Before retiring from SEDL in October, 2010, D'Ette F. Cowan led Texas Comprehensive Center efforts to assist state and intermediate agencies in providing high-needs districts and schools with technical assistance that is systemic in nature. In her 12-year career at SEDL, she also assisted low-performing districts and schools throughout a five-state region to improve student learning, and investigated strategies for transforming schools into professional learning communities.
Christine Corby Crane recently retired after a 26-year teaching career from the Athens Area School District in Athens, Pennsylvania, where she was the K-12 Science Department chair for nine years. She was instrumental in the district obtaining PA Environment and Ecology Exemplary Status for the 2007 school year after obtaining three grants to develop and implement a curriculum involving the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
Lisa Cranston has over thirty years of experience as an educator and has taught grades kindergarten to four, worked as an instructional coach for literacy and mathematics, and as an educational consultant for kindergarten and primary grades. She has also provided induction for new teachers and support for their mentors. In her role as a curriculum consultant, Lisa and her colleagues developed the Lab Class model to support professional learning for teachers and administrators.
Glenda Beamon Crawford’s experiences with young adolescent learners span nearly thirty years. She has taught in grades 4–12 and currently coordinates the middle grades program at Elon University, where she is a professor of teacher education. She has authored three books, including Managing the Adolescent Classroom and Sparking the Thinking of Students, Ages 10–14, as well as articles on structuring classrooms for adolescent thinking and learning.