Our Presenters

Our presenters are national and state leaders in the work they do.

Come and hear them speak, contact them for more details, request their consulting services...

Come... be inspired!

From his website:

"Kim Marshall began his career in 1969 teaching sixth graders in a Boston middle school. He used "learning stations" with some success, wrote curriculum materials for his students, gave workshops for teachers in the Boston area, and began to write articles on classroom and school innovation (see list below).

During Boston's desegregation crisis in the mid-1970's, Kim became increasingly involved in schoolwide change efforts, delved into the new research on effective urban schools, and eventually went to graduate school for a year to prepare to become a principal.

But a 1980 Massachusetts tax-cutting referendum closed 27 Boston schools, and Kim found himself in the district's central office, first as a policy advisor and speechwriter for Superintendent Robert Spillane, then leading a team that wrote new curriculum objectives for the district, and finally serving as director of curriculum and planning.

In 1987, Kim finally got his wish and was made a principal. As leader of the Mather Elementary School for the next 15 years, Kim and his colleagues brought about significant improvements in student achievement, teacher effectiveness, and the quality of the curriculum.

Kim now works for New Leaders for New Schools (www.nlns.org), a non-profit that recruits, trains, and supports urban principals. Kim coaches new principals in New York City, with a special focus on improving teacher supervision and evaluation and the effective implementation of interim assessments. He also gives workshops and courses to aspiring and practicing school leaders in a number of venues.

Kim and his wife, Rhoda Schneider, have two children - a daughter teaching English in a Boston high school and a son teaching history in a high school in the San Francisco Bay area."

Website: http://www.marshallmemo.com/

Joe DiMartino is founder and president of the Center for Secondary School Redesign (CSSR), which builds on work started at Brown University where he served as Director of Secondary School Redesign. CSSR provides substantial technical assistance to numerous districts and schools that are seeking to personalize learning for adolescents including as the primary TA provider for the New England Network for Personalization and Performance Assessment (NENPP). NENPP includes 13 high schools in 4 New England states and was awarded an i3 grant to assist schools to move toward performance assessment.

Joe is recognized as a national leader in efforts to personalize learning in secondary schools. He was an architect of both Breaking Ranks 2 and Breaking ranks in the Middle, signature publication of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. In recognition of his contribution, he was awarded the Distinguished Service to Education Award by the NASSP. He has also been recognized as the expert on high school redesign by ASCD in its professional development resource PDINFocus that features online media, tools, and resources for powerful professional development.

In addition to writing numerous published articles, Joe has co-authored two books: Personalizing the High School Experience for Each Student, and the Facilitator’s Guide for High Schools at Work: Creating Student Centered Learning, both published by Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. He also co-edited Personalized Learning: Preparing High School Students to Create their Futures, published by Rowman Littlefield and The Personalized High School: Making Learning Count for Adolescents published by Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.

Bill Atwood, M.Ed. is a Collins Education Associate who has over 20 years of experience in public and private schools and is a recipient of a Presidential Award for excellence in Math and Science Teaching. His book, How Did You Get That? Improving Open Responses in Math (2011) and a dynamic DVD, Math Words In Motion: Improving Math Vocabulary (2013), describe strategies that improve students’ thinking and writing skills. Bill is a national presenter known for his sense of humor, enthusiasm, and ability to focus on practical ideas that teachers can implement easily. Bill is part of the graduate faculty at Salem State College, Endicott College, and Worcester State College in Massachusetts. Bill lives in Milton, Massachusetts with his wife and three children.

Teresa Bolick, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist and board certified behavior analyst, who consults with children, adolescents, families and schools throughout New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

She is the author of Asperger Syndrome and Young Children: Building Skills for the Real World and Asperger Syndrome and Adolescence: Helping Preteens and Teens Get Ready for the Real World.

She presents frequently at conferences for family members, professionals and paraprofessionals.

Email: thebolickhouse@verizon.net
Website: http://www.thebolickhouse.com/

Paul Butler has been a special educator for over 30 years, working with students with learning disabilities, speech language impairments, ADHD, emotional handicap, autism, and multiple handicaps. He has successfully worked with the iPad in the classroom and resource room with a variety of students. Paul is also a parent of an adult son with special needs and has been an integral part of his son’s public school program for over 14 years. Paul has a Master’s Degree in Learning and Language Disabilities from Notre Dame College and is the Building Coordinator/LEA Representative at Sanborn Regional Middle School.

Dr. Jill Cane is an educational leader with over thirty years of experience as a public school principal, Head Start and Family Day Care Director, Federal Projects Director and Curriculum Coordinator. Throughout her career, Dr. Cane has focused on developing, implementing and assessing instructional practices which challenge and engage all students. Her consulting includes mentoring and working collaboratively with parents, teachers, administrators and school board members in multiple areas of professional development. Most recently, Dr. Cane has been involved with the implementation and evaluation of public charter schools in the State of New Hampshire.

John J. Collins, Ed.D. is the founder of Collins Education Associates (CEA), which has helped thousands of teachers improve students’ writing & thinking skills across the curriculum. He has taught from elementary through graduate school and has written widely on the topic of writing, including the highly successful Improving Student Performance through Writing and Thinking across the Curriculum.

Lori Collins is the Director of Technology in the Hampstead School District. She is an experienced teacher, facilitator, and educational technology coach who has worked effectively with school districts, the State of NH, and various non-profit organizations in the areas of professional development, technology planning, and curriculum and technology integration.

She has eleven years in the educational field working as an elementary school teacher, middle school teacher, and library media director. Most recently, she has worked as the Director of Professional Development at Fablevision Learning and the Greater Manchester (NH) Professional Development Center.

Lori Collins has been on the adjunct faculty staff of Southern NH University and Plymouth State University, teaching a variety of courses that address the needs of educators using technology. She has also facilitated online courses for Open-NH and PBS Teacherline.

Lori holds a B.S. from Boston College, a M.Ed. from Notre Dame College, and a CAGS from Plymouth State University.

Shauna began her career in education as a literacy specialist before spending time as a classroom teacher at both the elementary and middle school levels where she taught U.S. history as well as reading and writing. She received a M.Ed. in Reading Curriculum Development and Instruction from Boston College and a B.S. in Education from Framingham State College.

Shauna has collaborated with curriculum coordinators, administrators and special educators to design and implement various research-based curriculum initiatives at both a school-wide and district-wide level. Her recent teaching experiences have given her the opportunity to directly implement the Keys to Literacy programs across grades and content areas. Shauna has been with Keys to Literacy since 2007.

Diane Creel received her Master's Degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Connecticut. Her degree specialized in gifted education; her professors included some of the most published experts in the field including Joe Renzulli, Sally Reis, Jann Leppein, and Del Siegle. Her personal emphasis focused on the social and emotional needs of gifted students; she led the first SENG parent group in New Hampshire in 2011.

Diane moved to New Hampshire as a founding teacher of The Academy for Science and Design, where she implemented significant curriculum acceleration and compacting for students gifted in Language Arts. In addition, Diane founded the Northern New England Affiliate of Future Problem Solvers and serves as an international evaluator for FPSP International.

Diane was a founding board member and teacher of the Scholars' Academy, the first gifted school in New Hampshire, and was a founding signatory for Polaris Charter School. She has recently accepted a position at the Christa McAuliffe Regional Charter School, an Expeditionary Learning school, in Framingham, Massachusetts. Diane currently resides in Pembroke, NH with her husband and two children.

Betty has for many years been a teacher, coordinator and consultant in several New Hampshire schools and districts. She is a former Mathematics Coordinator for the Kearsarge Regional School District. She is an Intel Mathematics Instructor, First Steps in Mathematics Facilitator, and consultant with the Common Core State Standards Technical Assistance Project at SERESC. She offers lesson demonstrations and encourages active engagement in her presentations.

Richard H. Eyster has been a life- long educator. While he has served in many administrative capacities, including Head of School, he has taught throughout his career. As Head Teacher of a self-contained Lower School classroomand a teacher of Middle and Upper School Math, English, and Computer Science, he has led classrooms for students in Grades 1-12.

For the past 14 years, he has also worked with hundreds of young teachers to provide them with powerful, practical preparation for the testing and trials that are an inevitable part of their first years in the classroom. His goal is to enable educators relatively new to the profession to accelerate their way up the learning curve. While his professional development leadership has primarily been headquartered in the Northeast, he has led programs as far away as Croatia and Abu Dhabi. He is the author of a comprehensive guide to the classroom that has received ten out of ten five-star ratings on amazon.com, Successful Classroom Management (Sourcebooks, 2010). Currently Chief Academic Officer at Hillside School in Marlborough, MA, he brings he brings his engaging workshops for the first time to New Hampshire here at SERESC headquarters in Bedford.

Joleen R. Fernald, MS, CCC-SLP, PhD/ABD, BRS-CL is an Expert DIRFloortime Provider and Training Leader. She is an adjunct professor for Granite State College and is currently a PhD candidate studying infant mental health and developmental disabilities. Joleen has a special interest in the social emotional development of young children and its impact on their speech and language skills. As a speech-language pathologist, Joleen works with children who have a variety of communication disorders. She partnered with Easter Seals NH in 2006 to begin an assessment and treatment clinic specifically for children with selective mutism.

For over twenty years, Noel has worked in various capacities as an educator. Her commitment to literacy began during her experiences as a teacher and supervisor at Landmark School in Beverly, MA. She continued her passion for literacy skills during her work as a curriculum and educational software writer. She maintains her dedication to improving students' literacy skills in her work as a private tutor and professional development presenter. She is currently the Learning Specialist at Roxbury Latin School in West Roxbury, MA. Noel received her B.A. in Education/Special Education and her M.A. in American Studies from Boston College.

Christine Linda Fulford is a bona fide mathematician having graduated from the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada) with the U.S. equivalent of a B.Sc. Degree with Double Majors in Engineering and Mathematics. Christine has recently graduated Rivier University with an M.Ed. and is furthering her education with a CAGS in Leadership and Curriculum Assessment at Plymouth State University.

Before being a SERESC consultant, Ms. Fulford had many years of experience in the classroom teaching various age groups, instructional levels, and curricula.

Cherrie Fulton is currently the Title 1 Director for the district of Nashua. She was an Assistant Principal and Curriculum Specialist for the Nashua School District before this. She has been a professional educator for more than 15 years in New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Kansas.

Her educational experience includes; preschool and elementary teacher, GED instructor, Mentor Facilitator, Math Consultant, Curriculum Writer and Administrator. Throughout her career, she has had the opportunity to work on several instructional initiatives and is used to co-facilitate Nashua's national participation in Vermont's Ongoing Assessment Project (OGAP), a mathematical learning progression for multiplicative reasoning.

While serving as an assistant principal and curriculum specialist, she has facilitated teams of teachers building UbD units of study in Science, Math, Social Studies and English Language Arts.

Lynna Garber Kalna has a unique balance of 30 years experience in the academic and corporate environments. In addition to teaching in the public school system and at a private college, she has worked as an educational consultant, freelance magazine writer, and corporate trainer. Lynna, who has received numerous awards including Professor of Merit and Professor of Distinction, serves as a keynote speaker for various organizations.

Saundra Kent a BS in Chemistry and an M.S.T in Biology. She has taught science at the middle, high school and post-secondary levels, has participated on statewide committees to promote science education and has won many awards for her work including NH Secondary Science Teacher of the Year (1990, 1993), and the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (1993).

Since leaving her teaching position, Sandy has served as a consultant for state assessment, worked on science content standards, supported educators in seeking Highly Qualified Teacher status, led an effort as a NH Reading Excellence

Across the Disciplines (NHREADS) consultant to promote content area comprehension, differentiated instruction, and project-based learning.

Email: kentss@gsinet.net

During Lisa's 15-year career as an educator, she has been a classroom teacher in private and public schools, a literacy trainer, and a Reading Specialist. She has held several positions in both urban and suburban schools in the Palm Beach County, Florida school system. Lisa is a literacy consultant providing guidance on both Reading and Writing curriculum. In addition, she also worked for a publishing company presenting teacher training for district-wide adoptions across the state of Florida. Lisa graduated from Rivier College with a M.Ed. in Reading and B.A. in Elementary

Carol Kosnitsky is a special education consultant with more than 35 years of experience in the field. Currently, she provides consultation and professional development to school districts across the country. Her work focuses on improving outcomes for students with disabilities through increased access to the general education curriculum. She is particularly interested in the development of relevant and measurement IEPs and the collaboration between general and special education as the means for improving education for all students.

Prior to consulting, she was a special education teacher, program coordinator for the NH Parent Information Center and a special education director for 20 years in New Hampshire.

She served as President of the New Hampshire Association for Special Education Administrators and developed the NH Academy for Special Education Directors. She is the author of IEP Goals That Make a Difference: An Administrator's Guide to Improving the Process and several training manuals.

Carol received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of New Hampshire.

Lyn has extensive experience working with school leaders and teachers as a coach and presenter. She worked for five years as the Associate Executive Director of the New England League of Middle Schools and helped schools design and implement their professional development plans.

More recently she has retired as a middle school principal and a district level administrator for curriculum, instruction and professional learning for the Epping, NH School District. Her teaching career began in the elementary level and she spent several years working with “at risk” students in 7th and 8th grades.

Lyn has coached teachers and leaders, and presented on many topics from literacy to advisory to Common Core State Standards implementation and assessment. Lyn was awarded the James Garvin Distinguished Service Award by NELMS in 2013. She holds degrees from Harvard University, University of New Hampshire and Albion College.

Email: lhealy@seresc.net

Maryclare Heffernan, an educational consultant with more than 25 years experience in educational systems change, has worked with numerous districts and schools in creating dynamic and viable plans for school improvement. Her professional experience includes teaching, school administration, project management, facilitation, program design, implementation and planning for sustainability.

Since 1997, Maryclare has been a key member of the NH Department of Education’s (NH DOE) Special Education Program Approval and Improvement Process’s Management Team. In that role she contributed to the development and implementation of the innovative monitoring and approval models utilized by the NH DOE, including the Special Education Case Study and Focused Monitoring Processes. Additional professional experiences include: NH Secondary Transition Project Director, Co-Director Statewide Standardization Project for Court Placed Children and Youth, and adjunct faculty member at Plymouth State University. Maryclare is a member of the NH Response to Intervention (RTI) Task Force and lead author of the RTI Interactive Guide and Strategic Plan.

Additionally as a founding member of Associates for School Change at SERESC she has facilitated the work of multiple school and district teams in the development of School and District in Need of Improvement and School Improvement Grant plans. Her passion for improved student learning has resulted in the development of consultation skills in managing complex change and support of system-wide redesign.

Email: mheffernan@seresc.net

Rob Lukasiak has an MST in Mathematics and has been teaching mathematics to children and adults for over 30 years in one form or another - mostly the high school and college level. Rob currently works as a coach/consultant with several middle and high schools throughout NH. Rob’s passion for teaching mathematics and his sense of humor have made him a popular presenter.

Amy Lyon is a fifth grade teacher at Sutton Central School, one of four elementary schools in the Kearsarge Regional School District in NH. She has obtained her Doctorate at New England College where she chose to research "grit" for her dissertation project. After creating and teaching a year-long curriculum to cultivate qualities of grit with fifth graders, she has collected and developed specific strategies to share with other educators.

Eric Mann is an education and behavioral consultant with more than 25 years of experience in public education and in private practice. He has worked as a teacher and counselor of students with emotional and learning challenges, as a psychotherapist for adults, couples and families, and as a special education administrator. From 2002 – 2008 Eric co-directed PBIS-NH, New Hampshire’s Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports initiative. Eric has provided systems training and coaching in positive behavioral support to more than 200 school sites in NH, Vermont, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Eric specializes in school-wide behavioral systems consultations and is a senior trainer in Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI).

Email: emann@seresc.net
Website: http://www.nhcebis.seresc.net/

Karen Matso

Karen Matso, M.Ed., has been in education for 17 years. After graduating with dual masters degrees in Social Work and Education from Columbia and Bank Street College of Education in New York City, Karen taught special education for 5 years first in New York City, then Durham, New Hampshire. She was an adolescent literacy specialist and RTI Coordinator in Maine, before moving on to consulting and professional development.

Email: kmatso@comcast.net

Marcia McCaffrey is the Arts Consultant at the NH Department of Education and has been leading the state’s public education sector in defining quality arts education for New Hampshire for fourteen years. Marcia is currently Marcia is President of the State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education (SEADAE) and represents SEADAE on the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS) Leadership Team where she has been co-facilitating Leadership Team meetings and executing project work since 2011.

Her past experience includes being a leading member of the State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards/ Arts Consortium, a project out of the Council of Chief State School Officers; presenting at national conferences on topics such as the power of arts assessment to change teaching a learning and arts education in the 21st Century including stints for the Los Angeles Unified School District; teaching dance in the public schools in Montclair, New Jersey; adjunct faculty member for Cornell University and Plymouth State University; proprietor of a small dance business; and founding member of an improvisation dance company in Ithaca, NY.

She holds a Masters of Arts from Columbia University in Dance Education, and Bachelor of Science degrees in Elementary Education and Physical Education from Iowa State University.

Email: marcia.mccaffrey@doe.nh.gov

Amy McMahon has been an educator for 30 years. She holds a BA in English from the College of Wooster in Ohio and an M.Ed. in reading from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Amy has been a middle and high school English and reading teacher, as well as tutor for many years. In addition, Amy was the director of a large family and early literacy program at WGBH, the PBS station in Boston, as well as a teacher trainer.

More recently, Amy worked as a school change facilitator for the NH Department of Education and the MGH Institute of Health Professions, with the HILL, a small literacy program conducting school change in literacy. Amy currently works as a reading specialist at Newton North High School in Newton, MA.

Ann Mordecai, M.Ed., has a unique set of skills that include experience in special education, general education and math education as well as software engineering and project management. Ann has developed formative and summative assessments, scoring protocols, data storage and retrieval methods, and most importantly data analysis techniques for use in successful math improvement and intervention programs for both general and special education.

Email: mordecai1@comcast.net

Joan Sedita is the founding partner of Keys to Literacy, a literacy professional development organization based in MA. For 35 years, Joan has been an experienced educator and nationally recognized teacher trainer.

She has authored four content literacy professional development programs (Key Comprehension Routine, Key Vocabulary Routine, Key Writing Routine, The ANSWER Key to Routine for Extended Response) and a K-12 district literacy planning model (Keys to Literacy Planning).

Beginning in 1975, she worked for 23 years at the Landmark School, a pioneer in the development of literacy intervention programs.

As a teacher, principal, and director of the Outreach Teacher Training Program at Landmark, Joan developed expertise, methods, and instructional programs that address the literacy needs of students in grades 4-12.

Joan was one of the three lead trainers in MA for the Reading First Program and is a LETRS author and trainer. She is also an adjunct instructor at Endicott College and Fitchburg State College. Joan received her M.Ed. in Reading from Harvard University and her B.A. from Boston College..

Annie is a leader in mathematics education. In addition to her position at Hampstead Middle School as Math Specialist/Coach and Teacher she is on the NH Teachers of Mathematics Executive Board and National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Representative. She participated as a member of the Advisory Group of the New Hampshire Quantitative Literacy Project., and is an Adjunct Instructor in the NHTI Teacher Education Conversion Program (TECP) focusing on Secondary Mathematics Methods. M.Ed. (Middle School Math Curriculum and Instruction) from Gordon College, Wenham, MA

Trish Underwood is a classroom teacher who has taught learners in elementary, middle, and high school, as well as adult learners at UNH. She currently teaches 6th Grade Literacy in Hopkinton. Her consulting work has focused on meeting the needs of all students in the regular classroom by applying the principles of differentiated instruction, something she has had success with for her students, ages seven to seventy.

Website: http://trishwalton.weebly.com/index.html

Fred Wolff has been a classroom teacher for 19 of his 24 years in public education. One of the original teachers to become involved in the New Hampshire Writing Project in 1979, he has directed a number of published anthologies of student writing. In 1992 he was awarded a Distinguished Teacher Award from the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars.

In 1997 he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study education in Japan. Most recently, he produced and wrote the script for Telling Their Stories, an hour long documentary aired on PBS about holocaust survivors living in New Hampshire. In addition to teaching writing to students from third grade through high school, Fred helped launch the Student Writers Academy at the University of New Hampshire where he has taught numerous courses in the Education Department. In 2009, Pearson published his book, "The Write Direction".

He holds a doctorate in Curriculum and Teaching from Boston University.

Watch Fred Wolff present now!

Email: f.wolff@comcast.net
Website: http://www.sixtraitslive.com/

Colleen is a senior trainer for Keys to Literacy. Through her roles as a classroom teacher, special educator, reading coach and consultant, Colleen has developed a strong background in literacy, assessment, data analysis, and instructional design.

Colleen began her career working with ELLs and struggling high school students in NJ. In the years since she has worked at the Pre-K to college level in such places as Fort Bliss TX, Richmond VA, and Rochester, NH. As a faculty member for Granite State College, Colleen worked with the undergraduate, post baccalaureate, and external programs teaching and developing courses in linguistics and reading. She has delivered workshops at the local, state and national levels covering a variety of literacy topics, including data team development.

Colleen attended Notre Dame College, graduating with a BA in Education. She completed her MA in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus in Reading from Grand Canyon University. In addition to being a trainer for Keys to Literacy, Colleen is a DIBELS Next® mentor/trainer, a Certified Dynamic Measurement Group Mentor for DIBELS®, and a regional LETRS trainer.