Professional Learning Communities

Angela Veatch, a National Board Certified Teacher with over 25 years in education, serves as an instructional specialist for Fort Smith Public Schools. She is passionate about visible learning, learning by doing, and strengthening teacher efficacy through the PLC process.

Kristi Napoli is the principal at Golden Hills Elementary School, a Model Professional Learning Community at Work® school in Northern California. With over 20 years of experience, she’s found success in collaborative teams, the professional learning community process, and multitiered systems of support.

Jennifer Taylor serves as an instructional coach at Riverton Intermediate School. Prior to her current role, she supported administrators and teachers in the professional learning communities (PLC) process as a district instructional specialist.

Hillary Woest is a presenter, staff developer, and practitioner with over 24 years of experience in public education. She specializes in supporting Professional Learning Communities at Work® and Response to Intervention at Work™ in schools by helping them assess, refine, and optimize current systems of support for special populations and challenging demographics.

Paula Maeker is an educator, consultant, and advocate for learner-centered education. She has more than twenty-three years’ experience as an elementary teacher, literacy specialist, instructional coach, Title 1 program coordinator, campus administrator, director of elementary literacy, and director of instructional design.

Karen Johnson is the coordinator of Language Acquisition for the Pleasanton Unified School District Pleasanton, California. She is passionate about the topics of equity, inclusion, and ensuring high levels of learning for all students.

Faith Short is the principal at East Pointe Elementary. With 25 years of experience in education, she is fiercely passionate about the work of collaborative teams as a vehicle to ensure high levels of learning for every student. She specializes in helping leaders and teachers implement the PLC process to impact teaching and learning.

Joshua Ray, EdD, is principal at Greenwood High School in Arkansas. He has served as an administrator at the elementary, middle, and high school levels and is a passionate advocate for adult learning and educator well-being.

Claire Springer is a partner in education specializing in master scheduling at the elementary level, creating school systems to support the professional learning community process, and implementing data protocols to monitor high levels of learning for all. She has 13 years of experience in education, eight of those years in school leadership.

Kim Nichols, EdD, is former assistant superintendent in Ringgold, Georgia. Under her leadership, Catoosa County Schools was named the first Model PLC District in Georgia and twelve schools have become Model PLCs.