Dawn Durham is an educational consultant with the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN). She holds a Master of Education degree in Teaching and Curriculum from Penn State University in addition to certifications in elementary education from Millersville University, reading specialist from Penn State University, and Teaching English as a Second Language from Drexel University. Dawn has held a variety of positions in the school setting during her years in the field as a classroom teacher, interventionist, instructional coach, and now educational consultant.  As a Certified Local LETRS trainer, Dawn is determined to provide evidence-aligned professional development to practitioners. She is a current doctoral student at Gwynedd Mercy University where she is pursuing a degree in Leadership in Special Education with her scope of work concentrated around teacher education. Dawn has presented at the International Research Methods Summer School, Limerick, Ireland on her dissertation research.

Lindsey Hayes, senior researcher at the American Institutes for Research, has six years of experience leading technical assistance efforts for U.S. Department of Education-funded national centers related to special education, intensive intervention, educator preparation, and educator quality. Hayes is currently the intensive technical assistance lead for the Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform (CEEDAR) Center. In this role she supports over 20 states to create robust networks between state education agencies, educator preparation programs, and local districts to align preparation policy and professional learning systems for teachers and leaders serving students with disabilities. She serves as the CEEDAR state lead for Colorado and New York. Additionally, Hayes serves as a technical assistance provider for the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) and is task leader for NCII’s work with institutions of higher education. From 2013 to 2019 Hayes was a technical assistance provider for the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders. She provided context expertise to regional comprehensive centers and state education agencies to implement educator talent management strategies outlined in state ESSA plans, including strategies to address educator shortages in critical areas such as special education. Hayes previously worked as a special education coordinator for Cesar Chavez Public Charter Schools for Public Policy and has special education teaching experience in two public charter high schools, both in the District of Columbia. Hayes earned her M.Ed. in special education from George Mason University and is a current doctoral student in special education at the University of Northern Colorado. 

Emma Herdean leverages connections, resources and research to provide attendance awareness, advocacy and assistance to school administration, students and families and to the community. She currently provides local attendance support to schools in the city of Detroit, helping to increase academic success in K-12. Emma’s knowledge and experience with non-profit organizations, family literacy programs, schools and community partnerships in the last twelve years have been instrumental for the current work of improving school attendance.

Emma led the implementation of family literacy programs through partnerships with community-based organizations and with the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) for a decade. She provided oversight for the implementation of the Community Schools model in the DPSCD for three years. She holds a BA in English and an MA in Linguistics, both from Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. Emma is currently earning her doctoral degree in Organizational Leadership from Oakland University in Rochester, MI. Emma is fully trilingual and consistently volunteers with children and youth programs, and with immigrant communities.

Milaney Leverson is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist who has been working in and supporting schools for over fifteen years. Milaney currently works as a Regional Technical Assistance Coordinator providing support and training for both PBIS and culturally responsive practices to schools in Wisconsin. She has collaborated with other state PBIS teams to embed culturally responsive practices into their PBIS framework and has presented at state, national, and international conferences on the topic of creating culturally responsive PBIS systems. Additionally, Milaney is a founding member of the Equity Work Group with the National PBIS Center.

Hedy is the founder and executive director of the non-profit initiative, Attendance Works. Attendance Works is the nation’s “go to” resource for strategies to reduce chronic absence (missing more than 10% of school for any reason). Since its founding in 2010, Attendance Works successfully moved chronic absence from a little-known term to a required reporting and optional school accountability metric in the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).  A dynamic speaker, Hedy is also the author of numerous article and reports on the impact of chronic absence on student success and educational inequities and what works to improve attendance.

Hedy has spent three decades working in the fields of family support, family economic success, education and child development. She served as a senior program officer at the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund and as co-director of California Tomorrow, a nonprofit committed to drawing strength from cultural, linguistic and racial diversity.  She has a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and B.A. from Occidental College.

Kent Smith has been a school social worker in Wisconsin for the last 20 years, and was a child abuse investigator and in-home family therapist before beginning working in schools.  He currently works for the Wisconsin Response to Intervention Center/PBIS Network, focusing on training and supporting culturally responsive practices and PBIS for schools in Wisconsin.  He has presented content on PBIS, Response to Intervention and PBIS, as well as Culturally Responsive Practices and PBIS at state, national and international conferences and has collaborated with other state PBIS team to begin embedding culturally responsive practices in their frameworks.   He is part of Wisconsin’s Culturally Responsive Practices team and a founding member of the Equity Work Group with the National PBIS Technical Assistance Center.

Jess Surles has over thirteen years of experience in delivering classroom instruction, collaborating with educators and leadership to support program implementation, and designing professional development on literacy and educational practices. Currently, she works for the Center on Teaching and Learning (CTL), University of Oregon and the National Center on Improving Literacy (NCIL) to develop curriculum and provide technical assistance across the nation. She partners with literacy experts and university researchers to integrate current research and instructional practice for educators, leadership, and educational agencies. Jess provides training, on-site coaching, and virtual support to assist with implementation of evidence-based literacy practices.

Jade Wexler is an Associate Professor in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education at the University of Maryland. Her current research focuses on designing reading interventions to support adolescents with reading difficulties and disabilities in the content-area and supplemental intensive intervention setting. She also focuses on designing and evaluating professional development and school-wide service delivery models to support the implementation of evidence-based literacy practices. Dr. Wexler currently serves as the PI on an IES funded Goal 2 development project, Project CALI, a middle school co-teaching and literacy professional development model. Dr. Wexler also currently serves as a Co-PI on an OSEP funded adolescent literacy model demonstration project aimed at designing a school-wide literacy model to improve outcomes for students with disabilities.  She has over 40 publications and is the co-author of three books about adolescent literacy and supporting adolescent literacy instruction across school-wide models.