Committed to Educational Equity Through Raising Achievement for All Students

Dr. Baker is a Research Professor at the Center on Research and Evaluation (CORE) at Southern Methodist University (SMU), and a Senior Research Associate at the Center on Teaching and Learning (CTL), University of Oregon. He was the founding Executive Director of CORE and the Associate Director and Research Director of CTL. Dr. Baker has been Principal Investigator on numerous education grants from the Institute of Education Sciences and other federal agencies. Dr. Baker is interested in the role of scientific research in education policy and practice, especially related to improving student outcomes. He is particularly interested in the challenges faced by English learners and by children struggling with learning difficulties. Dr. Baker’s research has focused on developing and testing academic interventions, and the mechanisms that underlie effective interventions.

Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan is a bilingual speech and language pathologist, a certified teacher, dyslexia therapist, certified academic language therapist and a qualified instructor. Dr. Cárdenas-Hagan is the President of the Valley Speech Language and Learning Center in Brownsville, Texas and works with the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation and Statistics at the University of Houston.

Elsa has spent the last 15 years working in national research projects sponsored by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development and the Institute of Education Sciences, a research arm of the United States Department of Education. Each national project was related to the development of language and literacy skills among Spanish-speaking English learners. She has worked with teams of researchers designing assessments and interventions for English learners who struggle with reading.

Dr. Cárdenas-Hagan is currently the Chairperson of the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities, a Past-Vice- Chairperson of the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) as well as Past Editor-in-Chief of all IDA publications, Past Chairperson of the Texas State Board for Speech Pathology and Audiology and Past Chairperson of the Texas State Dyslexia Advisory Board. She has also served as a board member of the Academic Language Therapy Association, Southwest Regional Education Laboratory and Texas Comprehensive Center at the American Institutes for Research.

Elsa has written many scholarly articles, curricular programs, and book chapters related to the oracy and literacy development among English learners. She is currently working on a textbook for teaching English learners. It is her hope that pre-service teachers will have the opportunity to learn evidence-based practices for teaching literacy to a diverse population of students.

David J. Chard, Ph.D., is the Dean ad Interim of Boston University’s Wheelock College of Education and Human Development and Professor of Special Education.  Prior to coming to BU, Dr. Chard served as the 14^th President of Wheelock College. Dr. Chard has published more than 100 articles, monographs, book chapters, and books. He is a member of the International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities and has served in leadership roles in numerous professional organizations. Dr. Chard has been a classroom teacher in California, Michigan, and in the U. S. Peace Corps in Lesotho in southern Africa. In October of 2011 Dr. Chard was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve on the Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences.  He was confirmed in 2012 by the U.S. Senate and elected chair of the board in 2013. In 2016, he was reappointed by President Obama for a second 3-year term. He has served as a member of the All Stars National Board since 2016.

Linda Diamond is the co-founder of CORE and past president. Prior to founding CORE, she served as a public school teacher, principal, Director of Curriculum and Instruction for a K–12 school district, and Senior Policy Analyst with an emphasis on school to career, charter schools, and school reform. Mrs. Diamond is the co-author of CORE’s professional books Teaching Reading Sourcebook, Assessing Reading: Multiple Measures and Vocabulary Handbook. Currently, Linda consults with publishers, organizations, and state agencies to improve literacy instruction for all students.

Dr. Dykstra serves as a practicing psychologist for Milwaukee County, WI, serving children and families facing the most complex challenges. He directs a mobile crisis team as well as consulting and training on a variety of topics across the community.  Over the course of his more than 25 year career, he became a bold advocate on education, and reading in particular, because the fate of many of the children he sees, for whom their experience at school may be the life raft that keeps them afloat, or the weight that drags them to the bottom.

Sherril H. English, Ph.D. is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Simmons School of Education at Southern Methodist University. Dr. English teaches classes for in-service, graduate students in the Department of Teaching and Learning and for principal certification students in the Department of Educational Leadership. Certified in Elementary and Secondary education, Dr. English taught for over 15 years at all grade levels and served as a K-6 Principal for more than a decade.  Dr. English considers herself a “practitioner’s professor.”  In addition to university classroom teaching and learning, she provides one-on-one classroom support and coaching to novice teachers.

Over the course of Dr. English’s more than 35-year educational career, using an equity lens, she has advised and provided professional development training and collaborative support on school culture and equitable teaching practices to school districts and non-profits in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex and at various state conferences.

Dr. English’s research and scholarly interests are in encouraging educators to recognize and incorporate “student voice” in decision-making structures and practices for urban education students. She serves on the University’s Institutional Review Board and as an advisory member for SMU’s First-Generation College Student Initiative.

Claude Goldenberg, Ph.D. is Nomellini & Olivier Professor of Education, emeritus, Stanford University. He is author of Successful school change: Creating settings to improve teaching and learning (Teachers College); co-author with Rhoda Coleman of Promoting academic achievement among English Learners: A guide to the research (Corwin); and co-editor with Aydin Durgunoglu of Language and literacy development in bilingual settings (Guilford). He has published and been on the editorial boards of various literacy and education academic and professional journals. Previous projects focused on improving literacy achievement among English Learners in elementary and middle school, language and literacy development among Mexican children in Mexico, and a randomized control trial of an early literacy intervention in Rwanda. Current projects include consulting for the US Department of Justice on English Learner issues and chairing a research advisory panel on early childhood education for Arizona’s First Things First.

Ms. Hammond is a national education consultant and author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain:  Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. She holds a Master’s in Education in English Education, with a concentration in Writing from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

She is a former high school and community college expository writing instructor. Ms. Hammond has also served as adjunct instructor at St. Mary’s College School of Education in Moraga, California, where she taught The Foundations of Adolescent Literacy.  As a consultant, she has advised and provided professional development to school districts and non-profit organizations across the country around issues of equity, literacy, and culturally responsive teaching for the past 25 years.

Michelle K. Hosp, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Special Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. A nationally known trainer and speaker on problem solving and the use of progress monitoring data, she has worked as the Director of the Iowa Reading Research Center, a trainer with the National Center on Progress Monitoring and the National Center on Response to Intervention, and is currently on the technical review committee for the National Center on Intensive Intervention. Her research focus is on reading, and MTSS/RTI in relation to CBM and CBE. Dr. Hosp has published numerous articles, book chapters, and books related to reading and effective decision making practices.

Dr. Edward J. Kame’enui is a native Hawaiian, born in Hilo, Hawaii and raised in Kalihi on the Island of Oahu. He graduated from the Kamehameha Schools, a school for native Hawaiian children. Dr. Kame’enui’s scholarly interests are in reading, writing systems, language development, and academic interventions which he attributes to his experience growing up speaking “pidgin English” fluently, reading connected text infrequently and dysfluently, and communicating, albeit haphazardly, with his deaf mother and bigger twin brother.

From 2005-2007, Dr. Kame’enui served as the nation’s Founding Commissioner of the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) in the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), which serves as the research and statistical arm of the U. S. Department of Education. He has had the honor of speaking at the White House, participating in round tables and other WH events (e.g., UNESCO presentation in Paris) with then First Lady, Mrs. Laura Bush, and directing several national federal research and technical support initiatives on reading. He also served on the original advisory boards for the PBS television shows “Between the Lions” and WETA’s “Reading Rockets.” He is Dean-Knight Professor Emeritus  at the College of Education, University of Oregon.

Dr. Kame’enui has co-authored 20 college textbooks, including 5^th editions of two books, on teaching reading, curriculum design, vocabulary instruction, higher order thinking, and classroom management. He has more than 200 publications including 120+ refereed research articles and 55 book chapters on a range of topics including learning disabilities, early reading intervention, vocabulary instruction and development, school-wide reading improvement, the design of high quality educational materials, and the architecture of instruction.

During the almost 30-year period from 1990 to his full retirement in 2018, Dr. Kame’enui and his colleagues at the Center on Teaching and Learning (CTL) (for which he is the Founding Director) were awarded more than $70 million of federal, state, and private research and training funds, which included directing and implementing several national and state reading and academic intervention initiatives.

During his forty-year career in education, Dr. Rick Miller has been a teacher and principal at the elementary and secondary levels, instructed at the university level, and served as superintendent in six districts across two states, most recently Santa Ana Unified School District in California.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Miller has focused his efforts in school administration on school reform and improved student achievement in diverse settings. He has been at the forefront of 21st century learning, utilizing technology as a tool to provide students with equal access to education. During Dr. Miller’s five-year tenure in the Riverside Unified School District, he oversaw the deployment of 28,000 mobile computing devices to K-12 students for enhanced and personalized learning, in addition to the use of all-digital textbooks at the high school level. He has overseen the expansion of blended learning and virtual school programs, as well as nationally-recognized AVID programs and the creation of a STEM academy.

Dr. Moats has been a teacher, psychologist, researcher, graduate school faculty member, and author of many influential scientific journal articles, books, and policy papers on the topics of reading, spelling, language, and teacher preparation. She earned her master’s degree at Peabody College of Vanderbilt and a doctorate in Reading and Human Development from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Dr. Moats spent fifteen years in private practice as a licensed psychologist in Vermont, specializing in evaluation and consultation with individuals of all ages and walks of life who experienced reading, writing, and language difficulties. Dr. Moats spent four years as site director of the NICHD Early Interventions Project in Washington, DC, where she testified to Congress three times on issues of teacher preparation and reading instruction in high poverty schools. Recently, she concluded ten years as research advisor and consultant with Voyager-Sopris Learning.

Dr. Moats was a contributing writer of the Common Core State Standards, Foundational Reading Skills for Grades K-5. In addition to the LETRS professional development series, Dr. Moats’ books include Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers (Brookes Publishing); Spelling: Development, Disability, and Instruction (Pro-Ed); Straight Talk About Reading (with Susan Hall, Contemporary Books), and Basic Facts about Dyslexia. She is the lead author on a remedial program for adolescents called LANGUAGE! Live.

Dr. Shinn is a Professor of School Psychology at National-Louis University and a nationally recognized consultant to schools across the country, including state departments of education, on implementation of a problem-solving model including RtI. He is the recipient of the APA Division 16 2003 Jack Bardon Distinguished Service Award and is a member of the national Technical Review Panel for the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Progress Monitoring National Technical Assistance Center. Mark has edited two books on curriculum-based measurement and published more than 75 journal articles and book chapters on the topic. He also co-edited three editions of Interventions for Academic and Behavior Problems: Preventive and Remedial Approaches, published by NASP.

Shane Templeton is Foundation Professor Emeritus of Literacy Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno. A former classroom teacher at the primary and secondary levels, Shane did his graduate work at the University of Virginia, receiving his M.Ed. and Ph.D. degrees in Education there. Shane’s research has focused on developmental word knowledge in elementary, middle, and high school students. He has published in a number of research and practitioner journals, and is co-author of Words Their Way; Vocabulary Their Way: Word Study for Middle and Secondary Students; Words Their Way with Struggling Readers, Grades 4-12; and Words Their Way with English Learners. His other books include Teaching the Integrated Language Arts, Children’s Literacy: Contexts for Meaningful Learning, and with Kristin Gehsmann, Teaching Reading and Writing: The Developmental Approach (K-8). Shane has contributed chapters to a number of research handbooks, including the Handbook of Reading Research (Vol. III), Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts, Handbook of Literacy and Technology, and The Encyclopedia of Education (2nd ed.).”

Since 1987, Shane has been a member of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary. He is educational consultant on The American Heritage Children’s Dictionary. He is also consultant on and wrote the foreword to the recently published Curious George’s Dictionary.

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.

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.

Jennifer Bay-Williams has been a professor at University of Louisville since 2006. She teaches courses related to mathematics teaching to preservice teachers and practicing teachers and is frequently working in elementary schools to support mathematics teaching. Prior to coming to the University of Louisville, she taught in a variety of other places – Kansas, Missouri, and Perú.

Dr. Bay-Williams is an internationally respected mathematics educator. She is a prolific author and popular speaker on topics related to effective mathematics teaching. Her work has focused on ways to ensure every student understands mathematics and develops a positive mathematics identity (i.e., feels they can do math!). Her most recent work has focused on fluency in mathematics, communicating that it is more than learning facts and algorithms, but is about being able to reason and choose appropriate strategies. Her books on fluency and on mathematics coaching are best sellers, as is her book Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally.

Highlights of her service contributions over the past 20 years include serving as president of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Education (AMTE), on the Board of Directors for National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and TODOS: Mathematics for All, and the Education Advisory board for Teacher2Teacher Global.

She is married and has two children, one attending the University of Louisville and one in high school. Her hobbies include gardening, bird watching, traveling, horseback riding, and binging on TV shows.

Dr. Bledsoe, Assistant Superintendent of Priority Charter Schools, entered the field of education in 1994 as a secondary math and science teacher in Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD and Belton ISD. Most recently, Dr. Bledsoe served as a professor at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, where she taught math and science methods for preservice teachers. Additionally, teaching research courses and supervising doctoral students in dissertation research established a strong knowledge base about a variety of education topics. She has published numerous articles about topics such as STEM, teacher training, technology in the classroom, special education, and leadership. She is passionate about effective teaching because education changes the future for children and for society.

Dr. Bledsoe prioritizes developing positive relationships to facilitate growth within an organization. Valuing diversity, she knows that each person has something unique to offer. She strives to build teams of educators that serve students and families in creative ways. Open communication and high standards characterize her work.

Of all the roles she fills, being a wife and mother are her favorites. Trey and Christie Bledsoe have called Belton/Temple home since 1998. The Bledsoes are actively involved in the community. They support their children – Joseph, Joshua, Rachel, and Rebekah – in many academic, athletic, and musical events in the area. They worship and serve in a local church.

Kyndall Brown has over 35 years of experience in mathematics education. He was a secondary mathematics teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District for 13 years, teaching at both the middle and high school levels. He has been a professional development provider for over 25 years, serving as a mathematics resource teacher for the Los Angeles Systemic Initiative in LAUSD, and as mathematics teacher consultant for and director of the UCLA Mathematics Project (UCLAMP). He is currently the Executive Director of the California Mathematics Project, a statewide network of professional development organizations.

Kyndall Brown holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from UC Irvine, masters degrees in computer-based education and mathematics education from CSU Dominguez Hills, and a Ph.D. from UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. He also has a single subject credential to teach mathematics in the state of California.

Kyndall Brown has been actively involved in many professional organizations throughout his career, including the Greater Los Angeles Mathematics Council, the California Mathematics Council, the California Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, TODOS: Mathematics for All, and the Benjamin Banneker Association. Kyndall served a three-year term on the NCTM Professional Development Services Committee and served as the conference chair for the NCTM regional conference in Hartford, Connecticut in 2018. Kyndall served a three-year term on the board of directors of TODOS, and served on the committee for the biennial TODOS conference. Kyndall serves on the board of the Benjamin Banneker Association. Kyndall was recently elected to a three-year term on the board of directors for NCTM.

Kyndall Brown regularly presents at local, state, and national conferences on various topics related to mathematics education. He writes articles for mathematics education publications. His research interest is the impact of culture and identity on the ways that African-American adolescents learn mathematics. He is also the co-author of the recently published book “Choosing To See: A Framework For Equity In The Mathematics Classroom.”

Dr. Ben Clarke is an Associate Professor in the School Psychology Program at the University of Oregon. He is interested in the development of mathematics and the role of assessment, instruction, and school systems to support that development. Across his work, there is an emphasis on understanding the variables that impact student achievement and their interaction with critical ecological and cultural factors. Dr. Clarke leverages his research interests to teach and work with school psychology and special education students to integrate an understanding of mathematics development within school based service delivery systems. He currently serves or has served as a Principal Investigator on twenty federally funded research grants (apx. 55 million in funding) in the area of mathematics instruction focused on the development and efficacy testing of intervention programs spanning the K-6thgrade spectrum in both traditional and technology based formats. In addition, Dr. Clarke’s work has focused on developing assessment materials examining early mathematics knowledge and number sense with a focus on identifying and preventing later mathematics difficulty. He has published articles and book chapters on mathematics instruction and assessment and developing multi-tiered instructional models including the IES practice guide “Assisting students struggling with mathematics: Response to Intervention for elementary and middle schools”. Dr. Clarke was a practicing school psychologist for three years where he led district efforts to implement multiple tier instructional models in reading and mathematics.

Kathy Clemmer is a career math education innovator whose passion is embracing and capitalizing on the neurodiversity of each student to grow each as a mathematical thinker, problem solver, and self-regulated learner. She has a talent for growing each student’s math identity & agency and positioning each with power in their math classroom community. She believes students thrive in their math community when they value the different ways mathematics can be approached, leverage mistakes as opportunities to learn, have voice and agency to intervene in and influence their own learning environments and pathways, have a sense of being accepted, valued, included, and encouraged by others in the academic classroom setting thereby feeling they are an important part of the life and activity of the class.

She used her passion for celebrating, embracing, and valuing neurodiversity in students, her love of teaching pure mathematics, and her deep understanding of the current math education system to develop a thinking framework that re-imagines how educators can create active and inclusive math learning classroom communities.

Kathy held a dual clinical faculty appointment in the Loyola Marymount University (LMU) School of Education and Seaver College of Science and Engineering for thirteen years. She is an award-winning educator, founder of the innovative and locally recognized Common Core Math and Science Teaching (CMAST) program, and founder and Director of the Mathematics Leadership Corps in Los Angeles. In 2015, the state of California nominated Kathy for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST), the nation’s highest honor for teachers of mathematics and science. Kathy’s teaching and research focus is on increasing the number of neurodiverse students who are mathematical thinkers, problem solvers, and self-regulated learners. Kathy graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Russian and minor in mathematics. She completed a degree in mathematics at LMU, and she holds a Master of Arts in Teaching Mathematics from LMU. She also attended the University of Leningrad during the Soviet era.

Dr. Desimone is Professor and Director of Research in the College of Education and Human Development, with a faculty appointment in the School of Education and an affiliation with the Evaluation, Measurement and Statistics faculty group. She holds a secondary appointment in the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration. Before that, she was a professor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania from 2007 until 2018, with a secondary appointment at the School of Social Policy and Practice. She was an assistant professor at Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt University from 2001-2007, and before that was a senior research scientist at the American Institutes for Research, and a post-doctoral research associate at Yale University’s Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy. She was also a researcher at RAND in Washington, D.C., and at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Dr. Shelley Jallow has decades of experience in school district turnaround and leadership operations. She is currently serving as an appointed State Monitor for a school district in New York State. As State Monitor, Dr. Jallow provides oversight, guidance and technical assistance related to the educational and fiscal policies, practices, programs, and decisions for the school district, including the Board of Education.

Dr. Jallow’s classroom and administrative experience is vast, having served as a mathematics teacher, mathematics director, director of curriculum and instruction, chief academic officer, founding principal, assistant superintendent, deputy superintendent, and associate professor. She has served traditional and charter school organizations throughout New York and New Jersey including, Hartford, CT, New Orleans, LA, Prince Georges County, MD, Trenton, NJ, and Mt. Vernon, NY. Dr. Jallow has a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Howard University, master’s degree in secondary math education from City University of NY and a doctorate in education from St. John Fisher College in Rochester.

Jennifer Langer-Osuna is associate professor of elementary mathematics education at Stanford University. Her research focuses on peer interactions during collaborative mathematics problem-solving. Specifically, she examines how students position themselves and one another with social and intellectual authority during collaborative learning activities, shaping opportunities for both learning and identifying with mathematics. Her research has contributed to the study of identity development in mathematics education, illuminating discursive links between learning and becoming through classroom experiences. She works with both pre-service and in-service elementary school teachers to develop productive and inclusive collaborative mathematics classrooms. She was a Spencer/National Academy of Education post-doctoral scholar. Her work has appeared in the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Journal of the Learning Sciences, Review of Research in Education, Mathematics Teaching and Learning, ZDM, Mathematics Education Research Journal, Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education, among other outlets.

Angela Pilcher has been an educator for more than 25 years with 21 years as an employee of Stockton Unified. She has classroom experience in preschool and intermediate grades and has spent the last 12 years as Stockton’s Math Curriculum Specialist. As a Curriculum Specialist, Angela provides professional development, site support, and in-class support to administrators and teachers in all things math.

Personally, Angela has a quaint family of four. Married to her husband for 17 years, they have two children ages 12 and 7 and live in the small rural town of Linden. When she’s not deep in mathematics support at work, Angela and her family love to hitch up to their travel trailer and “glamp” as often as they can.

Robert Sheffield is an Educator, Executive and Entrepreneur.  

Robert’s career in education began in 1997 as a substitute teacher and paraprofessional.  He then went on to teach World and American History to high school students in his hometown of Daytona Beach, FL.  In 2015, after several years away from the classroom, Robert’s passion for teaching led him to return to the classroom to join the Cal-State Long Beach History-Social Science credential program as a pre-service instructor teaching Introduction to Teaching History-Social Science and Methods for Teaching History-Social Science to Secondary Students.  

Robert’s pathway towards executive leadership is multifaceted, and grounded in his knowledge of teaching and learning.  He was a highly effective district administrator who was responsible for expanding college readiness opportunities for students in his district.  Robert spread his influence through roles at the College Board that called on him to develop professional learning and coaching solutions for school leaders.  During that time, Robert developed a deep understanding of the systemic drivers of high-quality curriculum implementation and was noted a contributing author for the College Board’s 2014 SpringBoard Math program.  He then went on to lead several successful projects and teams at WestEd that focused on teaching quality, school leadership and family engagement.  In this role as President of CORE, he sets the strategic vision and direction for CORE and manages the organization’s daily operations.

Robert is also a highly sought after organizational consultant for education nonprofits, education related startups, and philanthropic organizations.  He is known within these circles as someone with a firm grasp of the realities of teaching and what it takes to create the conditions for teachers to learn and improve their practice across large systems.  He is an advocate for teachers and leaders, and is committed to ensuring that their needs are met as districts, states and external actors work to improve outcomes for students.