The daily schedule can be found here. Please review the bios below the day before each speaker/site.
You are encouraged to do research about these speakers/sites beyond the information that is presented here and to formulate potential questions to ask.
Tuesday, January 2nd
Myrna R. Mandlawitz, JD, M.Ed.
As president of MRM Associates, LLC, Myrna serves as the policy and legislative consultant to the Council of Administrators of Special Education. She has worked in Washington for 30 years as a consultant/lobbyist on special and general education law and policy and has authored a number of books and publications on special education. Myrna is a former president of the Committee for Education Funding, a coalition of over 100 national organizations focused on increasing the federal investment in education, and also serves as a co-chair of the National Alliance of Specialized Instructional Support Personnel. Her first position in Washington was as Director of Government Relations for the National Association of State Directors of Special Education. A native of Virginia, Myrna spent fourteen years as a classroom teacher and assisted in the development of Virginia’s program for infants and toddlers with disabilities. She holds a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education from Boston University and a law degree from Temple University.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/myrna-mandlawitz-0373526/
As the oldest and largest coalition of education associations in existence, the Committee for Education Funding (CEF) provides a strong and unified voice in support of increasing the federal investment in education. Their mission is to provide our members, the public, the US Congress, the Executive Branch, and the media with information in support of federal investments in education. CEF takes positions on federal education funding issues that represent a consensus of its membership and then communicates those positions to federal government officials and Members of Congress.
https://cef.org/
Council of Administrators of Special Education provides leadership to advance the field of special education through professional learning, policy, and advocacy.
https://www.casecec.org/
Wednesday, January 3rd
Rebecca Howard (Office of Senator Tim Kaine)
Senator Tim Kaine’s policy on education: https://www.kaine.senate.gov/issues/education
Rebecca Howard is the Senior Education and Workforce Policy Advisor for Senator Kaine.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-howard-13a1a2207/
Thursday, January 4th
Patrick Rooney
Patrick Rooney is the Director of School Support and Accountability at the U.S. Department of Education. He oversees several key components of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), including 21st Century Community Learning Centers; Title I, Part A; Title I, Part D; Title II; Title III; State Assessment Grants; Competitive Grants for State Assessments; McKinney-Vento Homeless Education; Well-Rounded Education through Student-Centered Funding; and 21st Century Community Learning Centers Out of School Time Career Pathway programs. Together, these programs award more than $20 billion annually to states and districts. Prior to this, Patrick was the Deputy Director in the Office of State Support from 2014 to 2018, where he oversaw many of these same programs. Patrick previously helped lead the work of the Reform Support Network, providing technical assistance to states implementing comprehensive Race to the Top reforms, and the Race to the Top Assessment program, which provided grants to groups of states to develop new assessments aligned to state’s college and career ready standards. Patrick also worked in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education supporting states implement their accountability and assessment systems. Patrick previously worked in the DC Office of State Superintendent of Education, where he was a senior policy advisor and worked on a variety of K-12 issues in the District of Columbia. He started his career as a statistician in the National Center for Education Statistics, analyzing education trends for a variety of topics in the Congressionally mandated annual report, The Condition of Education.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-rooney-5a93391/
Jacqueline Rodriguez
Dr. Jacqueline Rodriguez is CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, supporting and leading a team at the forefront of the learning disabilities rights movement.
She joined NCLD from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), where she serves as vice president for research, policy, & advocacy overseeing the strategy and content development for the association’s research, programs and professional learning, state and federal policy, and advocacy initiatives. Prior to her tenure with AACTE, Rodriguez served as a special education teacher and university faculty member, preparing future special and general education teachers for K12 classrooms.
Rodriguez has a PhD in education with a focus on exceptional education from the University of Central Florida, where she was a McKnight Doctoral Fellow and an Order of Pegasus Awardee. Rodriguez earned an MA in special education with a learning disabilities specialization from American University and her BA in international affairs and Latin American studies with a concentration in international development, culture, and society from The George Washington University. She worked at W&M as an assistant professor for five years.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacqueline-rodriguez-phd/
The National Center for Learning Disabilities works to improve the lives of children and young adults nationwide with learning and attention issues—by empowering parents and young adults, transforming schools, and advocating for equal rights and opportunities.
They’re working to create a society where everyone possesses the academic, social, and emotional skills needed to succeed in school, work, and life.
https://ncld.org/
Julie Packett
Julie Packett is a Data Scientist / IT Specialist at USAID. There, she helps build a data community for USAID, sells the vision for modern analytics across the organization, and leads education and advocacy on data use and governance. Before this role, she was an Education Research Analyst at the U.S. Department of Education.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmwp/
USAID is the world’s premier international development agency and a catalytic actor driving development results. USAID’s work advances U.S. national security and economic prosperity, demonstrates American generosity, and promotes a path to recipient self-reliance and resilience.
https://www.usaid.gov/
Friday, January 5th
Dave Goldfarb
Dave Goldfarb is a Special Projects Administrator at Fairfax County Public Schools.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-goldfarb-5096224/
Fairfax County Public Schools is one of the largest school divisions in the U.S. with 199 schools and centers. They serve a diverse student population of more than 181,000 students in grades prekindergarten through 12, speaking over 200 languages. Over 27 percent of their total student population is Economically Disadvantaged; 14.4 percent are reported as Students with Disabilities, and more than 20 percent of students are English Learners. Demographically, 36.8 percent of FCPS students are White, 27.1 percent are Hispanic, 19.8 percent are Asian, 10 percent are Black, 5.9 percent are two or more races, 0.3 are American Indian and 0.1 percent are Native Hawaiian.
Nearly 94.6 percent of FCPS students graduate on time (in four years of high school), and more than 92 percent plan to pursue post-secondary education. FCPS students can take Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) classes in high school; the division offers the IB middle years program and the IB primary years program in select schools. Two hundred thirty-eight students from 18 high schools have been named semifinalists by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation for 2023. Fairfax County high schools are recognized annually by education columnist Jay Mathews as being among the most challenging high schools in the U.S.
FCPS, one of the largest employers in Virginia, has 24,839.2 full-time employees, of whom 92.9 percent are school-based and 7.1 percent non-school-based. Our FY 2022 Approved Budget of $3.4 billion is primarily funded by Fairfax County (64.3 percent) with contributions from Virginia (23.1 percent), other sources (.7 percent) and the federal government (9.4 percent). More than 86 percent of the budget goes toward instruction, and the average cost per student is $16,505.
https://www.fcps.edu/
https://nces.ed.gov/Programs/Edge/ACSDashboard/5101260
Ashley Pettway Carter
Ashley Carter is the Director of the Capital Teaching Residency at KIPP DC Public Schools. Ashley has been in education for over four years, starting as a middle school mathematics teacher at Center City Public Charter Schools. Ashley then transitioned to Content Specialist – Special Education at Teach For America and then to Founding STEM Teacher Leader & SPED Case Manager at Digital Pioneers Academy. Most recently, Ashley was at Ingenuity Prep as the Founding Special Education Teacher and Grade Level Lead – 5th. At Ingenuity Prep, Ashley was responsible for planning and executing rigorous lessons for students with IEPs, leading weekly grade level meetings, and creating a joyful, efficient, learning-focused classroom experience for students that led to exemplary student growth.
Ashley Carter has a Master of Science in Counseling from Johns Hopkins University School of Education and a Bachelor of Arts in Literary & Cultural Studies Major and Community Studies Minor from William & Mary. Ashley is certified from the DC Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) in Regular II Teaching License.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleypettway/
Monday, January 8th
McKinley Tech High
McKinley Technology High School is a DC public school serving nearly 700 students. They emphasize G.R.I.T, professionalism, critical thinking, communication, teamwork, and STEM mastery.
https://www.mckinleytech.org/
Jennifer DePaoli
Jennifer DePaoli is a Senior Researcher at the Learning Policy Institute and co-leads LPI’s Whole Child Education team. She directs the Whole Child Policy Table, working with partners and policymakers to collectively drive systems change aligned with the science of learning and development. She also brings a whole child lens to teacher preparation and development policy through her work on the Teacher Licensure Collaborative and EdPrepLab.
DePaoli has more than a decade of experience teaching and conducting research and policy analysis in K–12 education. She began her career teaching middle-grade students and later pre-service teachers at the University of Akron and Ohio State University. Prior to joining LPI, DePaoli served as the Senior Research & Policy Advisor at Civic Enterprises, where she led research on raising high school graduation rates and social and emotional learning. Before that, she conducted school choice and charter school policy research at Policy Matters Ohio. DePaoli currently serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Social Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy.
DePaoli earned her PhD in Education from Ohio State University, where she focused on state- and district-level K–12 education reform policy. She also holds a Master’s in Middle Childhood Education and a BA in Communications from the University of Dayton.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-depaoli-phd/
Founded in 2015, the Learning Policy Institute (LPI) conducts and communicates independent, high-quality research to improve education policy and practice. LPI seeks to advance evidence-based policies at the local, state, and federal levels that support empowering and equitable learning for each and every child. Nonprofit and nonpartisan, LPI works with policymakers, researchers, educators, community groups, and others to strengthen the education system from preschool through college and career readiness.
https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/
Sally Calengor
Sally Calengor is a Research Assistant with the RAND Corporation. Her work is focused on issues relating to emergency and disaster response, climate and sustainability efforts, and national security. She has skills in qualitative research methods, human-subjects research, analytical writing, and communications/outreach, with previous experience in event planning and community development. She graduated from W&M in 2023.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sally-calengor/
The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest.
https://www.rand.org/
Tuesday, January 9th
National Education Association
The National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest professional employee organization, is committed to advancing the cause of public education. NEA’s 3 million members work at every level of education—from pre-school to university graduate programs. NEA has affiliate organizations in every state and in more than 14,000 communities across the United States.
https://www.nea.org/about-nea
Christy Talbot
Christy Talbot is the Assistant Director of Government Relations at the American Educational Research Association (AERA).
The American Educational Research Association (AERA), a national research society, strives to advance knowledge about education, to encourage scholarly inquiry related to education, and to promote the use of research to improve education and serve the public good.
https://www.aera.net/
Teacher Panelists
Beth Cymerman is a high school English teacher at Falls Church High School in Fairfax County Public Schools.
Abby Comey is a high school English teacher at McKinley Tech High in Washington DC Public Schools. You can read some of her writing here and here.
Luc Nguyen is a high school English teacher at Chantilly High School in Fairfax County Public Schools. You can read his blog here and find him on LinkedIn here.
Sydney Hamrick is a high school English teacher at Fairfax High School in Fairfax County Public Schools.
Rachel Wilmans is a middle school English teacher at Willard Middle School in Loudon County Public Schools. You can find her on LinkedIn here.
Alex Johnson is a high school English teacher at Fairfax High School in Fairfax County Public Schools. You can find them on LinkedIn here.
Thursday, January 11th
Jackson Reed High School
Jackson-Reed High School is a DC public school serving over 2,000 students. It strives to build a safe, supportive, and welcoming community of dedicated and self-reflective learners, equipped to joyfully embrace opportunities for growth on the path of active citizenship.
https://jacksonreedhs.org/