Authors & Presenters

Maria Nielsen, educational speaker and author, specializes in supporting teachers and administrators in the areas of PLCs, RTI, school culture, curriculum design, the highly engaged classroom, and assessment systems. Her life’s work is to help schools build successful systems to ensure high levels of student learning.

Mark Onuscheck is director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Illinois. He is a former English teacher and director of communication arts.

Hannah Polk, EdD, serves as a principal in a large metropolitan school district in Georgia. Her pursuit of excellence is evident as she advocates for high levels of learning for all students. In addition, she is passionate about guiding educators on paths to improve school culture, navigate difficult conversations, and enhance the overall effectiveness of their collaborative teams.

Karen Power is an educational presenter and a former teacher, principal, superintendent, and senior advisor for professional learning and leadership. Karen has implemented the PLC process both as a principal and as a superintendent, and for several years, she has supported collaborative work in schools to meet the needs of students.

Anthony Reibel hails from Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Illinois and is the current assistant principal for teaching and learning. Anthony is also coauthor of several books: Proficiency-Based Assessment, Proficiency-Based Instruction, Proficiency-Based Grading in the Content Areas, and Pathways to Proficiency which explore the relationship between proficiency, pedagogy, and evidence-based grading.

Samuel Ritchie is a consultant with 35 years of experience as a practitioner. For most of those years, he was the director of technology at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Illinois.

Veronica C. Rodriguez, EdD, is the curriculum and instruction world languages and dual language coordinator at Pasadena Independent School District. With more than 23 years in education, she has served as a teacher, counselor, assistant principal, and district-level administrator.

Chad Roland, EdD, is the assistant to the superintendent at Kiski Area School District in Western Pennsylvania. The collaborative efforts at Kiski Area High School earned recognition as a Model PLC at Work® school in 2017, a distinction successfully reestablished in 2023.

Ainsley B. Rose is an author, a presenter, and a consultant. An experienced elementary and secondary teacher and principal, he is former director of education for the Western Quebec School Board.

Jared J. Savage is the principal of Fairmont Elementary School (TK–8) in the Sanger Unified School District in California. He has been an educator for 19 years, serving as a teacher, coach, counselor, guidance learning specialist, assistant principal, and principal.