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Tony Habit
President
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Bio:
As its founding president, Dr. Tony Habit developed the NC New Schools Project to become a $60 million private-public venture to transform secondary education in North Carolina. He is an experienced leader for the development of school reform and innovation strategies with government, higher education, and the private sector. Habit partnered with Office of the Governor, the State Board of Education, colleges and universities and others to create the largest network of early college high schools in the nation. Under Habit's leadership, North Carolina's early colleges were named by the Harvard Kennedy School of Government as an "Innovation in American Government" award recipient.
Habit regularly presents to governmental committees and commissions at the state and federal levels including presentations to the United States Senate HELP committee. He has traveled extensively to learn about school innovation in other countries. In 2000 he was named an Eisenhower Fellow to travel to Australia and New Zealand to study market competition and school quality and the use of technology to enhance teaching. He leads strategies to improve teacher effectiveness, to reinvent leadership development, to incorporate technology into schools and classrooms, to blend secondary and post-secondary strategies for learning and to leverage the engagement of the private sector for school success.
He serves on boards and advisory committees for several organizations including the National High School Center, North Carolina eLearning Commission, World View and the Joining Our Businesses and Schools (JOBS) Commission. Habit earned a doctorate in educational administration from Columbia University, Teachers College in New York. He began his career as a counselor for special needs students in middle and high schools. The Public School Forum of North Carolina presented Habit with its inaugural Lever Award that recognizes leadership for public-private partnerships that transform public education.
To contact:
919.277.3762
thabit@newschoolsproject.org -
Dana Diesel Wallace
Vice President, Systems Design
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Bio:
Throughout her 18 years of experience in public education, Dana Diesel Wallace has acted as a change agent for the sole purpose of improving academic performance for all students.
Diesel Wallace began her career as a high school physical educator in Virginia. She served as an assistant principal in New Jersey for three years before returning to Virginia to serve as an assistant principal and later high school principal. Subsequently, Diesel Wallace worked for Wake County Public Schools as the senior director for middle school education. For the last four years, she has served as the superintendent of West Fargo Public Schools in North Dakota.
Diesel Wallace earned a bachelor's degree in education from Old Dominion University, a master's degree in educational leadership from Harvard University and a doctorate in educational leadership from Teacher's College at Columbia University. Prior to her career in public education, Diesel Wallace was the owner/operator of a freelance photography business in Houston, TX.To contact:
919.277.3780
dwallace@newschoolsproject.org -
Lynne Garrison
Vice President, Strategic Partnerships and Engagement
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Bio:
With more than 25 years experience leading communications and outreach for public and private institutions, Lynne Garrison cultivates relationships and leverages talent and resources to create innovative initiatives and to find efficient ways to drive results in dynamic and challenging environments.
Prior to joining the NC New Schools Project in January 2011, Garrison was vice president of corporate communications for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. She held key roles in former Governor Jim Hunt's administration, serving as deputy press secretary to the Governor and director of public affairs for the NC Department of Health and Human Services. Garrison also led communications for the Wake County Public School System.
Throughout her career, Garrison has helped to build and sustain public-private partnerships that make a difference for North Carolinians. She supported the creation of Smart Start early childhood initiative through effective communications and grassroots outreach. She was a founding board member and former chair of the High Five Regional High School Excellence initiative, which brought the professional learning community movement to 285 schools and more than 215,000 students across five districts. She helped to create a public-private partnership called FitTogether, which inspired and recognized communities across the state for promoting wellness and physical activity.
Garrison has received the Triangle Business Journal's Women in Business Award, BCBSNC's Volunteer of the Year Award, the Holmes Group SABRE Award for #1 healthcare PR campaign, more than 10 Best of Blue national awards from BCBSA, and more than 30 national and statewide School Public Relations Association awards.
Active in the community, Garrison has served in numerous leadership positions with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, the NCSU Foundation, the Wake Education Partnership's Board of Trustees and Directors, the Administrative Council of Apex United Methodist Church, and Leadership North Carolina. She earned her B.A. degree in business management at North Carolina State University where she was a North Carolina Fellow and editor of The Technician.To contact:
919-277-3778
lgarrison@newschoolsproject.org -
Sofi Frankowski
Senior Program Director
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Bio:
With 12 years experience as a classroom teacher, including being named 2002 Teacher of the Year in Wake County schools, Sofi Frankowski has worked with strategies to de-track high school classrooms to ensure an academically rigorous experience for all students. A National Board Certified teacher, she has served in a variety of leadership roles, including mentor teacher, member of the Wake County Superintendent's Teacher Advisory Council and member of the Wake Education Partnership's Board of Directors.
Frankowski holds a bachelor's degree in public policy studies from Duke University and a master's degree in education from Stanford University. She is also a graduate of the NC Education Policy Fellowship Program.
To contact:
919.277.3765
sfrankowski@newschoolsproject.org -
Jodi Anderson
Director of the North Carolina Center for Educational Leadership
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Bio:
Jodi Anderson brings more than 28 years of experience as an educator and student advocate. She began her teaching career in Virginia as a middle and high school science teacher, then went on to serve as an elementary, middle and high school principal in Granville County. Anderson also has worked at the district level as the testing and accountability director, elementary and middle school director, and most recently as assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. In her doctoral dissertation on male dropouts in rural schools, Anderson identified new research that has fueled her passion to help all students succeed.
Anderson holds a bachelor's degree in botany from DePauw University, a master's degree in educational leadership from UNC-Chapel Hill and a doctoral degree in educational leadership from the University of Phoenix.
To contact:
919.277.3768
janderson@newschoolsproject.org -
Joyce Loveless
Director, Early College High Schools
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Bio:
Joyce Loveless is an experienced educator with a diverse background in teaching and learning, professional development, and cultural competency. Loveless has worked extensively to promote accomplished teaching, professional development, teacher leadership and student achievement, especially in high need communities.
At the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, Loveless directed its signature diversity and equity programs. She created partnerships and leveraged resources with national education associations, school systems, foundations, and school-business community organizations. She has served as an advisory board member for NC State's Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, North Carolina's Beginning Teacher Support Standards Commission and the Center for Teaching Quality's Science and Math Initiative. She has contributed to papers on national teaching and professional development standards as well as the recruitment and retention of accomplished teachers in underrepresented communities.
Loveless began her career in Wake County, N.C., as a language arts teacher at Zebulon Middle School. She holds a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Virginia Tech and a master's degree in adult education and development from NC State University. She is an Education Policy Fellow for the Institute of Educational Leadership and is a National Board Certified Teacher.To contact:
919.277.3761
jloveless@newschoolsproject.org -
April Anthony
Director of Development
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Bio:
April Anthony has been a professional fundraiser for 25 years, developing experience with corporate and foundation donors, annual campaigns, endowment campaigns, capital campaigns, special events, marketing and planned giving programs. Most recently she served as director of development with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, where she led Corporate Partnerships/Southeast for the past five years. In this position, Anthony was responsible for national corporate partnerships of $250,000 and above, raising $10 million annually.
Previous development positions include the Raleigh Boys & Girls Clubs, University of San Diego, The Leukemia Society, The Arthritis Foundation, Wake Education Partnership and The Make-A-Wish Foundation. Anthony is a past chair of the Triangle Association of Fundraising Professionals and was recognized in 2005 as Fundraiser of the Year for the Triangle.To contact:
919.277.3779
aanthony@newschoolsproject.org -
Frances Bradburn
Program Director
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Bio:
Frances Bryant Bradburn is a former director of instructional technology for the NC Department of Public Instruction. Her primary focus at NCNSP is supporting the 1:1 laptop pilot schools across the state. A graduate of Wake Forest University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro's Department of Library and Information Science, she has worked at the K-12, university, and state levels in a variety of media and technology positions. The former editor of North Carolina Libraries, Bradburn authored Output Measures for School Library Programs, reviews young adult titles for Booklist, and has written a variety of journal articles on both media and technology.
Bradburn's current professional affiliations are with the American Library Association, the NC School Library Media Association, the NC Library Association and the NC Association of Educational Communications and Technology. Awards include the Mary Peacock Douglas Award (1998), the UNC-G SLIS Outstanding Alumnus (1995), the East Carolina University Friend of Education (2007) and the NCLA Distinguished Service Award (2007).
To contact:
919.277.3795
fbradburn@newschoolsproject.org -
Laura Carlson
Executive Assistant
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To contact:
919.277.3767
lcarlson@newschoolsproject.org -
Kristin Cuilla
Director of the NC New Technology Network
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Bio:
Kristin Cuilla brings more than 18 years of experience as a high school teacher and administrator to her work at NCNSP. She began her career in Florida as a high school English teacher, then went on to teach and coach in North Carolina before serving as a high school assistant principal and principal in Wake County. During her 13 years in Wake, she opened two innovative high schools. Cuilla also worked at the district level, coordinating high school English and language arts initiatives.
Cuilla holds a bachelor's degree in English and secondary English education and a master's degree in English literature, both from Florida State University. She also holds a master's degree in school administration and a doctoral degree in educational research and policy analysis from North Carolina State University.
To contact:
919.277.3770
kcuilla@newschoolsproject.org -
Linsey Dyson
Special Projects Consultant
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Bio:
Linsey Dyson has worked in the marketing and event management field with non-profit organizations and large multi-national corporations for more than 16 years. Prior to her work at the NC New Schools Project, Dyson worked as a special projects consultant at Wake Education Partnership. At NCNSP, she is focused on facilitating all professional development and advocacy events.
Dyson holds dual bachelor's degrees in public relations and Spanish language from North Carolina State University.
To contact:
919.277.3774
ldyson@newschoolsproject.org -
Antonia Johnson
Program Director
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Bio:
Antonia Johnson has more than 15 years of experience in public education in North Carolina, having started as a high school English teacher in New Hanover County. As a NC Principal Fellow, she began her administrative career as an assistant principal in Brunswick County Schools. Before coming to NCNSP, Johnson served two years as a central office administrator and an assistant principal in the Wake County public schools. In addition, Johnson has served as an education consultant with the NC Department of Public Instruction. During this time, she worked as a federal grant manager and the coordinator of the NC Safe Schools Conference.
Johnson holds a bachelor's degree in secondary English and a master's degree in school administration from UNC-Wilmington. She is also a graduate of the Leadership Program for Assistant Principals at UNC-Chapel Hill.
To contact:
919.277.3771
ajohnson@newschoolsproject.org -
Wendi Knapke
Director of Finance and Administration
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Bio:
Wendi Knapke brings more than 14 years experience in the field of accounting. The majority of her career was spent at Ernst & Young, LLP, in the audit and business advisory group, serving both the not-for-profit and healthcare industries.
Knapke holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, and is a certified public accountant in the state of North Carolina.
To contact:
919.277.3772
wknapke@newschoolsproject.org -
Isaac Lake
Program Director
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Bio:
During nine years as a public high school English teacher, Isaac Lake taught a wide variety of students and courses and worked to make collaborative partnership opportunities available to all students. Working with the Center for International Understanding and the International Affairs Council, Lake built partnerships with schools in Turkey and Denmark as a model for partnerships at other public schools. He enjoys helping students and teachers deepen and apply their knowledge.
Lake worked with UNC World View to develop an online course on globalization for education leaders and with the N.C. Public School Forum to ensure that North Carolina's public schools will be internationally competitive in the years to come. He continues to work with organizations such as the Institute for Emerging Issues, the Center on Globalization, Governance and Competitiveness, and RTI International to develop partnership opportunities with innovative schools and leaders.He served as a member of the working group on creativity for the 2010 Emerging Issues Forum. Lake traveled to Europe in 2007 as an American Memorial Marshall Fellow with the German Marshall Fund. He earned his bachelor's degree in English from Wake Forest University and his master's degree in teaching, with a focus in English, from UNC Chapel Hill.
To contact:
919.277.3773
ilake@newschoolsproject.org -
Robin Marcus
Program Director for STEM Education
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Bio:
Robin Marcus brings more than16 years of experience improving mathematics teaching and learning, particularly for students traditionally under-served in our educational system, to her work as program director for STEM education at NCNSP. She currently designs and coordinates support services for NCNSP STEM-focused schools and is collaborating on plans to scale STEM education in North Carolina. In addition, Robin supports improved mathematics and science teaching and learning across the NCNSP network and has designed professional development on rigor, assessment and grading as part of her work with the School Development Team. She is a trained facilitator of Secondary Lenses on Learning: Team Leadership for Middle and High School Mathematics and has facilitated SLoL seminars with 33 school teams across North Carolina.
For three years prior to joining NCNSP, Robin served as a mathematics instructional coach and teacher in an innovation high school in Baltimore, where she collaborated on a proposal for a new STEM school for girls, which opened in the fall of 2009. She served on the development team for the second edition of Core-Plus Mathematics, an innovative high school math curriculum, and has provided professional development for teachers of mathematics in national, regional and local workshops. She also worked as an evaluator and consultant for the Math Science Partnership of Greater Philadelphia.
Currently ABD, Robin completed coursework for a PhD in curriculum and instruction, specializing in mathematics education, at the University of Maryland. She holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Drake University and a master's degree in mathematics from Michigan State University.To contact:
919.277.3766
rmarcus@newschoolsproject.org -
Demond "De" McKenzie
Program Director
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Bio:
Throughout his 12 years in the Wake County Public School System, De McKenzie committed his career to establishing an environment that is conducive to learning for all students. As a high school teacher, he incorporated varied facets of the arts and life experiences into instruction to make math relevant and meaningful to students. Serving in the role of teacher, coach, sponsor and leader, he was recognized as the 1999 Raychem Educator of the Year and Fuquay-Varina High School's Teacher of the Year. As an assistant principal at the Cary High School Ninth-Grade Center, McKenzie worked with the staff to ensure a smooth transition from middle school to high school. Before coming to the NC New Schools Project, he served as the senior administrator of retention for WCPSS Human Resources, providing support for beginning teachers through professional development, mentors and recognition.
An alumnus of North Carolina State University, he earned both a bachelor's degree in mathematics education and a master's degree in school administration.
To contact:
919.277.3776
dmckenzie@newschoolsproject.org -
Cyndi Soter O'Neil
Strategic Communications Consultant
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Bio:
Cyndi Soter O'Neil brings experience from more than a decade of work in public education in North Carolina. She began her career as a high school English teacher in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, where she discovered an interest in journalism as her schools' newspaper advisor. Following her graduate studies, Soter O'Neil worked as a public schools advocate at Wake Education Partnership, managing the organization's communications, research, marketing and outreach efforts. Before joining the NC New Schools Project, she also served as research and communications consultant for the Guilford Education Alliance.
A North Carolina Teaching Fellow and a Roy H. Park Fellow, Soter O'Neil holds a bachelor's degree in education and a master's degree in journalism and mass communication from UNC-Chapel Hill. She also earned a postgraduate diploma in magazine studies from Cardiff University in Wales, UK, where she studied as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar.
To contact:
919.277.3763
coneil@newschoolsproject.org -
John Parker
Co- Director of Learning Laboratory Initiative
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Bio:
John Parker has 34 years of experience in public education. Dr. Parker was a high school mathematics teacher and coach for 18 of these years, having worked at Bayside High School (Virginia Beach, Va.), Northampton County High School East, and the NC School of Science and Mathematics. For 16 years, he worked as an administrator at the district level in Northampton County and Roanoke Rapids. He retired as superintendent of Roanoke Rapids Schools in 2006 after five years in that position. Under his leadership, the Roanoke Rapids community initiated Roanoke Rapids Living to Learn High School, a school supported by the NC New Schools Project.
Parker holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Guilford College, a master's degree in mathematics education from UNC-Greensboro and a doctoral degree in educational leadership from East Carolina University.
To contact:
919.277.3794
jparker@newschoolsproject.org -
Matt Sears
Program Director for STEM Education
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Bio:
Matt Sears joins NCNSP after seven years of teaching mathematics in Durham Public Schools. Sears helped found the redesigned Hillside New Tech High School and has become a leader in Project-Based Learning implementation in mathematics classrooms. A National Board Certified Teacher, he was named Durham's 2008-09 Teacher of the Year and participated in a Fulbright Teacher Exchange in Tamil Nadu, India. A graduate of the Kenan Fellows Program for Curriculum and Leadership Development at NC State University, Sears now sits on the Kenan Fellows Board of Advisors.
Sears holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics with computer science from Purdue University and a master's of arts in teaching degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.To contact:
919.277.3782
msears@newschoolsproject.org -
Todd Silberman
Program Director in Research and Communications
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Bio:
Todd Silberman has more than 20 years of experience with newspapers in North Carolina and California. As a reporter for The News & Observer in Raleigh, he wrote extensively about K-12 education for 15 years, reporting first on Wake County schools, one of the nation's largest districts, and later covering statewide education issues. His reporting helped bring attention to North Carolina's lagging high school graduation rate, inequities in the distribution of nationally certified teachers and flaws in the state's accountability system. Before joining The News & Observer, he was an investigative and projects reporter for the Fayetteville Observer-Times.
Silberman holds a bachelor's degree in history from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
To contact:
919.277.3769
tsilberman@newschoolsproject.org -
Vernitta Spruill
Program Assistant
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Bio:
Vernitta has been with the North Carolina New Schools Project for more than four years. Beyond the scope of her responsibilities as receptionist, she is also the administrative assistant to the director of finance and administration, operations manager and two program directors. She is the proud parent of twin daughters who both taught in New York City public schools as Teach for America corps members after graduating from Cornell University. They earned master's degrees in education from Pace University.To contact:
919.277.3760
vspruill@newschoolsproject.org -
Rebecca Stanley
Program Director for STEM Education
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Bio:
Rebecca Stanley joined NCNSP after teaching science in NC for 10 years. She served as a new teacher mentor, in addition to coordinating and presenting professional development for science teachers. In her teaching, Stanley actively promoted Modeling Instruction in Science, a guided inquiry approach to teaching that allows students to act as scientists to discover ideas about the world. She also served on a panel through the College Board to evaluate the PRAXIS test of Biology Content Knowledge.
Stanley holds a bachelor's degree in biology from UNC-Wilmington and a master's in science education from East Carolina University.To contact:
919.277.3783
rstanley@newschoolsproject.org -
Pernando Weatherhead
Administrative Assistant
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To contact:
919.277.3781
pweatherhead@newschoolsproject.org -
Pauline Younts
Program Director
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Bio:
Pauline Younts began her education career in Portsmouth, England, teaching in an urban fifth-grade classroom. She moved to the United States with the Visiting International Faculty in 1997 and taught core subjects with a seventh-grade middle school team in rural Pitt County, NC. For the next 10 years, Younts served students and families in Granville County as an elementary and middle school teacher, coach, mentor and director of instruction. She moved to high school as an assistant principal and later was appointed principal of South Granville High School of Health Sciences, a redesigned high school.
Younts earned a bachelor's of education degree in math and technology at The University College of St. Mark and St. John in Plymouth, England, and a master's degree in school administration from North Carolina State University.
To contact:
919.277.3784
pyounts@newschoolsproject.org
