Shelbyville, Kentucky, United States
Experienced chief officer and consultant with a successful history of working in the education services industry, focusing on K-12 and higher education. Skilled in nonprofit management, project management, instructional design and professional development facilitation, program evaluation, and organizational policy development and administration. Strong people person with years of successful work in multiple professional fields in government and non-profit sectors.
Under a partnership agreement between the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative (OVEC) and the Kentucky Department of Education, I coordinated statewide school staffing components of Kentucky’s $42+ million award under the American Rescue Plan's (ARP) Emergency Assistance to Non-Public Schools (EANS) program. The EANS program provided services or assistance to non-public schools that enrolled a significant percentage of low-income students who are most negatively impacted by COVID.
I worked with OVEC's Exceptional Children's Services division as a College and Career Readiness Consultant in cooperation with the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) to provide assistance to districts and schools working with students with special needs on successful pre-employment transition (Pre-ETS). I served as one of 20+ Transition Specialist located in educational cooperatives throughout the commonwealth to plan, coordinate and carry out Pre-ETS activities for middle and high school students with disabilities that are eligible, or potentially eligible, for OVR services. Activities fell under one or more of five areas: Job Exploration; Work-Based Learning Experiences; Post-Secondary Options; Workplace Readiness Training; and Self-Advocacy.
The RTT-D Kid∙FRIENDLy project included a consortium of 22 Kentucky school districts that were awarded one of the nation's first and largest RTT-D grants by the U.S. Department of Education. Serving 60,000+ PreK-12 students, kid∙FRIENDLy schools worked in communities to get kids ready for kindergarten, equip students with the life skills needed to succeed, guide each child along successful pathways to college and careers, offer students the chance to learn anywhere/anytime and earn credits for unique learning experiences, and allow students to advance when they master standards instead of by age or traditional grades.
I served as the lead staff member responsible for providing management and oversight for comprehensive school improvement planning and delivery of project strategies and services. I also developed and oversaw contracts negotiated between the CPE’s GEAR UP Kentucky program and outside partners and vendors, including ACT and the National Center for Educational Achievement, the Princeton Review, the Lampo Group (Dave Ramsey), Premier Publications and several Kentucky state education and non-profit college-readiness stakeholders. GEAR UP Kentucky was a six-year grant program funded by the U.S. Department of Education serving approximately 12,000 high-poverty students in 52 middle and high schools across the commonwealth. The aim of the program was to help low-income students, along with their families, envision college in their future by providing the skills, experiences and insights to ensure success in higher education.