expert math team and services, and worked extensively with schools, teachers, and consultants on effective instruction and implementation of rigorous standards through their core and intervention programs. Dean is a member of NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics), NCSM (National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics), CMC (California Math Council), and TODOS: Mathematics for All.

Dr. Carrie Thomas Beck is CORE’s Director of Literacy. She comes to CORE after working four years as the Dyslexia Specialist for the Oregon Department of Education (ODE). In 2019, Carrie received the Excellence in Leadership Award from the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) to recognize her contribution to improving outcomes for students with dyslexia in Oregon. Prior to joining the Department, Carrie worked as a Research Associate in the Center on Teaching and Learning (CTL) at the University of Oregon for ten years. Carrie developed and directed the CTL Reading Clinic at the university from 2008 through 2013. She also led the development of a reading endorsement program at the university and taught literacy courses in the College of Education. Carrie spent five years at the university co-directing the Oregon Reading First Center, a federally funded center that partnered with ODE to provide technical support in the area of early literacy to fifty elementary schools throughout the state of Oregon. Earlier in her career, Carrie worked as an Implementation Manager/Project Director for the National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI). She has also worked as a curriculum specialist in language arts for Springfield School District in Oregon and has taught elementary and secondary special education in schools in Wisconsin and Illinois.

Brian Blanning is CORE’s Director of Operations. He has been with CORE for more than 18 years and is responsible for client scheduling, materials fulfillment, consultant logistical support, editorial project management and event management.

Prior to CORE, Brian was a project manager with the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and an event manager for a technology magazine.

Cris Goldy is a Senior Educational Services Manager with CORE. She holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in K–12 special education from Central Washington University. She received credentials in administration of teaching and learning from Walden University and administration certification from Western Governor’s University. She holds her teaching and administration licenses in both Alaska and Washington. Ms. Goldy brings 40 years of experience in diverse K-12 schools, districts and agencies to her work with CORE. She has taught primary grades and students with disabilities in grades K–12; served as migrant, bilingual, Title 1 and behavior specialist; and provided training and site support through Puget Sound Educational Service District and classes through Seattle Pacific University. Most recently Cris served as a curriculum director, district instructional leader and assistant principal for a remote Alaska Native community.

Cris worked for CORE from 2003 to 2014, serving as a consultant and Educational Services Manager. In that time, she worked with schools, districts, state and federal agencies in urban, suburban, and isolated rural school settings throughout the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, providing training, site support and district/agency implementation guidance. In 2014 she answered a call to join a remote, isolated district in the Alaskan Arctic as director of curriculum, then took the challenge of supporting a school-wide reform initiative in a pre-K – 5^th grade elementary school with 700 students. Having experienced great success in a difficult setting, Cris retired from full-time work in 2019 and has returned to CORE.

Cris provides services to schools, districts and agencies to support effective program implementation, multi-tiered systems of support, special education and special programs support, strategic improvement plans, instructional leadership, teacher development, training and coaching. Her specialties are administrative leadership, K-2 literacy, interventions and special education. She is excited to be back with CORE, maintaining her passion to ensure all children enjoy high levels of success in school.

Prior to working at CORE and Pivot Learning Leah worked in field research at the RAND Corporation and Los Angeles Unified School District. She has a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations at the University of Southern California.

Erica Hidalgo is a Senior Educational Services Manager with CORE. She received a bachelor’s degree in business management and her teaching certification from Texas Woman’s University, and master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of New Mexico. Erica’s early career was focused on middle school and high school math and has shifted toward a focus on elementary literacy. Erica was a classroom teacher in both Texas and New Mexico before serving as an elementary school principal and curriculum director.

Prior to working with CORE, Erica served as a curriculum director where she planned and coordinated ongoing, job-embedded professional learning opportunities for administrators and teachers in both large urban and mid-sized rural school districts. Her responsibilities included the adoption and long-term implementation of standards-aligned, evidence-based curriculum for all content areas. Erica also guided schools, administrators, and teacher teams through strategies and protocols to use assessment data and student work samples to change instructional practice. She oversaw instructional coach programs and partnered with instructional coaches to develop and grow new teacher induction programs. With extensive knowledge of federal and grant funds, Erica leveraged resources to create opportunities to advance school and district initiatives with a clear focus on student outcomes. In addition to her work at the school and district levels, Erica was appointed to the New Mexico Public Education Department K-5+ Extended Learning Time Advisory Board and served as a member of the NMPED’s Structured Literacy Working Group.

Garla Jalloh is committed to educating the whole child and building capacity in educators to provide rigorous and relevant education supported by current research.  As an educator of over 30 years, she has developed the specialty of engaging schools and districts in transformative work focused on continuous improvement and refinement, which is why she finds much joy and fulfillment serving on the leadership team at CORE supporting educators across the country.

Garla’s extensive experience in the field of education includes leading district-wide curriculum initiatives and professional learning as a district administrator; instructionally leading school teams as a principal; fostering positive partnerships between military bases and their local schools as a program operations specialist within the federal government; coaching teachers as an instructional coach; and providing quality instruction that yielded results for all students as a classroom teacher.

Garla enjoys being a life-long learner and is currently in a doctoral program.  She also holds a post-graduate, Education Specialist Degree in Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership & Administration, a Graduate Certificate in Professional Development, a Bachelor’s Degree in Education, as well as a Professional Coach and an Elite True Colors Facilitator’s certification.  To ensure that she remains relevant and stays abreast of the current research and trends in education, she maintains her teacher and administrator licenses at the PK-12 levels and is a member of several educational and professional organizations.

Katie Laskasky works to collaboratively develop and support the implementation of CORE’s professional learning and coaching model with schools and districts to include developing teacher capacity in instructional decision making and integrating job-embedded curriculum implementation support.

Katie also revises CORE’s professional learning curriculum to deepen teacher pedagogical content knowledge in providing math instruction aligned to the CA Mathematics Framework. Before joining CORE in 2021, she was a high school math teacher and, as clinical faculty, worked to design and implement a math instructional program, a K–12 teacher leadership program, and an innovative problem-solving approach that fosters a teacher team’s collective efficacy and individual teacher agency.  

Katie holds a bachelor’s degree in business and mathematics from the University of Notre Dame, a master’s degree in Secondary Education from Loyola Marymount University, and a doctoral degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Loyola University Chicago.

Tatiana Mirzaian works collaboratively to develop and support the implementation of CORE’s CORE’s Collaborative Inquiry model with schools and districts to reimagine job-embedded professional learning. In doing so, Tatiana works to create experiences with partnering schools and districts to deepen teacher pedagogical content knowledge and develop their capacity in instructional decision-making. 

Before joining CORE in 2022, she was a high school math teacher and a clinical faculty at Loyola Marymount University focused on the implementation of a problem-solving approach that fosters a teacher’s team’s collective efficacy and individual teacher agency when implementing a math instructional program. She continued her work around systematic implementation of math teacher development and implementation of equitable teaching practices at Wonderful College Prep Academy, as the K–12 Math Director and Director of Learning Supports. 

Tatiana holds a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from the University of California Santa Barbara and a master’s degree in Secondary Education from Loyola Marymount University. 

Dr. Christine Ngei has spent her career working with schools and districts to set clear goals, build strategy, and grow operational capacity. Dr. Ngei is a strong champion of approaches that foster critical teacher retention and whole child development, with a clear focus on robust implementation. By bringing together her deep experience as an impact-driven K-12 educator and a partner-centered business development leader, Dr. Ngei understands the intricacies of public education systems and how to drive growth and improvement.

Dr. Ngei brings to CORE and its partners over 20 years of curriculum, instruction, and administrative experience. She has been a classroom teacher, department chair, campus leader, consultant, executive director of curriculum and instruction, assistant superintendent, and interim superintendent.

Before joining CORE, Dr. Ngei was the Director of Educator Relations and Partnerships at Mentoring Minds, where she led business development and partnerships with districts, states, associations, and education service centers. Prior to that, she was the Chief Education Strategist at SchoolSpire, leading business development.

Previously, Dr. Ngei was the Interim Superintendent, the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction, and the School Improvement Officer of Royal ISD in Pattison, Texas. She was also a School Improvement Consultant for the Texas Region 4 Education Service Center and a District Coordinator and high school math and science teacher with Katy ISD in Katy, Texas. Before coming to the US, Dr. Ngei was a principal and teacher at Milimani High School in Nairobi, Kenya.

Dr. Ngei holds a bachelor’s degree in education from Egerton University, a master’s degree in entomology from the University of Nairobi, and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Houston-Clear Lake.

Cyndia Acker-Ramirez partners with schools and districts to reimagine job-embedded professional learning, with a focus on the instructional core, instructional decision-making, and leveraging curricular materials to deepen students’ mathematical understanding. As part of these efforts, Cyndia is leading the development and scale of CORE’s collaborative inquiry model that aims to support growth in student belonging, academic identity, and achievement while fostering teacher collective efficacy and individual agency in instructional decision-making.

Prior to joining CORE, Cyndia was a Professional Learning Specialist at WestEd and a Math Instructional and Systems Specialist with the Math Leadership Corps for Loyola Marymount University. In both roles, she supported schools and districts in using a framework for collaborative problem solving to impact student math identity and achievement through facilitation of teacher and instructional leadership collaborations. 

Cyndia holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from California State University Long Beach and a master’s degree in Cross-Cultural Teaching from National University.

Robert Sheffield has devoted his career to building the skills of educators to improve student academic outcomes. He specializes in organizational development, performance management, and leadership development. As CORE’s president,  Robert works nationally to promote the science of reading instruction and to transform ELA and math professional learning for educators in order to improve teaching and learning in the districts and schools serving our nation’s most vulnerable students.

Prior to joining CORE, Robert was Director of the Quality Schools and Districts content area team at WestEd, responsible for growing capacity to improve outcomes for students in high priority schools that primarily serve Black, Latinx, and low income communities.

Robert also led the District Coaching and Implementation Services for the College Board’s SpringBoard program. In that role, he was part of the leadership team that added 1.1 million students to the program within four years. Robert’s responsibilities included administrator professional development and coaching, product development, sales team product training, and overall go-to-market strategy development for the program.

Robert started his career as a high school history teacher, and also served as district curriculum specialist. In addition to his K–12 teaching experience, he teaches and supervises pre-service History/Social Science teachers at California State University, Long Beach.

Dr. Fineé E. Taylor has been an educational consultant for over 15 years and taught a range of elementary grades, served as an instructional coach, worked as an associate reading professor, and served as a Pre-K and Elementary Curriculum Supervisor.

Dr. Taylor has managed and supervised instructional coaches, teachers, and principals. She has developed instructional plans to support teachers with best practices as it relates to effective reading instruction, conducted classroom observations to provide teachers with constructive feedback on the lessons observed, created pacing calendars to enrich teachers’ understanding of the instructional content, and developed data plans that allow teachers to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses.

Her professional goals as an educator are to enhance current teaching strategies, improve procedures to accomplish a given task, coordinate a series of exercises that will meet the needs of students, and strive to bring out the best in each student, teacher, and administrator. Dr. Taylor aims to empower other educators with the instructional abilities to improve instructional practices.

Dale Webster is CORE’s Vice President of Language & Literacy. He leads the Educational Services division and is responsible for the day-to-day operations, training, and quality control of CORE’s educational consulting and management staff. Dale brings 20 years of experience in teaching, professional development/technical assistance, research, state-level policy work and administration, and curriculum development to schools and districts across the country.

Dale earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies and a California Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential from San Diego State University, a master’s degree in educational psychology from the University of Houston, and a Ph.D. in education at the University of California, Irvine, where his research focused on vocabulary development for English learners. Dale has served on the California Curriculum Commission, an advisory body to the California State Board of Education on curriculum frameworks and textbook adoptions, as well as numerous other state and local educational panels. Dale is also president of Interactions for Peace, a nonprofit organization that teaches peaceful problem-solving skills to youth, and he is a board member of the San Diego branch of the International Dyslexia Association.