Presenter Biographies
Overview Webinar to Community Engagement in Turnaround Series
School Turnaround Learning Community
Dr. Jonathan Brice was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education in October 2013. In this role Jonathan will provide leadership for six programs areas including; Teacher Quality, School Support and Rural Education, Impact Aid, Indian Education, Migrant Education, Safe and Healthy Students.
Previously Jonathan served as School Support Network Officer in Baltimore City Public Schools from August 2011 to October 2013. In this role, he was responsible for providing integrated support for 200 schools/programs by bringing together diverse offices including Human Capital, Teaching and Learning, Special Education, Student Support, Facilities, and Family & Community Engagement in order to assist schools in building internal capacity to increase student achievement. Prior to serving as School Support Network Officer, Dr. Brice served as Executive Director for Student Support and Safety from March 2008through July 2011 for Baltimore City Public Schools. In this role he was responsible for the development, implementation, and coordination of student attendance, student placement, suspension services, prevention and intervention support, student records, school counseling, and health services, including home and hospital, alternative education, and school police for 85,000 students.
Dr. Brice has held central office leadership and school based administrative positions in Duval County Public Schools, the Christina School District in Delaware, Anne Arundel County Public Schools, and Baltimore County Public Schools. Dr. Brice served as a middle school teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools and a high school teacher in Baltimore County Public Schools.
A graduate of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, Dr. Brice earned an Ed.D. and an M.Ed. in Administration, Planning and Supervision with a concentration in the Urban Superintendency. He also earned a M.S. in Human Resource Development, concentration in Educational Leadership from Towson University and a B.A. in History from the University of Baltimore. He is married to Crystal Brice, the proud father of two daughters, one step daughter, and two step-sons.
Danielle Smith is a Content Lead for Technical Assistance in the U.S. Department of Education’s Implementation and Support Unit. In this role, Danielle manages technical assistance for Race to the Top State grantees through the Department’s Reform Support Network (RSN) and leads the School Turnaround, Stakeholder Communications and Engagement, and Teacher and Leader Effectiveness/Standards and Assessments communities of practice. Additionally, Danielle leads technical assistance evaluation and manages strategic communications projects including the Department’s recently launched PROGRESS website. Prior to joining the Department, Danielle provided support to States and school districts to launch initiatives to turn around their lowest-performing schools focusing on building capacity for strategic planning, developing performance management systems, implementing lead partner market strategies and communications with Mass Insight. Previously, Danielle served as the Director of the Ward 7 Initiative at Georgetown University, a strategic community engagement initiative to match university resources to community and school needs and was a leader in the citywide Double the Numbers initiative to dramatically increase high school graduation and college going rates across the District of Columbia. Danielle holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Georgetown University and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy.
Lori Thomas
Editor, Research Associate
Academic Development Institute
Lori Thomas’s degree and background are in early childhood education, with a special interest in children with disabilities. Lori is the editor of the School Community Journal and vets and catalogs materials for ADI’s several websites. Lori has also edited the Families and Schools Newsletter and managed the Parent and School Resources databases for the School Community Network and Illinois Parents websites. In addition, she has edited numerous publications for ADI. She also helped to edit two monographs for the Family-School-Community Partnership Special Interest Group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association, of which she is an active member. Lori specializes in producing materials that are accessible to families.