Authors & Presenters

Nicole Roorda, EdD, is the interim superintendent for the Johnston Community School District in Iowa. She has extensive experience with K–12 students and teachers and brings a joy of learning to the workshops she conducts.

Tom Schimmer is an author and a speaker with expertise in assessment, grading, leadership, and behavioral support. He is a former district-level leader, school administrator, and teacher.

Sarah Schuhl specializes in professional learning communities, mathematics, assessment, school improvement, and RTI. She has been a secondary mathematics teacher, high school instructional coach, and K–12 mathematics specialist.

Rea Smith is a mathematics facilitator in northwest Arkansas. She passionately supports the work of professional learning communities with a focus on common assessments to improve student and teacher learning.

Jeanne Spiller is assistant superintendent for teaching and learning for Kildeer Countryside District 96 in Illinois. Her work focuses on implementation of the Common Core State Standards.

Mandy Stalets is a teacher and learner who is passionate about sound assessment and grading practices, as well as standards-based learning. Along with her consulting work, she is currently a high school mathematics teacher at Illinois State University’s laboratory schools.

Amy Tollefson is the district-level principal with Osseo Area Schools in a diverse suburb of Minneapolis. Over more than 20 years, she has also served as a secondary school principal, secondary social studies teacher, district office coordinator, and assistant principal.

Matt Townsley, EdD, is an assistant professor of educational leadership at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He is a former district administrator and teacher in Solon Community Schools, also in Iowa, where he led curriculum, assessment, and school-improvement initiatives, all under the umbrella of a professional learning community philosophy.

Ringnolda Jofee' Tremain has been in education since 2001, starting as a high school attendance clerk before rising to become the K–8 principal at Trinity Leadership Arlington in Texas.

Eric Twadell, PhD, is superintendent of Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. He has been a social studies teacher, curriculum director, and assistant superintendent for leadership and organizational development.