Before joining Teach Plus to lead the T3 Initiative, Meghan was the Project Director for School Turnaround Strategies at Mass Insight, where she provided overall project management and partner development for programs in Mass Insight’s school turnaround focus area. Prior to Mass Insight, she held positions as the Director of Strategic Planning and the Director of Operations in the New York City Department of Education’s Student Enrollment office, and taught second grade for several years. She earned an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management, a B.A. from Boston College, and an M.Ed. from Lesley College as part of the Lesley-Shady Hill School Teacher Training Program.

Elisa MacDonald has a strong background in developing district-wide professional learning communities, coaching teacher leaders, and leading school-based inquiry teams. As a consultant with Teachers21, she led professional learning, specializing in teacher leadership, in over fifteen Massachusetts school districts. She also co-taught action research to graduate students at Boston College. Elisa is committed to excellence in urban education and has been a teacher and lead mentor, literacy coach and assistant headmaster of instruction in the Boston Public Schools for 14 years. She has received numerous grants and awards, including the Calderwood Writing Fellowship and ESU Treadwell Scholarship, and was featured in Middle Ground Magazine (Volume 5, #3 Dec. 2001).

Elisa has authored several texts, most recently, When Nice Won’t Suffice: Honest Discourse is Key to Shifting School Culture. (2011, June) JSD, 32 (3), and contributing author to Beyond Mentoring, 3rd edition (2010, Teachers21). Her forthcoming book, The Skillful Team Leader: Navigating Challenges in Professional Learning (Corwin Press, 2012) provides a research- based understanding of common roadblocks to team learning with practical strategies on how to overcome them in order to positively shape school culture. She earned an M.A. from UMass Boston, and a B.A. from Brandeis University.

Prior to joining Teach Plus in February 2012, Marisa Suescun spent a dozen years working on behalf of public education equity through many avenues: she has taught students, trained teachers, coached youth leaders, facilitated organizations, and fostered community partnerships. A member of the first cohort of NYC Teaching Fellows, Marisa taught elementary school at PS 63 in the Bronx, then worked for the NYC Teaching Fellows, training and supporting new teachers and leading the organization’s first professional conference. In 2005-2006, Marisa completed the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs in Saint Louis. She then served as Assistant Director of the Exploring Leadership program at the Coro New York Leadership Center, where she trained high school students as they learned about education policy, developed civic leadership skills, and mobilized their peers to improve their schools.

Marisa currently serves on the Founders Group and Curriculum Committee of Active Minds Institute (which will open a public charter school in Saint Louis), and the working board of Together We Can (which operates Las Vegas’ only community garden). Marisa has facilitated staff of Together We Can and other organizations in strategic planning processes. She has taught SAT preparation in New York, and ESL in Ecuador and Las Vegas. A published writer, Marisa has reported on education, film, food, art, and lifestyle for New York Family Magazine, Education Update, and other publications. Marisa holds a Bachelor of Arts in American Studies from Wesleyan University, and a Masters of Education from City College of New York.

Prior to joining Teach Plus, Randi served as an Instructional Facilitator with Memphis City Schools. For the past six years, Randi has supported the work of classroom teachers to positively impact student achievement, and increase parent and community involvement in an urban school setting. Building teacher capacity through data analysis, collaboration, and curriculum development within her school and district ignited her passion for school improvement. These passions lead her to pursue certification with AdvanED SACS/CASI as a Quality Assurance Review Team Chair. Before becoming an Instructional Facilitator Randi taught English several years. She earned a B.A. in English from Tougaloo College and an M.A. in Education Administration and Supervision from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Victoria comes to Teach Plus with more than 10 years of experience in a range of human capital and teacher quality roles in Boston Public Schools and New York City Department of Education.

In Boston Public Schools, Victoria helped found and lead the New Teacher Development program, where she oversaw mentoring services and professional development seminars for new teachers. She also played a key role in initiatives to provide “red carpet” treatment during the hiring process for new teachers, demonstration classroom visits open to all teachers, and expanded supports for educators around licensure and certification requirements. In the New York City Department of Education, Victoria worked with alternate-route certification programs, including the NYC Teaching Fellows, Peace Corps Fellows and the Teacher Opportunity Program, to recruit, select and support teachers. Victoria started off her career in education as a Peace Corps Volunteer, where she served as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language in the Republic of Moldova.

Victoria completed a Fellowship in the Shriver Peaceworker Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and earned a Master of Arts in Public Policy from The Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Cornell University.

Jenny Miller has spent years as a teacher, administrator, and literacy coach. With experience working in both urban and suburban districts, higher and secondary education, she brings a wide breadth of experience as a consultant.

After several years as Director of Liberal Arts at a two-year college, her passion to address issues of adolescent literacy brought her to the Boston Public Schools where she taught ninth and tenth grade English. From there, Jenny began working with other teachers on developing curriculum to increase student engagement and improve comprehension. As a literacy coach in Boston, she led groups of teachers through intensive inquiry groups around improving practice, helping faculty to increase ownership of district-mandated curriculum. Through this capacity, she gained extensive experience administering and analyzing a wide variety of summative and formative assessments, using the resulting data in effective, dynamic professional development for teachers and administrators. Jenny went on to earn her administrative certification and spent several years working as the Director of Academics, Curriculum and Grants at Blue Hills Regional Technical School. She has consulted extensively for Teachers21, providing professional development and embedded coaching to districts throughout Massachusetts. Whether mentoring new teachers, mapping district curriculum, disaggregating assessment data, or modeling an instructional strategy, her commitment to providing every student with access to a rigorous, engaging curriculum informs all that she does. She holds master’s degrees from the State University of New York in Buffalo and Boston University.

MAK Mitchell led achievement gap-closing initiatives in Alaska, Washington state and most recently, at the Department of Education in New York City where she served as the Executive Director of School Governance. She brings a blend of non-profit and public school leadership experience, serving on the original team who initiated the Empowerment Networks in NYC DOE, as Executive Director of Urban Assembly, a non-profit network of 30 NYC urban schools and as a lead consultant for the Gates Foundation for districts receiving reform funding. MAK led instructional turnaround and best practice instructional pilots in DOE, setting up internal and external coaching systems for teachers and principals. She started numerous small schools in Alaska as a lead teacher and principal followed by central office and superintendent roles in Washington. She is a national presenter and professor of systems change and consensus collaborations for turnaround. She earned an EdD in Teaching, Curriculum and Learning Environments and an MAT in Urban Teaching, both from the Harvard Graduate School of Education with a BA in English Lit from Le Moyne College, in Syracuse, New York.

As an educator in the public and non-profit sectors, Daryl has served as a classroom teacher, teacher leader, administrator and consultant. In Boston Public Schools, he taught middle school Math and Science; in the Public Schools of Brookline, he has taught high school Chemistry and middle school Math. As a Teacher Leader in the Public Schools of Brookline, Daryl co-led Brookline's Educational Equity Project, a system-wide collaborative project to eliminate the racial achievement gap. Daryl's teacher leader role in Brookline led to a consultant role at Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC). As a Senior Associate at IISC, Daryl served as a designer and facilitator of professional development and as a collaboration consultant for teacher leaders and school-level and district-level leaders. Currently, Daryl teaches sixth grade Math at Pierce School in the Public Schools of Brookline and is a member of a team of teacher leaders that leads Pierce School's Instructional Rounds process. A graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Wofford College, Daryl brings a deep commitment to learning and educational equity to his work as an educator.

Anna has been with Teach Plus since November 2010, when she started as the Program & Operations Associate. Before joining Teach Plus, Anna taught fifth grade for two years in Charlotte, North Carolina as a corps member with Teach for America and was a Public Affairs Fellow at the MacArthur Foundation in Chicago. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University.

Yasmine joins the T3 - Initiative team from Miami, Florida where she worked for the YMCA of Greater Miami. Prior to coming to Teach Plus and Boston, Yasmine managed and instructed a youth- centered digital literacy program called Digital Connectors and also served as the branch office manager. She holds a Bachelors of Arts in Multinational Business Operations and International Affairs from Florida State University and a Masters in Human Services with a concentration in Organizational Management and Leadership from Springfield College. Yasmine is currently pursuing her Masters in Business Administration with concentrations in Nonprofit Management & Entrepreneurship from Simmons College School of Management.

Katie is a T3 coach at Orchard Gardens, leading the school’s teacher teams in implementing turnaround strategies. While working for T3 and Orchard Gardens, she is also completing her doctoral study at the Boston University Graduate School of Education, with a degree expected in 2012. Katie’s past teaching experience includes fifth and sixth grade reading and writing at the Boston’s Epiphany School as well as middle and upper English at the SEED Public Charter School in Washington DC. Katie holds a Master’s degree in Education from the Boston University Graduate School of Education as well as a BA from Harvard.

Chandra Joseph-Lacet is the T3 Coach and K-2 Assessment Coordinator at the J.P. Holland Elementary School. A 10+ year veteran of the Boston Public Schools, Chandra has served as an Asst. Principal, Elementary Classroom Teacher, Reading Specialist, Learning Specialist and Special Education Coordinator. She has experience building effective teaching teams with a particular expertise and passion for mentoring and coaching teachers. Chandra’s responsibility this year is to take this experience and expertise to produce academically goal-oriented teaching teams focused on using student data to drive teaching and learning. Chandra holds a B.A. from Wagner College, an M.A. from New York University and an M.Ed. from UMASS Boston.

Stephanie currently serves as a T3 Coach and Literacy Coach at the Carlton M. Viveiros Elementary School in Fall River, Massachusetts. She has worked in the Fall River Public School System for the past twelve years. During that time, she has taught most of the elementary school grades as well as taken on the role of Literacy Coach in an elementary school setting. She has extensive experience in assisting teachers in the analysis and utilization of data to make instructional decisions, facilitating professional learning communities, supporting teachers to improve student achievement, and providing professional development both inside and outside of the classroom. She received her undergraduate degree from Bridgewater State University and her graduate degree from the University of Massachusetts. She has a passion for working with inner city school children and the expectation that their education is top notch.

Shelly Lee currently serves as a T3 coach for the Achievement School District (ASD) in Memphis, TN. In this role, she collaborates with teacher leaders in 3 ASD schools. Ensuring alignment of work with the mission of the school, Shelly guides data-driven teacher team development in a cycle of strategic planning and reflection. Prior to T3, she held positions as Assistant Principal, Middle Schools Project Manager, Instructional Coordinator and Teacher Coach in Charleston, SC, where she also taught middle and high school. She earned an M.A.T. and M.Ed. in Educational Leadership from The Citadel Graduate College and a B.S. from the College of Charleston.

Lisa Lineweaver, Ed.M., currently serves as the Director of Accelerated Improvement for the Blackstone. A former 5th grade teacher and previous program director at the Boston Plan for Excellence, Ms. Lineweaver is a proven inquiry facilitator and data coach. She has worked in many BPS schools and taught four-semester series of graduate courses to teacher teams which contributed to substantial gains in student learning over a three-year period. In the 2010-11 school year, Ms. Lineweaver is responsible for training and coaching the T3 teacher-leaders to build their teams’ capacity to rapidly and systematically improve the quality of instruction through data-based inquiry and RTI.

Karen Loughran is the T3 Turnaround Coach at the Trotter Elementary School, leading teams of teachers to use data to improve instruction. Previously, she was the Site Director for the Boston Teacher Residency. She supported resident teachers and mentor teachers as they focused on curriculum development and instructional strategies that promote student achievement. Prior to that, she was a Small Learning Community Leader at Charlestown High School, a large diverse urban high school. In this role, she organized and facilitated common planning time, student support, data analysis, and a variety of strategies that promoted student achievement. She taught middle school and high school for ten years, including teaching math and language arts. She earned a Master’s degree in Education from Harvard University where she focused on school leadership, urban school reform, and using data to improve instruction.

Toby N. Romer has served in numerous roles in the Boston Public Schools (BPS) over the past 15 years. He is currently Director of Professional Development and Data Inquiry at Orchard Gardens K-8 School, where his role includes supporting the T3 teachers. Previously, he was a facilitator for the Accelerating Improvement through Inquiry (AI2), a grant from the Carnegie Foundation run by the BPS and the Boston Plan for Excellence, where he supported teachers’ and school leaders’ efforts to improve the achievement of struggling students. From 2004 to 2009, he served as headmaster of Brighton High School, a large, diverse urban high school. At Brighton High, he led the re-organization of the school’s small learning communities, created extended learning times, focused resources on struggling learners, fostered strong community partnerships, and actively developed teacher leadership structures. Under his tenure, the school was recognized by the Mass Insight Education and Research Institute as a Vanguard School, selected as a BPS Strategic Practice and Effective Practice School, and named as one of the top 1500 high schools in the nation by US News and World Report. He holds an A.B. in Social Studies and Education and an M.Ed. in School Administration from Harvard University.