Deputy Director, Research to Practice Division, Office of Special Education Programs

Speaker Bios

2016

Renee Bradley

Deputy Director, Research to Practice Division, Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education

Renee Bradley has almost 30 years of experience in the field of special education. She began her career as a teacher of students with emotional and behavioral disabilities. During those eight years she worked in a variety of settings from self-contained to an inclusion program to providing homebound services working with children preschool through high school. Renee worked at the South Carolina Educational Policy Center for two years prior to joining the University of South Carolina Special Education Program as a Clinical Instructor in the Graduate School. During her time there she coordinated the master’s student teaching experience and taught a variety of courses. As an experienced consultant and trainer on a variety of education issues including: behavioral supports and interventions, juvenile justice, instructional strategies, teacher training and school leadership, Dr. Bradley has a reputation as an effective deliverer of research based and practical information with a strong sense of the real world. In 1997, she joined the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs as a program specialist on the National Initiatives Team. In 1998, she became the Special Assistant to the Director of Research to Practice and now serves as the Deputy Director. Among her responsibilities she is the project officer for the National Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports and the IDEA Partnership project. She coordinated the OSEP LD Initiative and served as the project officer for the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities and the Juvenile Justice Research Center. She has written and contributed to numerous publications and chapters, serves on several professional publication boards, and is a frequent presenter on special education issues. Dr. Bradley has a bachelor and master’s degree in special education from the College of Charleston and her Ph.D. in Leadership and Policy from the University of South Carolina.

Geoff Browning

Legislative Aide, Rep. Clark (MA-6)

Geoff is a legislative assistant for Congresswoman Katherine Clark where he handles issues related to education, arts, and humanities issues. Previously, Geoff worked for Representative Barney Frank, Representative James McGovern, Representative Anna Eschoo, and Senator Edward Kennedy. Geoff is a lifelong musician and is currently the president of the Italian American Congressional Staff Association. Geoff has a BA in Political Science from Loyola College in Maryland

Kimberly Charis

Director of School Climate, Discipline, and Equity, National Association of State Boards of Education

Kimberly Charis is the Director of School Climate, Discipline, and Equity. She provides strategic direction for the organization’s advocacy work to ensure that all students receive equal educational opportunities. This includes designing initiatives that strengthen the capacity of state boards to promote student achievement, providing technical assistance to various groups on how to leverage state policy to support local education initiatives, and building collaborative partnerships to improve policy and practice on promoting equity. Charis is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania School of Public Policy & Practice and Spelman College.

Kathy Cowan

Director of Communications, National Association of School Psychologists

Kathy Cowan is NASP’s Director of Communications. Kathy is responsible for coordinating general communications, crisis communications, and media relations for NASP, as well as supporting the communications needs of NASP programs, advocacy, and marketing. Prior to joining NASP in 2000, she was Director of Communications and Community Outreach for Crossway Community, a nonprofit residential program for homeless women and their children.

Katie Eklund

Assistant Professor of School Psychology, University of Arizona

Katie Eklund, PhD is an Assistant Professor of School Psychology at the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ. Dr. Eklund has worked in public education for the last 14 years as a school administrator, school psychologist, and school social worker. Dr. Eklund served as Coordinator of Mental Health Services for Douglas County School District in Colorado, as a school psychologist for Fountain Fort Carson School District in Colorado Springs, CO, and as a school social worker and high school track coach in Denver and Chicago. Dr. Eklund has served as an Adjunct Professor of Psychology and Teacher Education at Westmont College and the University of Denver, and as an instructor on Response to Intervention for the Colorado Department of Education. Dr. Eklund received her BA in Psychology and Bachelor of Social Work degree from Valparaiso University, her MSW from the University of Michigan, and her Ph.D. in Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Dr. Eklund has authored a number of publications on universal screening for behavioral and emotional concerns and school climate. Dr. Eklund’s broad research interests include prevention and early intervention for childhood behavioral and emotional concerns, positive psychology, school climate, support for military children and families, and school-based problem solving and consultation. Dr. Eklund’s teaching interests are in the area of school-based academic and behavioral interventions, crisis intervention, child and adolescent psychotherapy, and problem solving and consultation. Dr. Eklund is Chair of the Government and Professional Relations committee for the National Association of School Psychologists.

James Ferg-Cadima

Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Office of Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education

James A. Ferg-Cadima is the Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR). He heads up OCR’s regulatory and policy work applicable to public schools, charter schools, and universities under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (prohibiting race, color, and national origin discrimination); Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (prohibiting sex discrimination); Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (prohibiting disability discrimination); and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (prohibiting disability discrimination). Immediately prior to joining OCR, Mr. Ferg-Cadima was a regional counsel heading the Washington, DC office of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the nation’s leading Latino legal civil rights organization. Earlier in his career, Mr. Ferg-Cadima worked for the ACLU of Illinois in Chicago, the Northern District of Illinois, and the Advancement Project. During law school, Mr. Ferg-Cadima taught constitutional literacy in the DC Public Schools as part of the inaugural class of Marshall Brennan Fellows. Harvard Law School awarded Mr. Ferg-Cadima a Wasserstein Fellowship in 2008; the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia awarded him the Hugh A. Johnson, Jr. Memorial Award in 2012; and the District of Columbia Courts awarded him a legal community award in 2014, all in recognition of his public service. He earned his law degree from the American University Washington College of Law, and is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia, Illinois, and Maryland.

Michael Feuer

Dean, GSEHD, George Washington University

Michael J. Feuer holds a Ph.D in Public Policy from the University of Pennsylvania, where he also earned the MA in Public Management from the Wharton School. He has studied public administration at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and political science at the Sorbonne (Paris). Dr. Feuer grew up in New York City, where he attended public school and graduated cum laude from Queens College (CUNY) with a major in English literature and journalism. Before serving as dean of GSEHD, Dr. Feuer served as the executive director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education in the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies, where he had also been the founding director of the Board on Testing and Assessment and the Center for Education. Before joining the NRC in 1993, Dr. Feuer was a senior analyst and project director at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment.

Upon earning his doctorate, Feuer remained at UPenn, teaching graduate seminars in education and working at the Higher Education Finance Research Institute. He then joined the faculty of the business school at Drexel University, teaching courses in public policy and management and continuing his research on the economics of education, labor and human capital.

Feuer was the Burton and Inglis Lecturer at Harvard University in 2004, which was the basis for his 2006 book Moderating the Debate: Rationality and the Promise of American Education, published by Harvard Education Press. Feuer is a senior adviser to education projects in Israel, and has consulted on education in France and Germany. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a fellow of the American Educational Research Association.

Lindsay Fryer

Education Policy Advisor

Senate HELP Committee

Lindsay Fryer is the Senior Education Policy Advisor for Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee. On HELP, she leads the K-12 and education research teams, and handles several other policy matters. Previously, Fryer served as a Professional Staff Member on the House Committee on Education & the Workforce. She handled several issues for Chairman Kline (R-MN) including topics related to K-12 and higher education, education research, and human services issues like juvenile justice, runaway and homeless youth, missing and exploited children, and child abuse prevention. Fryer has a strong education background. She previously worked at the American Institutes for Research on two large contracts. Her work focused on high school dropout prevention, literacy programs, and online math opportunities. She has authored several reports on these topics. Fryer holds a master's degree from Harvard University in Education Policy and Management.

Gary Galluzo

Professor Emeritus, Center for Education Policy and Evaluation, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA

Gary R. Galluzzo (Ph.D., Syracuse University) is a Professor Emeritus in the College of Education and Human Development, as well as the Director of the Ph.D. in Education program at George Mason University. Dr. Galluzzo served as Dean of Masons then-Graduate School of Education and as the Executive Vice-President of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. He has been at George Mason University since 1997. Dr. Galluzzo came to Mason from the University of Northern Colorado, where he was Professor and Dean of the College of Education. He also served as the director of the Laboratory School at the University of Northern Colorado. He has been on the faculty at Western Kentucky University and Rowan University (NJ). He began his career as a high school History-Social Studies teacher in upstate New York. He served as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards from 1994 through 2000, and on the Board of Directors of the American

Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) from 1995-1998. He also served as the Co-Chair of the Colorado Teachers and Special Services Professional Standards Board from 1992-1997. His research interests include investigations into how students become teachers, curriculum reform in teacher education, program evaluation in teacher education, education reform, and preparing teachers to be the agents of school change. He was a member of the AACTE Research and Information Committee which conducted eight annual national studies of teacher education and published the monograph series, Teaching Teachers: Facts and Figures known as the Research About Teacher Education (RATE) Project. He is co-author of The Rise and Stall of Teacher Education Reform, and The Masters Degree in Education as Professional Development. He is published in professional journals and has chapters in the Handbook of Research on Teacher Education, the International Encyclopedia of Education, and the Advances in Teacher Education series, among others. At the 2014 AACTE annual meeting, he was awarded the David G. Imig Award for Distinguished Achievement in Teacher Education.

Florencia Guiterrez

Senior Research Associate, Annie E Casey Foundation, National Kids Count

Florencia Guiterrez has worked at the Annie E. Casey Foundation for the past 7 years. She is currently a Senior Research Associate for KIDS COUNT. She manages and maintains the KIDS COUNT Data Center, and is integral in the development of the Data Book and related national KIDS COUNT products. Before joining the foundation Florencia spent seven years in Texas researching issues in the area of education, wealth, and the economy. Her interests in these areas led her to pursue a Master’s degree in Education and another in Public Policy which guided her work with the legislature and the Center for Public Policy Priorities, where she worked on KIDS COUNT at the state-level.

Angela Heishman

School Psychologist, Big Spring School District, Newville, PA and GWU Adjunct Faculty

Angela Heishman, PhD is a Certified School Psychologist in Pennsylvania and a Nationally Certified School Psychologist. She holds a Diplomate in School Neuropsychology from the American Board of School Neuropsychology. She is currently a school psychologist and Student Assistance Coordinator at the Big Spring School District in Newville, Pennsylvania and an Adjunct Professor at George Washington University. Prior to her employment as a school psychologist, she served as a mental health liaison, program consultant, and crisis responder for Student Assistance Teams across central PA. In her employment at Teenline at Holy Spirit Hospital, she was also a lead trainer on the SAP model as endorsed by the Commonwealth Approved Training System through the PA Department of Education’s Division of Safe and Drug Free schools. In addition to her experiences as an outpatient counselor and play therapist, she has also worked extensively with adults with disabilities. Dr. Heishman also has experience in teaching ESL at the college level and has facilitated support group for youth refugees relocated in the United States. She possesses Masters’ degrees in Counseling and Education (TESOL). She also has a post-master’s certificate in school psychology and a doctorate in special education at George Washington University with a concentration in applied neuroscience.

Leanne Hotek

Education Policy Advisor, US Senate Committee on Health Education, Labor and Pensions

Leanne Hotek is an Education Policy Advisor for Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Her portfolio includes a range of K-12 and higher education policy issues, including school climate, student safety and health, well-rounded and rural education, career and technical education, and college access programs. Prior to this role, she served as Legislative Assistant for Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), former Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. She advised Chairman Harkin on two committee mark ups of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 2011 and 2013, as well as twelve hearings on the Higher Education Act (HEA). She