Springboard Collaborative

As the AVP responsible for innovation and improvement, I oversee the teams responsible for innovation of new services and products and improving existing services and products.

Previously, as the Sr Director responsible for innovation, continuous improvement, and evaluation, I was responsible for structuring and overseeing what and how we learned about and respond to the needs of our stakeholders to build new services and products, improve our existing services, and understand and report on impact. I managed a growing team of researchers and consultants who use mixed research methods (human centered design, improvement science, qualitative, and quantitative methods) to help us understand what works and what doesn't in Springboard Collaborative's pursuit to close the literacy gap by closing the gap between home and school.

Specific accomplishments include overseeing the first external evaluation of Springboard's core programmatic offering that resulted in Springboard moving from Tier 4 to Tier 2 ESSA status, rapidly designing and iterating a new remote-friendly offering to continue to support children and families in reaching reading goals in response to COVID-19 that reached more families in one year than any previous year of Springboard programming, and instituting a new continuous-improvement process to manage the ongoing work of integrating feedback into content and program development.

Asst Vice President, Innovation and Improvement

Self Employed

I have helped clients in the non-profit, education, and small business sectors:
-Increase capacity of management staff to lead and improve offerings via data-informed decision-making processes
-Design custom assessment tools that simultaneously enhance student metacognition and capacity for transferring their learning while providing programmatic data on what’s working and what to improve
-Customize best practices in change-management and distributed decision making 
-Turn complex, seemingly overwhelming problems into discrete questions they can address through short-cycle tests and manageable actions
-Create effective student-facing online experiences
-Build rubrics for equitable assessment of student work

(See recommendations below for feedback from consulting clients)

Consultant

The Future Project

As VP of OLI, I build capacity in leaders across the org to identify clear, measureable, & meaningful goals, and work with them using human-centered continuous improvement practices to iterate toward those goals.

As product manager for our in-house tracking & insights software, I also support team members in using this data to inform their work while learning with them on how to improve the software. Through this process, I've brought data fidelity up by 30%. I manage a $200K budget and an array of outside contractors.

Vice President, Organizational Learning and Improvement

As Principal Scientist at The Future Project, I conducted original research into thriving and success, designed and launched the org's first external evaluation in partnership with UPenn, led the creation of a multi-year evaluation strategy, and established continuous learning and improvement processes throughout the organization.

I provided internal consulting to functional leaders on establishing effective OKRs, with a focus on what forms of data -- and processes around their use -- would accelerate successful completion of these objectives.

In addition, I helped close over $7M in foundation grants.

Principal Scientist

I established the Research and Evaluation department for The Future Project, which included setting up impact evaluation, helping to secure foundation grant renewals, and generating the first statistically significant evidence of impact across all ~50 school sites.

Vice President, Reseach and Evaluation

Daytona State College

I founded DSC's multi-campus/online College Writing Center, growing it from a department of one to a department of over 30 FT employees, PT employees, student workers, and faculty volunteers across 6 campuses. 

During my tenure as Director, the CWC became one of the only joint-use writing centers in the US, serving students from both the University of Central Florida and Daytona State. I also established the CWC as the first student-services department at the college to utilize data-driven assessment practices.

As administrator, I managed a $1M annual budget, supervised 7 FT and 15 PT staff, trained tutors and faculty, oversaw the development of DSC's WAC/WID faculty professional development program (see "Improving Success" below), and served on college-wide leadership committees for assessment design, re-accreditation processes, and more.

Simultaneously, I served as a faculty member, where I taught courses in writing and research, served on faculty senate (including successfully leading the initiative to redesign our tenure and promotion system), published scholarly articles and poetry in peer reviewed journals (see all links below), presented at conferences, obtained tenure, and was promoted to full professor.

Writing Center Director and Professor of Writing

University of Louisville

Assistant Director in the Writing Center, Graduate teaching assistant (teaching courses in business and professional writing, technical and scientific writing, creative writing, and college composition), writing tutor.

University Fellow

Experienced leader focused on continuous learning and innovation grounded in meaningful measures of success, data-informed decision making, and appreciative inquiry practices. Passionate advocate of student voice and participatory design. Co-author of forthcoming book "Can You Help Me Give a Sh*t?" which shares stories from high school and college students about why school sucks sometimes, their struggle to engage in school, and what they did in the face of those challenges.

Built departments from scratch, managed small and large teams, and navigated a variety of environments (from established institutions to the innovative chaos of social entrepreneurship). 

Skilled in Management, Communication, Assessment, Evaluation, and multiple forms of Research (design, qualitative, quantitative).

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