GUEST SPEAKERS

Lauryn Fullerton, Professional Learning Designer and Coach, WestEd's Educational Leadership and System Design Team

Lauryn's work is focused on partnering with school and district leaders to build their leadership capacity and improve student outcomes. Prior to joining WestEd, Lauryn worked as a Network Chief for Chicago Public Schools where she managed a portfolio of 18 schools, serving over 10,000 students. At CPS, she codified practices and provided professional development that improved students' outcomes. Before joining CPS, Lauryn was the Founding Chief of Schools at Ednovate, a mid-sized charter management organization in Los Angeles, where she designed the network's principal residency program and created the leadership development pipeline. Previously, Lauryn served as an instructor, assistant principal and principal at Noble Schools in Chicago and began her career as an elementary school teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools.

Dr. Jessica Gray, School Improvement Specialist, WestEd's Quality Schools and Districts Team

Passionate about education Jessica believes in the innate potential of every student to learn and flourish. In her role, she provides professional learning, technical assistance, coaching, and consultation, spearheading initiatives that promote positive experiences and outcomes for all students. Partnering with state education agencies, district and school-based leaders, and educators, she's dedicated to forging equitable systems that honor diversity in culture and identity, such as race, ability, gender, and social class. Prior to joining WestEd, Jessica worked as a Senior Professional Development Specialist, where she focused on culturally responsive practices. This role saw her collaborating closely with the New York State Education Department’s Office of Special Education. Her foundational experiences are rooted in her tenure as a Special Education elementary school teacher and literacy educator. Dr. Gray holds a BA in Elementary Education from Saint Peter’s University, an MA in Special Education and Literacy from the University at Albany, and a Ph.D in Educational Psychology and Methodology with a focus on Special Education from the same institution.

Karin Hess,  Ed.D., Author, President of Educational Research in Action

Karin Hess earned her EdD from the University of Vermont in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. She is the author/co-author of more than a dozen books/book chapters and the Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrices, now used in classrooms across the US and in more than 100 other countries. She is a former classroom teacher, building principal, and preK-12 curriculum and Title I director with over 40 years of deep experience in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Dr. Hess is recognized internationally as a leader in applying cognitive rigor, depth of knowledge (DOK), and learning progressions to the design of school-based curriculum and state assessment systems (e.g., lead author of SBAC test design).  Dr. Hess has also been the NJ state director of gifted education, and a technical advisor to EL Education’s development of criteria for high-quality student work, to Renaissance Learning’s application of learning progressions in test development, and to more than thirty state departments of education (e.g., guiding Maine’s early thinking about graduation exhibitions and NH’s model competencies in ELA, math, and science).

Anisa Sullivan Jimenez, Leading Now Managing Director of Programming & Communications

Anisa (pronounced Aneesa) Sullivan Jimenez (pronounced He-men-ez) is the Managing Director for Programming and Communications with Leading Now.

Prior to this role, she spent 15 years as the Director of Communications for two different school systems in Georgia. She also worked in public relations at the University of Georgia — where she earned her master’s in public administration — and was a columnist for the Athens Banner-Herald. She recently earned her certificate in education finance from Georgetown.

A native of Starkville, Mississippi, she lives in Athens, Georgia with her husband, and they are the proud parents of two children.

Nate Levenson, President, New Solutions K-12

Nate Levenson is president of New Solutions K-12. He is the author of Six Shifts to Improve Special Education and Other Interventions, published by Harvard Education Press. He brings a great deal of experience to the topic of raising achievement and improving fairness for students who struggle with and without disabilities.

As a superintendent he led an effort that closed the special education- general education achievement gap by 40 points at the high school level and reduced the number of struggling readers by 2/3 at the elementary level. As a consultant he has helped over 400  districts in 30 states better serve students with special needs, raise achievement of students living in poverty and address systemic challenges in education. This work included helping more than 500 schools build great schedules. As an author and thought leader he has written numerous books, scores or articles, a few white papers and regularly speaks nationally. He is also co-author of It’s Time for Strategic Schedules (ASCD).  His passion is helping to turn great ideas into a better reality for both students and staff.

Matt Mervis, Director Skills21 and AI Strategy at EdAdvance

Matt Mervis is a nonprofit team leader at EdAdvance, focused on creating technology to enable project-based learning and AI. He has deep experience in education having served in a range of roles including teacher, professional development specialist, district technology director and product developer. Currently, Matt is focused on building AI/PBL integration on the skills21.org platform and he frequently presents on AI and the future of education.

Ainsley Rose is in his 53rd year as an award-winning educator (Outstanding Achievement Award for Demonstrating Exemplarily Leadership in Education-Association of Administrators of English Schools of Quebec). Ainsley began as a high school teacher in 1973 at Massey Vanier High School in Cowansville, QC having graduated with a Master’s degree from Western University in London, Ontario. He then progressed to be an Elementary and Secondary Principal, and Director of Education in Quebec, Canada. He worked in both the District of Bedford now the Eastern Townships School Board and the Western Quebec School Board all in Canada.

Ainsley is now an author consultant, Keynote presenter, Senior Leadership Coach and facilitator of an extensive range of professional learning topics. His expertise includes effective schools research, Evidence-based teaching and learning highlighting Professor John Hattie’s research, Professional Learning Communities, Instructional Intelligence, standards and assessment, common formative assessment, TRIBES, Covey’s Seven Habits of Effective People.

Ainsley continues to collaborative extensively with LCEEQ (Leadership Committee for English Education in Quebec) and was recently appointed to lead the Strategic Leadership Institute with Dr. Megan Webster over the next two years.

He is President of Thistle Educational Development Inc. and professional development consultant with The Core Collaborative, The Leadership and Learning Center, Corwin Publishing, Solution Tree, Marzano Research, among other notable organizations. He has presented in several cities and countries around the world, among them Australia, Argentina, Lusaka, Zambia, Rotterdam, Cayman Island, Bermuda, Hawaii. He is a published contributing author for several educational publications and is currently working on his first book about Leadership Influence, efficacy and impact.

He has been married to the same with his wife for 53 years. Their three adult children and their spouses and seven grandchildren all live in West Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.

Caitlin Sullivan, Leading Now CEO & Co-Founder

Caitlin Sullivan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Leading Now, a nonprofit helping superintendents navigate the political and relational dimensions of their roles. She has spent her career partnering with education leaders to strengthen student opportunities and outcomes.

Before Leading Now, Caitlin spent eight years at Achievement Network (ANet), supporting high-quality instruction in under-resourced schools. She began her career as a Princeton Project 55 Fellow at CityBridge Foundation and later taught middle school science at KIPP DC. Caitlin earned her MBA from Yale. A Boston native, she lives in Rhode Island with her husband and three children.