June 2 Education Action Summit
SPEAKER BIOS
Donna Cooper, Secretary of Policy and Planning for Governor Ed Rendell.
Donna Cooper serves as Secretary of the Governor's Office of Policy and Planning. The Office of Policy and Planning coordinates program planning and policy development among the executive branch agencies and works closely with the Governor's Budget, Legislative and Washington offices to ensure that federal and state policy options are thoroughly examined for their fiscal, legislative and programmatic consequences.
Donna Cooper most recently served as the Executive Director of Good Schools Pennsylvania, a public education advocacy organization. Cooper served as Deputy Mayor for Policy and Planning in the Rendell administration, advising the then-Mayor on all aspects of city policy.
As part of the Governor's executive staff, Cooper has worked to move Governor Rendell's agenda and his Plan for a New Pennsylvania forward.
Paul Weckstein, Director, Center for Law and Education, Washington D.C.
Paul Weckstein joined CLE full-time in 1978 as a staff attorney, moved to Washington to direct the DC office in 1981, and has been co-director with Kathy Boundy since 1990. He played a major role in shaping past and current reforms of Title I, the Perkins and School-to-Work Opportunities Acts, and other federal education legislation and has developed projects to assist with local implementation of both Title I/academic reform and vocational reform. He has written, trained, and advocated extensively in all areas of education affecting low-income students. Mr. Weckstein began his education career at the Massachusetts Department of Education, where he worked with high school students on involvement in school decision-making. He graduated from Haverford College and holds both education and law degrees from Harvard University, where he has also taught education law.
Dr. Heidi Ramirez, Director, Urban Education Collaborative, Temple University
Dr. Heidi A. Ramirez, Director of the Urban Education Collaborative at Temple University who holds advance degrees from Stanford, Harvard and Syracuse University, was officially sworn in as a School Reform Commission (SRC) Commissioner on March 19, 2008. Nominated to serve on the SRC by Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell, Dr. Ramirez has dedicated her career to urban school improvement with a particular focus on leadership development, teacher quality, and climate for learning. At Temple University, she is the principal liaison between the College of Education, the Center for Research in Human Development and Education, the School District of Philadelphia and other regional districts and schools. Prior to joining Temple University in May 2005, Dr. Ramirez was an Education Program Consultant at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, where she provided advice on investments in urban education, district-level reform, and initiatives to improve teaching and learning for English language learners.
Dr. Betsey Useem, Teacher Quality Researcher (Research for Action)
Betsey Useem was the Director of Research and Evaluation at the Philadelphia Education Fund from 1993 to 2004 where she conducted studies in teacher quality and supply, comprehensive secondary school reform, and teacher professional development. She was formerly the Director of Teacher Education at Bryn Mawr College and Haverford College. She spent 21 years as a faculty member in the Sociology Departments of Boston State College and the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She also chaired the Youth Policy Council for the state of Massachusetts for several years. She is an author of two RFA reports about teacher quality in the School District of Philadelphia.
Dr. Donald Clarke, Policy Advocacy Specialist (NAACP)
Clark spent 40 years in active education service in the local community and surrounding areas. He has held several positions in the field including Director of the Bureau of Curriculum and Academic Services in Pennsylvania, Associate Executive Director of the Urban School Development Council and the Board of Montgomery County Human Relations Commission. Clark also was a professor at Rutgers and Trenton State Universities.
Dr. Winston Cleland, PA Assn. for Supervision & Curriculum Development
Winston Cleland is a Policy Analyst at the Pennsylvania Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and the Superintendent of West Perry School District. He was the Assistant Superintendent of the Harrisburg School District and prior to that he served as the Assistant Superintendent/Director of Instruction for the Carlisle Area School District. He has also served as the Supervisor of Research for the New Castle County School District in Delaware.
Dr. Persida Himmele, English Language Learner Specialist (Lancaster SD)
Dr. Pérsida Himmele and her husband Dr. William Himmele are the authors of The Language-Rich Classroom: A research-based framework for teaching English language learners, published through ASCD and available on ASCD.org. She currently serves as the ELL Coordinator for Curriculum and Professional Development at School District of Lancaster. She is on loan to the local school district from Millersville University, where she will return in the fall 2009. She has a Ph.D. in Intercultural Education and has been a teacher in bilingual and multilingual classrooms. She has served as a consultant to the Pennsylvania Department of Education and to area school districts on issues related to ESL program development. She has also served as a consultant for educational projects in the US, China, Nepal, Argentina and the South Pacific. Together, Pérsida and her husband Bill have presented over 100 ESL workshops throughout Pennsylvania and the U.S.
Mary Yee, Parent and Community Involvement Consultant
Mary has been involved in planning and advocacy for Philadelphia neighborhoods for over 35 years. While working with Asian Americans United, she became involved with the Education Law Center (ELC) in 1985, as a representative of the plaintiff’s side in an advisory group to develop policies and programs to remediate a civil rights suit (YS v. School District of Philadelphia) filed by ELC against the public school system. The suit on behalf of limited English proficient Southeast Asian refugee students alleged unequal access to educational programs and services. Her work in educational advocacy has included a 12-year stint at the School District of Philadelphia working on ESOL/Bilingual program issues, compliance and equity, language access, and family engagement. More recently, she worked at Foundations, Inc. providing technical assistance to out-of-school time programs. She is pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Pennsylvania in Reading/Writing/Literacy.
Melvin R. Allen, J.D., Associate Professor of Philosophy, Millersville University