Sharon Deich

Sharon Deich is vice president of the education policy consulting firm Cross and Joftus, where she focuses on education financing issues and change management. She also is expert in coupling after-school programming and traditional education reforms to improve student achievement.

Prior to joining the firm, she spent two decades in the nonprofit sector honing her research, policy, and technical assistance skills. During this time, she worked with federal agencies, state government leaders, city officials, and foundation initiative leaders on issues related to early care, K-12 education, after-school programming, and related education reform efforts.

From 1997 to 2007, Deich served as an associate director for The Finance Project, where she authored numerous briefs and reports on the financing of human services programs and provided technical assistance and expert facilitation to organizations looking to scale up and sustain promising initiatives. During this period, she also served on numerous advisory boards, including one for a joint project of the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, and the National Conference of State Legislatures to expand extra learning opportunities as a way to improve student success.

Before joining The Finance Project, Deich spent 15 years researching and evaluating programs that support low-income children and families. Her prior experience includes work for the American Institutes for Research, where she worked closely with the Head Start Bureau to revise performance standards and the training and technical assistance system. She also spent six years working at the Urban Institute, where she was a contributing researcher and author for the National Child Care Study.

Deich earned her bachelor's degree in economics from The State University of New York at Albany and earned her master's degree in public policy from the University of Michigan.

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ASSOCIATES
Cross & Joftus has extraordinary access to the best minds in education today through its large pool of associates. These individuals are authorities in school system management and governance, youth engagement, special education and the Response to Intervention approach, school dropout prevention, school technology use, student and teacher assessment, teacher preparation and certification, early childhood care and education, program evaluation, and more.

Rita Ahrens
Alix Beatty
Angela M. Covert
Nathan Cross
Ray Daniels
Jo Lynne DeMary
Joseph F. Dominic
Joan Evans
Ryan Fink
Steve Gering
Sarah Glover
Milton Goldberg
Eleanor Johnson
Gene I. Maeroff
Judy Maurice
Sylvia McMullen
Janalee Jordan-Meldrum
Heather Clapp Padgette
Alice Parker
Bella Rosenberg
Marguerite Roza
Richard C. Seder
Torrey Shawe
Peggy Siegel
Virginia (Ginger) Adams Simon
Connie Wehmeyer

Rita Ahrens

Rita Ahrens is an education policy consultant and research associate at Cross and Joftus. She is currently consulting for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, designing program evaluations, helping frame and implement the National Board’s policy initiatives, and managing several technical projects. Ms. Ahrens also served as a middle school math teacher at a NASA technology and communications magnet school in New Haven, Connecticut, where she started an after school web design and programming class. She has a BA in psychology from Yale University and is currently pursuing her doctorate in education policy at the George Washington University.

Alix Beatty

Alix Beatty is an associate at Cross & Joftus. She is a senior program officer at the Center for Education of the National Research Council (NRC), where she has worked since 1996. While at NRC, she has served as staff director for the Committee on Educational Excellence and Testing Equity, which issues reports on subjects such as assessing English language learners and measuring school dropout rates. In addition, she has staffed the Board on Testing and Assessment and the Board on International Comparative Studies in Education Before joining NRC, she coordinated the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in U.S. history for Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Princeton, New Jersey, and staffed several other NAEP programs and other testing programs at ETS. She also served as senior project director for education for the Committee for Economic Development. Beatty received a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from Williams College and a master of arts degree in history from Bryn Mawr College.

Angela M. Covert

Angela M. Covert is an associate at Cross & Joftus and an independent education consultant. Currently, she is serving as the lead site evaluator for the University of Washington Teachers for a New Era Project. She also serves as senior advisor to the New Teacher Center at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Until 2003, Covert was program officer and director of Pre-collegiate Education and Youth Development Programs at The Atlantic Philanthropies (USA), Inc. Prior to her work at Atlantic Philanthropies, she was executive director of the Literacy Assistance Center in New York City and also held positions at Bank Street College and the Helen Keller National Center. She was the founding coordinator of the New York City Education Policy Fellowship Program of the Institute for Educational Leadership. Covert has consulted with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, where she led a team in conducting a mid-point evaluation of the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative, and the Ford Foundation, where she conducted a review of its grantmaking portfolio on teacher quality.

Nathan Cross

Nathan Cross is an associate at Cross & Joftus. Presently, he is the director of student services in a California elementary school district. Cross is a professional educator who has 18 years of experience as a superintendent, principal, and building-level administrator. He has extensive training and experience in collaborative decisionmaking, leadership team building, meeting management, and interest-based bargaining. Prior to moving into administration, he taught in elementary school, middle school, and high school settings. Cross holds a master of arts degree in educational administration from San Jose State University and a master of arts degree in curriculum and instruction from Michigan State University.

Ray Daniels

Ray Daniels is an associate at Cross & Joftus. He was superintendent of Kansas City (Kansas) Public Schools from 1998 to 2004. While superintendent, he led the district's implementation of First Things First and oversaw a remarkable increase in student achievement. For example, during his tenure, the percentage of students in the district scoring at or above proficiency on the state reading assessment increased 20 points, and the achievement gap between white and Hispanic students virtually evaporated. Prior to his tenure as superintendent, Daniels served first as the district's director of personnel and later as its assistant superintendent for personnel services. He also served the district as a high school English teacher, a basketball and track coach, and an assistant principal. Daniels received his master's and doctorate degrees from the University of Kansas and his bachelor's degree from Kansas State University.

Jo Lynne DeMary

Jo Lynne DeMary is an associate at Cross & Joftus. She is director of a newly established Center for School Improvement within the Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has the distinction of being the first woman to serve as Virginia's state superintendent, a position she held from 2000 to 2006. DeMary has more than 38 years of experience in public education. She has served as a teacher, an assistant principal, a principal, an elementary school supervisor, a director of special education, and an assistant superintendent of schools in Henrico County (Virginia) Public Schools before joining the state department of education as assistant superintendent of instruction.

Joseph F. Dominic

Joseph F. Dominic is an associate at Cross & Joftus. Formerly, he was program director for education at the Heinz Endowments in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he led new agendas for change in school leadership, teaching and learning, community partnerships for innovation, school choice, and applications of digital technology to improve learning. Active in state and local education policy circles, he has advised university presidents, district superintendents, and business and political leaders. He was a board member of the western Pennsylvania Grantmakers Association. He chaired the boards of the federally funded Mid-Atlantic Regional Education Laboratory and the national association of Grantmakers for Education. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette named him one of the region's top five contributors to education progress, and Phi Delta Kappa selected him as lay leader in education. Earlier in his career, he was an award-winning teacher and, later, a fellow with the National Institute of Education, where he joined the management team that coordinated funding and oversight of the federal education research and development centers.

Joan Evans

Joan Evans is an associate at Cross & Joftus. For 42 years, she has taught in and served as school site and central office administrator for the Los Angeles Unified School District. As director of standards-based education, she collaboratively developed and implemented Deming's continuous improvement process with representatives from all constituent groups. Evans has provided training and published articles on how to systematically implement an effective standards-based curriculum, instruction, and assessment system. These practices led to measurable gains in student performance that exceeded the state average and a significant decrease in the achievement gap. Her systems-based approach connected professional development with classroom observations and student achievement data to target specific practices and ultimately raise student achievement.

Steve Gering

Steve Gering has been in education for over 25 years. During that time he has worked in both urban and suburban districts as a HS teacher and coach, a HS administrator, MS principal, District Administrator, and Deputy Superintendent in Kansas City, Kansas. Steve played a lead role in implementing the district reform effort, First Things First, in Kansas City, Kansas. Student achievement has dramatically improved in KCK since the implementation of First Things First.

Steve focuses his consulting efforts on helping districts structure systems of support that lead to successful student outcomes. Over the past year, Steve has provided extensive consulting support around high school reform for Chicago Public Schools. Additionally, he has supported the reform efforts in Los Angeles, Austin, Milwaukee, and numerous school districts in the Kansas City region.

Milton Goldberg

Milton Goldberg is an associate at Cross & Joftus. He is a recognized leader and consultant on education policy, research, and practice. As a speaker and writer, Goldberg discusses the relationship between education excellence and the nation's social and economic well-being. Recently, he served as distinguished senior fellow with the Education Commission of the States. From 1995 to 2002, Goldberg was executive vice president of the National Alliance of Business, an organization of business leaders dedicated to improving American education. He held various leadership positions in the U.S. Department of Education from 1977 to 1995. In 1983, he was named the executive director of the National Commission on Excellence in Education. A Nation At Risk, the commission's landmark report, is generally credited with starting the nationwide education reform movement. Goldberg was a teacher and an administrator with Philadelphia Public Schools and taught education history and philosophy at Temple University and Chestnut Hill College. He holds a bachelor's degree and master's degree in English literature and a doctorate in education curriculum and instruction, all from Temple University.

Sarah Glover

Sarah Glover is an associate at Cross & Joftus. She recently served as education policy analyst to Texas Speaker of the House Tom Craddick. Previously, she served as director of programs and operations at the Center for Reform of School Systems, a Houston-based nonprofit, where she managed the operations of the organization and several projects, including the Texas Institute for School Boards. Glover has served as a senior project coordinator for the Education Commission of the States, where she coordinated a five-year, $6.5 million partnership with New American Schools to promote widespread adoption of whole school reform models. She spent three years at IBM, where she worked in the Governmental Programs division, coordinating IBM's involvement in The Business Roundtable's Education Task Force, and in its import and export division. Glover has a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Tufts University and a master's degree in business administration and a master of arts degree in public affairs from The University of Texas at Austin.

Eleanor Johnson

Eleanor Johnson is an associate at Cross & Joftus. She is a consultant on education evaluation and policy analysis. Johnson is a member of and program evaluation expert for a National Research Council committee that is reviewing the Title VI and Fulbright-Hays International Education Programs. She recently retired as an assistant director for education issues at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), where she led more than 60 studies. GAO's groundbreaking, high-visibility evaluations of school finance and school facilities are redefining the model for school finance policy and the metrics of school finance equity nationwide. The recommendations and information are also guiding efforts to rebuild and modernize America's schools and the U.S. Department of Education. Prior to joining GAO, she published two books and worked as a management consultant and program evaluator and as a teacher and an educational administrator in Maine and New York. Johnson received a bachelor of arts from Brandeis University, a master of arts degree from Columbia University, and a doctorate in education from The George Washington University.

Gene I. Maeroff

Gene I. Maeroff is an associate at Cross & Joftus. He was the founding director of the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he is now a senior fellow. He was previously a senior fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Earlier, he spent 16 years on the staff of The New York Times, where he was national education correspondent. Maeroff is the author of 12 books on education topics for the general public and professional audiences. His latest book, Building Blocks: Making Children Successful in the Early Years of School, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2006. The subjects of some of his other books have been online learning, the education of poor children, and the ways high schools and colleges can work together on behalf of student achievement. Maeroff also is a member of his local school board, the fifth largest in New Jersey.

Judy Maurice

Judy Maurice is an associate at Cross & Joftus. She has considerable expertise in curriculum and school leadership development as well as program planning and management and grant writing. Recently retired as deputy superintendent for a county office of education in California, her career has included positions as an elementary school teacher, a secondary school teacher, a curriculum developer, a school principal, and a professional development provider for teachers, principals and superintendents, and school leadership teams. She has provided coaching for individual principals and guidance to superintendents in district and community planning and reform efforts. In addition, she has worked with several California school districts and elementary and secondary schools to meet state and district goals to increase student achievement.

Sylvia McMullen

Sylvia McMullen is an education consultant working on longitudinal data systems as part of the Texas High School Project’s Data Diagnostic and Planning Project. She has consulted with the Arkansas Department of Education and Target Testing Committee on interim assessments. She was Senior Vice President at Triand working with 200 school districts on data systems. Ms. McMullen led education and workforce efforts for the Greater Houston Partnership and served on numerous statewide committees including Closing the Gap, TBEC Coordinating Board, and the Houston-Galveston Workforce Board. Ms. McMullen has a M.Ed in Educational Administration from Texas A&M University and a J.D. from the University of Houston.

Janalee Jordan-Meldrum

Janalee Jordan-Meldrum is a senior consultant at Cross & Joftus. Janalee has served as an education consultant for several years, working with clients such as the National Academy Foundation, the Arkansas Department of Education, and the National Association of Elementary School Principals. Prior to becoming an independent consultant, she served as Senior Program Officer for K-12 and Community Programs at the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Educational Foundation. There, she developed a leadership institute for women principals and superintendents, led a fellowship program and training institute for teachers, provided grants and technical assistance to community-based organizations and coordinated a large-scale community-school coalition project. Janalee obtained her Bachelor's and Master's Degrees from Arizona State University.

Heather Clapp Padgette

Heather Clapp Padgette is a senior consultant with Cross & Joftus and has worked on topics such as high school reform and ways to finance summer learning opportunities. Padgette previously worked at The Finance Project, where she focused on out-of-school time, charter schools, and comprehensive school reform initiatives. She has authored several articles and provided direct technical assistance to state agencies and community organizations to help them identify financial and other resources to help sustain and expand programming. In former positions, Padgette has consulted with school districts and state policymakers on special education and children's health services. She also worked on education reform issues for Chicago Public Schools and the Consortium on Chicago School Research. Padgette received a master's degree in public policy from the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at The University of Chicago.

Alice Parker

Alice Parker is a senior consultant with Cross & Joftus. She has more than 40 years of experience in the classroom as a building principal, a district administrator, and an assistant superintendent of public instruction for California. Her areas of expertise include public policy and practice as well as special education models that meet federal and state compliance but are rooted in the Response to Intervention approach and are focused on improved outcomes for all children at risk of school failure. She has worked as a consultant to state departments of education, local school districts, and charter management organizations and agencies and provided support, consultation, and training in improving leadership; reducing disproportion; and implementing Response to Intervention, inclusive preschool options, and systems change. Parker has a doctorate from the University of San Francisco in Education-Organization and Leadership, a Masters in Communicative Disorders from San Francisco State University, and a B.A. from Indiana University in Speech Pathology and Audiology.

Bella Rosenberg

Bella Rosenberg is an associate at Cross & Joftus. She presently works as an education consultant. She was at the American Federation of Teachers for 22 years, most of them as special assistant to its late president, Albert Shanker. Rosenberg's work has focused on various education issues, including standards, testing, and accountability; the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; the National Assessment of Educational Progress; teacher policy; high school reform; and public school choice, vouchers, and charter schools. During the past three years, she has concentrated on "schools-plus" approaches (e.g., health, early childhood education, and extended learning time) to overcoming achievement gaps. She also has extensive public relations strategy and media experience. Her written work includes op-eds, congressional testimony, and academic journal articles. Rosenberg is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Queens College. She pursued her doctoral studies in education and social policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Marguerite Roza

Marguerite Roza is an associate at Cross & Joftus. She serves as a research assistant professor at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. Her research for its Center on Reinventing Public Education focuses on quantitative policy analysis, particularly in education finance and labor markets. Recent work has documented inequities and inefficiencies in spending within school districts and examined new budgeting mechanisms as a means of education reform. Additional research has examined the labor supply and demand of school principals, comparing reported shortages with evidence on the number of applicants in different regions. Roza teaches public policy analysis to graduate students. She received her doctorate degree from the University of Washington and her bachelor of science degree from Duke University. Roza has studied at the London School of Economics and the University of Amsterdam.

Richard C. Seder

Richard C. Seder is an associate at Cross & Joftus. He recently completed a policy fellowship with the California Secretary of Education's office, where he helped the secretary analyze policy issues facing the state's education system. He previously served as education policy program director at the University of Southern California Policy Institute assisting state and local policymakers with policy analysis and working with members of the research community to bring their insights to the forefront of policy discussions. Prior to joining the institute, Seder worked as a senior consulting associate for Management Analysis & Planning, Inc., an education policy consulting firm. He served as an associate with the Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services in New York and served as the director of education studies at the Reason Foundation in Los Angeles. Seder holds a bachelor of arts degree from Beloit College in government and economics, and he earned his master's degree with distinction from the H. John Heinz School of Public Policy & Management at Carnegie Mellon University. He is finishing his doctorate work in education policy at the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California.

Torrey Shawe

Torrey Shawe is a policy associate and project manager for Cross & Joftus, working with clients such as the Kansas Department of Education and the District of Columbia's Office of the State Superintendent of Education. Before joining Cross & Joftus, Shawe was a senior policy analyst at the National Governors Association, where she helped manage the Honor States Grant Program, a governor-led initiative to improve high school and college-ready graduation rates. Previously, she was a director at the Coalition of Essential Schools, an education reform organization, where she focused on network development and center and school support. During this time, Shawe also founded she19, a national nonpartisan effort to inspire women to vote in the 2004 presidential election. Before entering the field of education, she was a producer at Organic, a web development company based in San Francisco. Shawe holds a bachelor of arts degree in history from the University of Virginia and a master of arts degree in educational policy from the University of California, Berkeley.

Peggy Siegel

Peggy Siegel is an associate at Cross & Joftus. She has spent more than 30 years working on and writing about education reform issues with a focus on leadership, innovation, organizational redesign, and business-education engagement. Having held senior leadership positions in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, Siegel is now an education free agent, collaborating with others to accelerate transformation. Most recently, she has provided strategic advice to and/or advocacy documents for the Council of Chief State School Officers; the KnowledgeWorks Foundation, McREL, and the Ohio 8 Coalition; the Education Commission of the States; Boston College's Center for Corporate Citizenship; and Knowledge Alliance/West Wind Education Policy. Siegel is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Ohio State University, where she also earned a master's degree in political science and a doctorate degree, with honors, in education administration.

Virginia (Ginger) Adams Simon, Ed.D.

Ginger Adams Simon serves as Senior Associate for Cross & Joftus. In this role she has been acting as project manager for the “Brokers of Expertise” project for the California Department of Education since 2007. Brokers of Expertise is a web portal that will put high-quality, innovative, standards — and research-based materials and resources at the finger tips of the state's educators.

Ginger is also a part-time lecturer and policy analyst at the University of California, Davis School of Education. She works in the Center for Applied Policy in Education (CAP-Ed) helping with program development, implementation, research and project management. Her most recent projects include research support for Jack O’Connell’s P-16 Council and the development and management of CAP-Ed’s Superintendent Executive Leadership Forum (SELF). Her areas of specialization include accountability policy, teacher quality, compensation, organizational leadership and value-added assessment. She earned her doctorate in Education from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005.

Ryan Fink

Ryan Fink is an education policy consultant and research associate at Cross & Joftus. He recently completed a three-year Graduate Assistantship at George Washington University where he worked on a variety of projects related to teacher preparation and professional development. Fink also served as a fourth grade classroom teacher for five years, two at a bilingual school in Longmont, Colorado and three at a a school in Evanston, Illinois. He has a bachelor of science degree in human development and family studies from Penn State University and a master of arts degree in elementary education from the University of Colorado. He is currently pursuing his doctorate in education policy at George Washington University.

Connie Wehmeyer

Connie Wehmeyer, Ph.D., Cross & Joftus Senior Consultant, is an accomplished educator with over 20 years of experience as a teacher, teacher leader, central office administrator, college instructor and Education Consultant for the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE). As a central office administrator, she focused on systemic change including processes to manage the work of curriculum alignment and the development of a comprehensive formative assessment system. She led the implementation of the Professional Learning Community Model (PLC) creating a common structure to focus on student learning and designed district wide staff development to focus on instructional strategies and data analysis. Her leadership resulted in the turnaround of a district on improvement and increased student learning. Connie has directed the work of Federal Programs, district staff development, and school improvement at the district and state level. As a State and Federal Programs Education Consultant for KSDE, Connie participated in the initial work of the Kansas Learning Network, an innovative approach to school improvement.