Authors & Presenters

Dr. Katie Atkins has served in various administrative and instructional roles in public schools across Texas. She is an advocate for high levels of learning for all students and champions literacy development, practices, and processes through a spirit of collaboration.

Eric Atuahene serves as principal at Littleton STEM Academy in Avondale, Arizona. He has more than 10 years of proven leadership experience, including implementing systems, raising student achievement, and improving school culture.

Ashley Avila is an implementation specialist for Marzano Academies, a current associate for Marzano Resources, and coauthor of Teaching in a Competency-Based Secondary School: The Marzano Academies Model.

Heather Babb has served in education for almost 20 years. Through her leadership, she guided her department, school, and district through the transition to a professional learning community (PLC), ultimately resulting in being recognized as a Model PLC at Work® school.

Brooks Baca is the managing director of human resources for Frisco ISD in Texas, where he provides dedicated support to campus and district personnel. Brooks possesses a deep passion for cultivating a culture of high expectations for all students, implementing strategies that effectively address the achievement gap, and developing processes for shared leadership, which enable collaborative teams to thrive.

Justin Baeder is director of The Principal Center, where he helps school and district administrators build capacity for instructional leadership. Driven by the belief that leaders belong in classrooms—where the most important work is being done—he created the 21-Day Instructional Leadership Challenge, which has helped more than 10,000 leaders from 50 countries develop the habit of getting into classrooms and having evidence-based conversations with teachers.

Kim Bailey is former director of professional development and instructional support for the Capistrano Unified School District in California. She also served as an adjunct faculty member at Chapman University in California.

Charly Baker has 15 years of experience in middle school mathematics. She specializes in guiding collaborative teams through the professional learning communities process. Charly’s focus is on ensuring equitable access to high-quality initial instruction, followed by targeted interventions and extensions driven by data.

Dr. Anisa Baker-Busby served as the principal of Lindsey Elementary since February 2016 and was appointed principal of Shirley Hills Elementary in July 2022. She has over twenty years of educational experiences serving as an elementary teacher and administrator. Her passion is to help schools build systems of support for collaborative teams that will ensure high levels of learning for all students.

Bradley Balch, PhD, is professor and dean emeritus at Indiana State University. He is currently a graduate faculty member in the Department of Educational Leadership, Bayh College of Education, and affiliate faculty member in the Department of Management, Information Systems, and Business Education, Scott College of Business.