Professional Learning Communities

Ryan Searle is the curriculum director for Carbon County School District #2 in Saratoga, Wyoming. He has served in K–12 administration roles for over 15 years at the elementary and secondary levels, most recently as principal of Rawlins Middle School.

Catherine M. Thompson, EdS, is the principal of Marco Forster Middle School, located in San Juan Capistrano, California. She specializes in the implementation of professional learning communities (PLC) and is a passionate advocate for meeting the diverse learning needs of every student.

Heather K. Dillard, EdD, is an associate professor of education at Middle Tennessee State University. She has authored and coauthored book chapters, research articles, and magazine articles, primarily about Professional Learning Communities at Work®.

Kenneth Christian is an assistant principal at Fern Creek High School in Louisville, Kentucky. His work focuses on ensuring a guaranteed and viable curriculum for all students through the professional learning community process and transforming the work of collaborative teacher teams.

When teams commit to collaborating to ensure high levels of learning for ALL students, a key critical step is to examine personal and systemic beliefs, policies, and practices to build a school and district culture where systems align. Focused on closing the gaps for students with identified needs, this session, designed for leaders of both general and special educators, provides an overview of the core concepts and associated practices to collaboratively support all learners and bring this vision to life.

Kara Tidemann has successfully served for over 25 years in education. As a building leader she successfully led an underperforming school to high performance, earning Model PLC at Work® school status for demonstration of exceptional academic achievement over time.

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.

Daniel Evans, Jr. currently serves as the principal of Moores Mill Intermediate School, a Model PLC in Alabama. Previously, he served as a high school career technical education teacher and a high school instructional assistant principal.

John D. Ewald, EdD, is a former superintendent, principal, adjunct professor, and teacher. He has been an administrator and teacher at the elementary, middle, high school, and college levels.

Dr. David Chiprany is the former deputy superintendent for the Bartow County School System in Georgia. He specializes in teaching and developing professional learning communities at the system, school, and team levels, and he's a college educational coach and adjunct professor.