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AASA is your advocate, with the resources you need to support all of your initiatives.
The AASA Executive Consultant Program links nationally recognized experts in the use of systems thinking with school districts and school system leaders.
To work with one of these consultants, or to be considered for this program, contact MaryAnn Jobe at 703-875-0734. If you prefer, you can also download a copy of the AASA Executive Consultants Brochure.
You can click on any of these listed skills to quickly find the AASA recommended consultants, or browse through the short biographies of each consultant at the bottom:
Executive Consultants by Speciality
John G. Conyers, Sharon W. Cox, Lew Finch, Mary Jo Kramer, Linda Marks, Hank Rubin
The AASA Leadeship Development department promotes its cadre of executive consultants and their unique services to help school system leaders improve student learning. Each executive consultant has unique expertise and offers different programs and services, including customized consulting services and educational programs.
Executive Consultants
Walter G. Amprey, Ed.D.— Walter is the president and CEO of Amprey and Associates Educational Consulting Group. He worked in both Baltimore City (115,000 students) and Baltimore County (90,000 students) School Systems for thirty-one years. After leaving the superintendency, but before starting Amprey and Associates, Dr. Amprey worked as national vice-president for two companies - one providing national conferences and the other providing instructional software solutions in mathematics. For the last ten years Dr. Amprey has lead the Amprey and Associates Educational Consulting Group. Dr. Amprey leads a team of educators and experts in the K-12 arena who specialize in a wide variety of areas.
His consulting services focus on:
Linda J. Dawson and Dr. Randy Quinn are senior partners of AGI: Aspen Group International, LLC. Their comprehensive policy-level training is designed to lead and coach boards of education to achieve a disciplined focus on student achievement. Their governance training calls for systemic and systematic board performance. Their governance model redefines the role of the board, clarifies board and superintendent relationships, establishes clear operational expectations and defines results for student achievement.
Clear accountability is the ultimate by-produc of their work. Dawson and Quinn are co-authors of two books, "Good Governance is a Choice" and "Boards That Matter". Both are former educatos and highly successful boards association executives. http://www.aspengroup.org
Their consulting services focus on:
Robert L. Bastress, Ph.D. — Bob Bastress is the president of Bastress Consulting Group and an adjunct instructor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He is the former director of the Professional Growth System for Administrators and Supervisors in Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools. He facilitated the creation of the Peer Assistance and Review (PAR) panel which oversees the evaluation process for principals and supervisors. He has provided professional development for over two hundred principals on data-driven decision-making focused on root cause analyses using system targets and Baldrige tools. He facilitated the creation of the leadeship standards which are now being used by New Leaders for New Schools nationally for its residents and principals in nine urban school districts.
John Jay Bonstingl — Widely regarded as a founder of the Quality Education movement, Jay is the author of the bestselling book Schools of Quality and a veteran Baldrige examiner whose team was called upon to assist in the development of the Baldrige Office's program in education.
John G. Conyers, Ed.D. — Under Dr. Conyers’ leadership as superintendent of Community Consolidated School District 15 (IL), the district was awarded the 2003 National Malcolm Baldrige Award for Excellence. He is a Malcolm Baldrige Examiner, keynote speaker, administrative trainer in systems alignment and performance results and author of Charting Your Course: Lessons Learning During the Journey Toward Performance Excellence.
Sharon W. Cox — A former two-term elected board member of nationally recognized Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools (MCPS), Sharon helps superintendents engage their boards in effective governance and their staff in strategic management for improved organizational and student performance. At the superintendent's invitation, she was the only board member for four years with the MCPS executive team at Harvard University's Public Education Leaderships Project and six years on the district's Baldrige in Education leadership team. Sharon has presented on effective practices at AASA, NSBA, NAESP national conferences and testified before Congress on educaton issues.
Her consulting services focus on:
John Eller — John Eller has had a variety of experiences in the 35+ years he has been in education. He has served as an assistant superintendent, a principal, a university professor working with educational administrators and teacher leaders, the Executive Director of a state affiliate of a national educational organization, and a regional principals’ center director. In addition, John was selected as National Distinguished Principal with the US Department of Education and the state principal of the year in 1994. In addition to the work he does in districts around the country, Eller is also the co-author of the AASA/Corwin Press book, So, Now You’re the Superintendent, the best selling, Energizing Staff Meetings, the recently released, Creative Strategies to Transform School Culture, and Working with and Evaluating Difficult School Employees.
His consulting areas include:
Lew Finch, Ed.D. — Lew Finch was superintendent for the Cedar Rapids Community School District from 1994 to 2004 and was named the 2004 Iowa Superintendent of the Year. Prior to that, he served as superintendent in several large, suburban school districts including Jefferson County, Colo., and Anoka-Hennepin, Minn. Finch was selected as one of North America's 100 outstanding school executives and was invited to present testimony before a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives regarding the No Child Left Behind Act. He also served as president of the Urban Superintendents Association of America.
Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Ed.D. — Kathleen Fitzpatrick is the founding director of the Leadership for Learning Alliance, building on her 30-year career working in and with K-12 school leaders. As a consultant, she has worked with state departments of education in more than 30 states, regional educational laboratories and local school districts across the country. She has authored several publications on educational leadership, program evaluation, systemic reform and research-based frameworks for school and system-wide improvement focused on student learning.
Fred Francis and Bill Harlow — This highly regarded team trains professionals to speak to the news media in times of crisis or calm. Fred, a former senior correspondent for NBC News, and Bill, a long time spokesman for the CIA, White House and Pentagon, teach individuals and groups of educators to effectively handle the press in today's lightening-paced, brief quote or sound bite environment. When your response to a reporter is reduced to 15 seconds or less, how do you insure your message gets out? Using stories, videos and audience participation, they draw on their years in the spotlight to provide the answer.
Neil Howe — best selling author and national speaker, is a renowned authority on generations in America. He provides powerful insights into who today's generation are, what motivates them as consumers and workers, and how they will shape our national future. He is also a recognized authority on global aging, long-term fiscal policy, and migration.
Lee Jenkins, Ph.D. — Lee Jenkins is president of From LtoJ Consulting Group in Scottsdale, Ariz. He is a former superintendent who now works as an author and consultant focused on standards, assessment and data-driven decision-making. Most recently, he has worked with the Jenks Public Schools (Okla.), which was awarded the coveted Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in April 2005. Jenkins wrote the AASA book From Systems Thinking to Systemic Action (AASA members save 20% on the book using promo code AASA20).His consulting services focus on:
Dallas M. Johnson, Ed.D. – Dallas is the Founder of Lead Differently (www.leaddifferentlyva.com) and serves as a leadership strategist for educators committed to turning around low-performing schools. As a school superintendent in Virginia and Tennessee, his penchant for high velocity and innovative change resulted in rapid and substantial improvements for both the schools and districts. His consulting services focus on:
Kitty Portfield and Meg Carnes, of Porterfield & Carnes Communication — offer communication consulting and training services to schools, school districts, and other education institutions. Kitty spent nearly 30 years leading programs in school divisions throughout Virginia, and Meg is a former K-12 teacher and administrator. They are the authors of the bestselling AASA book Why School Communication Matters: Strategies From PR Professionals (AASA member save 20% on this book using promo code AASA20).
Bill Potapchuk, M.A., M.S. — Bill Potapchuk, president and founder of the Community Building Institute, has been a leading practitioner of collaborative and participatory approaches to change for more than 20 years. Potapchuk, assembling diverse teams, has led major strategic planning processes, with significant community and stakeholder participation, for large urban school systems. A talented facilitator, he has also guided meetings in a wide range of settings, including executive retreats, community discussions, large town halls, and board retreats. Potapchuk is widely published and has chapters in field-defining books on consensus building, collaborative leadership, and deliberative democracy.
The Community Building Institute's consulting services focus on:
Karla Reiss — Karla Reiss is a certified professional empowerment coach. She was formerly a coordinator of professional development and director of planning for educators, having served more than 50 school districts. She is the author of Leadership Coaching for Educators: Bringing Out the Best in School Administrators.
Hank Rubin, Ph.D., — president and founder of the nonprofit Institute for Collaborative Leadership (www.Collaborative-Leaders.org), has been a leading voice in preK-20 education for over 20 years. Rubin is author of the bestselling Collaborative Leadership: Developing Effective Partnerships for Communities and Schools (co-published by AASA), which outlines the principles, assessments and tools used by the institute. He has experience as an Associate State Superintendent, Dean of Education, Distinguished Visiting Scholar, professor of both educational and public sector leadership, and elected school board membership.
Nancy W. Sindelar — Nancy W. Sindelar works with schools to improve learning and student achievement through the alignment of local curriculum and assessments to state standards and the development of high functioning teacher teams trained to use test data to inform instruction. Her work with schools has led to schools receiving state "most improved status" based on test scores.
She is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at California State University and the former Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment at Dupage High School District 88 in suburban Chicago. Her publications include Using Test Data for Student Achievement: Answers to No Child Left Behind and Developing an Effective Mentor Teacher Program.
James D. (Jim) Wilson— The "Colorado Cowboy" is a tremendous resource for rural and small school districts. A former Rural/Small School Administrator of the Year, Jim uses his 40-plus years in education to assist rural and small districts with many pressing concerns, including human relations, systemic change and financial restructuring (among others).
For More InformationTo learn more about working with any of AASA's Executive Consultants, please contact MaryAnn Jobe at 703-875-0734.