Authors & Presenters

Kristen Bordonaro, EdD, has served as a school and district level administrator for the last 12 years. Her knowledge and background in leading professional learning communities has allowed teams to truly understand their direct impact on student growth. She has spent the past few years working with districts to deepen understanding of general and special education.

Racheal Branch serves as the principal of Huntsville Intermediate in Huntsville, Texas. She has worked to create a culture of collaboration by embedding the professional learning communities process to grow student performance and build teacher capacity.

Tim Brown, an educational speaker and author, has 30 years of experience in education. As principal of elementary, middle, and high schools in Missouri, he led each to become a successful professional learning community.

Paul Buckley, a consultant, has more than 30 years of experience in education. He has led learning in remote schools in Central Australia and in international schools in Shanghai, Beijing, Colombo, and Jakarta.

Austin Buffum, EdD, has more than 45 years of experience in public schools. His many roles include serving as former senior deputy superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District in California.

Eric Burns is the principal at Lynn Lucas Middle School for Willis ISD in Willis, Texas. His focus is coaching collaborative teams through the PLC process and designing effective RTI systems to monitor student performance. He has received accolades including being named Hardy Elementary’s Teacher of the Year in 2012 and Willis Independent School District's Principal of the Year in 2020.

With over 20 years of experience in elementary education, Jeff Byrnes specializes in the implementation of professional learning communities and multitiered systems of supports at the elementary level.

David (Cal) Callaway, EdD, is the deputy head of school at the International Community School of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. He has worked in international education since 1998 and has served as both a teacher and an administrator.

Josh Campbell serves as the principal at Mance Park Middle School in Huntsville, Texas, where he focuses on building teacher capacity by coaching collaborative teams through the professional learning communities process and designing effective response to intervention to monitor student and educator performance.

Kimberly Rodriguez Cano, a consultant with over 30 years’ experience, is a former transition specialist, special education coordinator, professional development director, and school improvement specialist for the Florida Department of Education, supporting educators in that state and across the United States.