Mary Jane Morris Executive Director

Mary Jane Morris, Executive Director of the Consortium for Educational Change, has had a varied 25-year career in education. Most recently, she has served as the Instructional Resource and Professional Development Director for the Illinois Education Association. In March of 2011, she was appointed as CEC Executive Director. Her work with the Consortium for Educational Change, a nonprofit organization, supports schools and districts through ongoing collaboration with teachers, administrators, school board members and union leaders to improve student learning and achievement.

Heather Waller Peloquin Director of Operations

Heather Waller-Peloquin joined the CEC team in 2008 as CEC’s administrative assistant and became the Director of Operations in 2009. She assists both CEC consultants and member districts with overall coordination of contracted consulting work. Her role includes human resources, program and budget management, technical assistance, CLASS administrative assistant, and serves as secretary on the CEC Steering Committee.

Prior to CEC, Heather was a Social and Corporate Event Coordinator. Heather received her bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University; Carbondale.

John Falson Director of Finance

John has been the Director of Finance for CEC since January 2008. As a member of the CEC management team, John manages all financial activities for the company. John has previously been the owner of an accounting and tax practice. He also has a broad background in investments and property management. John graduated from DePaul University with a BS in Accounting.

Mary McDonald School & District Transformation Core Service Director

Mary McDonald has worked for CEC since 2005 in supporting comprehensive school improvement and restructuring efforts in several Illinois and Ohio districts.

She also has been instrumental in developing and implementing a curriculum for comprehensive union leadership to assist union leaders in retooling their locals to more successfully address the needs of their members in teaching and learning.

Ms. McDonald has more than 30 years of service in public education. She taught middle and high school students and served as a school improvement coach for Springfield Public Schools, where she developed expertise in helping middle and high school leadership teams and their faculty to analyze and use data for continuous improvement. Ms. McDonald was president of both the Ball-Chatham Education Association, the Springfield... (Read More)

Dr. Pamela Rosa Teacher Effectiveness Core Service Director

Dr. Pamela Rosa serves as the Core Service Director for Effective Professional Practices within the Consortium for Educational Change (CEC) specifically leading the Teacher Effectiveness work through design/development/master training of teacher effectiveness core curriculum based upon the Framework for Teaching for teachers/specialists and evaluators/administrators. In addition to working with CEC, Pam has had a wide variety of roles and responsibilities in education by serving as a K-6 Principal and a District Grants and Professional Development Coordinator in Pekin District 108, working as a School Improvement Consultant for the Illinois State Board of Education around Systems Change and Improvement, and as a K-8 Educator, Lead Teacher and Literacy Specialist in Peoria Public Schools 150. Pam’s received her Bachelors in Elementary Education and Masters in Educational Administration from Illinois State University and recently received her doctorate in Educational Organization and Leadership from University of Illinois – Champaign-Urbana.

Perry Soldwedel System Effectiveness Core Service Director

Perry Soldwedel works with CEC districts on system change. In that capacity, he facilitates the Compact for Quality and serves as a coach/consultant with district leaders as they strive to improve their performance results.

Perry also leads external review teams at both the district and school levels to provide organizations with feedback related to continuous improvement framework and processes. His expertise is in the areas of shared leadership, strategic planning/visioning, and data systems to improve instruction. In addition he is a facilitator or the S.M.A.R.T. goal process. He supports district and school leaders in providing the support and resources necessary to build a systematic improvement process.

Prior to joining CEC in 2004, he worked in Illinois public education for 34 years, as an elementary... (Read More)

Dr. Allan Alson Senior Consultant

Dr. Allan Alson works with CEC on school and district transformations. In that capacity, he is involved with school board goal-setting and strategic planning; improved leadership appraisal systems; and consultative services for school districts on high school reform, closing achievement gaps, and leadership development. He joined CEC in 2008.

Dr. Alson began his teaching career as a junior high school mathematics teacher in the Philadelphia Public Schools and served as a teacher and administrator in several communities in Massachusetts, including several years as assistant director of the Boston Public Schools/Boston University Desegregation Collaborative.

He was superintendent of Evanston (Illinois) Township High School (ETHS) from 1992 until June 2006. While superintendent, the achievement gap at ETHS narrowed,... (Read More)

Gail Capps Project Consultant

Gail Capps has been an educator and teacher leader in elementary, middle and high school systems. She has worked as a special education teacher, school improvement coach and professional development coordinator in a large urban district.

As a Transformation Project Consultant for CEC, Gail is working on the lead provider school improvement grant (SIG) team. Gail provides expertise in theareas of school reform, professional learning communities, response to intervention, SMART Goals, data decision-making, differentiated instruction and change practice.

She holds her bachelors degree in Child, Family and Community Services from University of Illinois at Springfield and Special Education from Illinois State University. Gail also earned her Masters in Education in both Administration and Teacher Leadership from... (Read More)

Joyce Crews Project Consultant

Joyce retired from biology and chemistry teaching in 2010 after 33 years in the classroom. Her last five years were also spent serving as the mentoring coordinator and mentor to new teachers in her district. For the last two years she has served as part of a wrtiting team developing materials to be used in the new teacher forums in the 22 district consortium her district is part of. She has been trained in the New Teacher Center materials and has a strong belief in the importance of this work.

Ann Cummins Bogan Senior Consultant

Ann Cummins Bogan has been an educator for over 19 years. As a teacher leader, she co-chaired a district committee to design and implement a new appraisal system. Ann’s experience includes mentoring, peer-coaching, and creating professional development for teachers around the Framework for Teaching. Ann holds an M.A. in Teaching and a C.A.S. in Educational Leadership from National Louis University.

Brad Cawn Project Consultant

Brad Cawn supports CEC districts in multiple areas of instructional improvement, including Common Core implementation, curriculum and assessment development, and professional learning systems. He brings a “whole systems” perspective, drawn equally from his experiences as a Central Office administrator at Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and his continued role as a teacher educator at Northeastern Illinois and DePaul Universities, to his supports, enabling him to provide facilitation expertise in both strategic planning and hands-on coaching to educators and administrators alike.

Tim Davis Senior Consultant

Tim worked in School District U-46 (Illinois’ second largest district with 41,000+ students) for thirty-three years. During that time, he taught fifth grade at Lords Park Elementary School in Elgin. Tim was also active in the Elgin Teachers Association throughout his teaching career and served as its president from 2004 – 2010. During those years, the ETA participated in Great Lakes TURN and National TURN, The Mooney Institute for Teacher Union Leadership and the Consortium for Educational Change. He also served on CEC’s Steering Committee as co-chair during the 2009 – 2010 school year. Last year Tim worked as a Senior Consultant (GL TURN/Danielson’s Framework for Teaching) with the Consortium for Educational Change and as a coach for the NEA Foundation Institute for Innovation in Teaching and Learning.

Kay Dimon Project Consultant

Kay Dimon has worked for CEC since 2007 in the area of SES (Supplemental Education Services) and as a consultant with the Peoria Middle School Cohort.

She has served in Rockford, Peoria, Meridian, Cairo and Egyptian Schools to implement after school SES programs for low income students. CEC’s philosophy is that teachers in the buildings who know the students can serve as the most effective service providers for tutorial services mandated by ESEA. CEC partners with Princeton Review to provide an intervention program for students performing at or below grade level expectations.

Kay has worked in Springfield Schools for 31 years as a teacher, guidance dean, and middle school principal. She is currently working at Lanphier High School as an Asst. Principal.

Kay is a nationally certified CRISS (Creating... (Read More)

Bill DuBois Senior Consultant

Bill DuBois is new addition to consultant work with CEC, although has been associated with CEC since the early 1990’s. Bill’s work with CEC will center on Framework, evaluator, and mentor training .

Bill spent his entire 33 year public education career in Elgin School District U-46 where, among other things, he was instrumental in developing and implementing an award winning mentoring and induction program, a new teacher evaluation/appraisal program, and building a Teacher Effectiveness Initiative Department which focused on critical aspects of teacher, administrator, and system effectiveness all in the support of enhanced practice to improve student learning experiences.

Bill has taught and coached at the elementary, middle and high school levels and spent the last nine years of his career in Elgin as a member... (Read More)

Linda Hasenmyer

Linda Hasenmyer has been with CEC since 2007. The focus of her work is in the area of SES (Supplement Educational Services) in Southern Illinois. She has 25 years in public school experience and 4 years in the private school. In both areas she received awards for her teaching. She taught and directed the Safe School for students on suspension or expulsion in Decatur, IL through ROE 39 and continued that work as she provided oversight to Safe Schools around the state with ROE 47. For four years she was a RESPRO for ROE 02 in the 24 southern counties in Illinois. She has been a team member with the Teacher First Induction Mentoring and continues the communication through the BTSA website tool.

Sheryl Hutchinson Project Consultant

Sheryl Hutchinson has been with CEC since 2008. The focus of her work is with districts on developing high quality mentoring and induction programs. Sheryl is a mentor trainer certified by the New Teacher Center. In addition, she assists CEC districts in the use of the Charlotte Danielson Framework for Teaching to support teacher evaluation and professional development.

Sheryl worked for 37 years as a Special Education, middle school, and high school teacher. In addition, she was the district coordinator for PBIS for the Rockford Public School District. She has her BA in Education from Illinois State University and MS in Ed. from Northern Illinois University.

Since retiring from public education, Sheryl has taught a graduate level education course at Rockford College. The emphasis in on her passion, classroom... (Read More)

Dr. Margaret Jobe Project Consultant

Dr. Jobe is a former teacher, principal, and Director of Special Education. She has 34 years of public school experience with eleven years as an adjunct professor in the Special Education Department at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana campus. As the Director of Special Education for Champaign Unit 4, she has worked with all disability areas, has implemented best practices for students with disabilities, and has implemented all current revisions to the IDEA and the NCLB guidelines. She currently serves as a consultant to several school districts within Illinois, and as a consultant to ISBE.

Mary Lange Project Consultant

Mary Lange’s focus as a CEC staff member is in the area of effective professional practice. Her role includes providing training and support to school districts, with an emphasis on the mentoring and coaching of new teachers.

Prior to joining CEC, Mary was employed for 35 years in Pekin School District 108. During her tenure in the public school system, she was a classroom teacher, a learning center teacher providing instructional support to staff, and served as the site coordinator for the Illinois State University/Pekin Professional Development School. Mary has been involved with teacher support at all levels – preservice, novice, and veteran teachers. She served as the district facilitator for the new teacher program and worked closely with administration and staff to assist and support the professional growth of... (Read More)

Dr. Melanie Raczkiewicz Project Consultant

Dr. Melanie Raczkiewicz works with individuals and teams to help them identify and intentionally leverage opportunities while building their confidence to try new strategies designed to elevate their work and enhance their professional capacity to lead. With an extensive knowledge of effective teaching strategies, a broad perspective of curriculum, and a sophisticated awareness of successful organizational patterns, she skillfully motivates others toward common goals that result in providing the best possible educational experiences for all students.

With 35 years of experience in the profession, Dr. Raczkiewicz most recently served as the Chief Operating Officer and Associate Superintendent in Naperville School District 203 where she worked closely with the Superintendent of Schools and Board of Education to maximize... (Read More)

Kris Reichmann Senior Consultant

Kris Reichmann serves as a CEC Senior Consultant, providing Danielson-based teacher and evaluator training and assists leadership teams in designing district-wide Teacher Evaluation plans.

Kris brings a wide array of experience as a K-8 teacher, non-profit leader, and consultant. Prior to her work at CEC, she served as the executive director of the Chicago Foundation for Education, where she implemented programming focused on developing instructional effectiveness, teacher leadership and the dissemination of effective practice across Chicago Public schools. She was also the founding executive director of a community-based educational organization focused on implementing school-wide improvement, parent involvement and professional development programming across a network of schools serving the North Lawndale... (Read More)

Carrie Scheib Senior Consultant

Carrie is working with CEC to help districts develop teacher evaluation systems that incorporate measures of student growth. Prior to her work with CEC, Carrie taught middle school mathematics in rural Arkansas, as a Teach For America corp member. As Senior Manager of School Performance with Chicago Public Schools (CPS), she coached principals, instructional leaders, and teachers on using data to drive instruction and building Professional Learning Communities.

Carrie also created and led professional development to groups of more than 150 administrators and teachers on a variety of topics, including building teams, using data to drive instruction, adopting the Common Core Standards, designing, implementing, and monitoring Response to Intervention programs, and developing Theories of Action.

Through her professional... (Read More)

Dr. Pam Scherzer Senior Consultant

Dr. Pam Scherzer works with CEC, coaching new school principals through CEC’s Coaching Leaders to Attain Student Success (CLASS) program and providing workshops through CEC’s New Leader Institutes, training teacher mentors using the New Teacher Center (University of California at Santa Cruz) model, and training school leaders in the use of Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching. Recently, she has been involved in working with districts to develop staff evaluation plans based on the Danielson Framework.

In addition to her work with CEC, Dr. Scherzer is a consultant to school districts, supporting organizational and staff development efforts designed to improve student learning. She has provided support through coaching to districts striving to become professional learning communities.

Dr. Scherzer’s... (Read More)

Yvonne Smith Senior Consultant

Yvonne Smith joined CEC in 2005 as a coach for the Leadership Coaching Program. In this role she provided one-on-one, direct, job-embedded coaching to beginning principals. She has also co-facilitated the Danielson Framework training to a pilot group of elementary and high school principals and teachers.

In 2010 Yvonne joined the New Teacher Center as the Executive Leadership Lead Coach for the Chicago Principal Induction Program. As lead coach she supports the onboarding of new principals in the Chicago Public Schools. She supervises principal coaches and supports their ongoing development of blended coaching skills from the Coaching Leaders to Attain Student Success (CLASS) training.

Prior to coming to the New Teacher Center, Yvonne served as an elementary school teacher and, for ten years as a Chicago Public... (Read More)

Janet Tate Project Consultant

Janet Tate has recently joined CEC as a Project Consultant. She is currently enrolled in the New Teacher Center Presenter’s Academy. She will be working in the southern region as a mentor trainer. Ms. Tate has completed the New Teacher Center Mentoring Modules. Over the past two years she has been a beginning teacher mentor focusing on the Charlotte Danielson Frameworks for Teaching. She has also served as a member of the writing and facilitating team for mentor forums.

Gail Tolbert Senior Consultant

Gail Tolbert, Senior Consultant for Consortium for Educational Change is working as on site/ lead partner consultant on a SIG (School Improvement Grant) Team. She also provides Danielson-based teacher and evaluator training and supports schools in school improvement and restructuring efforts.

She has worked in public education for over 20 years as an elementary and special education teacher, elementary principal. as a consultant she has planned and delivered professional learning, supports collaborative work, coaches leaders, facilitates group work, and has implemented and utilized web based content management systems in districts.

Dr. Marleis Trover Project Consultant

Dr. Trover teaches graduate educational administration courses in her position of associate professor at McKendree University in Lebanon, Illinois. She teaches leadership courses in curriculum, school finance, the principalship, organizational theory, public relations and community involvement, school law, and supervision of staff. Marleis also served on the Governor’s Team for Educational Excellence, the Illinois Virtual High School Board, the Illinois Baldrige in Education Board Dr. Trover actively participated with the Vienna Leadership Team as part of the Illinois Learning Partnership Program. She served two terms on the Illinois (EFAB) Educational Funding Advisory Board.

Dr. Cheryl Troyer Senior Consultant

Dr. Cheryl Troyer has been affiliated with CEC since 2007 as a coach and presenter for the Leadership Coaching Program. In July 2010 she accepted an expanded role to co-direct the program with Dr. Jane Gard. Prior to that, she served for two years as Co-Director of Teaching and Learning for the DuPage Regional Office of Education. As an independent consultant and coach she has helped clients launch coaching programs, develop and align curriculum, nurture leadership capacity, articulate vision and beliefs, assess organizational health, and build learning communities.

Dr. Mark Van Clay Project Consultant

Dr. Mark Van Clay is a systems specialist who works through CEC to perform school board, superintendent and central office training and role alignment around district-based continuous improvement best practices. Dr. Van Clay specializes in:
- system assessments
- strategic visioning
- aligning district budgets and spending to a strategic plan
- aligning central office/superintendent/board appraisal systems and instruments
- implementing district-wide professional learning communities
- leadership training
- scorecards and dashboards
- SMART Goals
- collaborative culture strategies
- board/superintendent micromanagement-avoidance strategies
- developing school board/superintendent teams as strategic leaders.

Dr. Cindy Worner Project Consultant

Dr. Cindy Worner works with school districts that wish to redesign their evaluation system while also providing teachers with some additional, mentoring support. In her work, she helps teachers and administrators develop an understanding of the Charlotte Danielson Framework. Once an understanding of the Framework has been developed, she further assists and supports teachers and administrators as they learn how to use the Framework during the evaluation/mentoring process. She also assists with the implementation of the New Teachers Center Principal Coaching Program (CLASS-Coaching Leaders to Attain Student Success) in Illinois.

Lillian Yow Senior Consultant

Lillian Yow supports CEC districts in the area of effective professional practice. Her passion lies in working with other educators to advance the teaching profession by developing high-quality induction, mentoring, and teacher support systems that promote reflective teacher leadership and social justice in public schools, particularly in the areas of linguistic and cultural understanding.

Lillian has worked in education since 1999, in both California and Texas. In California she served as a district-level professional development consultant working with several Title I and Title III schools; in this capacity, she trained teachers in effective practices for English Language Learners (ELLs). She also coordinated a site-level English Language Development (ELD) program, developed ELL teacher self-reflection protocols for... (Read More)

Nick Alexander Creative Technology Consultant

As a Creative Technology Consultant, Nick Alexander helps businesses to expand their operations by creating, managing, and optimizing their information systems and marketing efforts. This includes diverse but complementary services such as database, website, and mobile application development; search engine optimization; and video production and post-production. He has worked with CEC to increase the effectiveness of their databases and website.

Alexander also provides training in creative technology and media, having co-taught a course at UCLA Extension and led workshops at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada and the Public Television Service in Taipei, Taiwan. He holds as Bachelors Degree in Cinema-Television with a minor in Video Game Design and Management from the University of Southern California.