NCSI Staff

NCSI Directors

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  Rorie Fitzpatrick has worked in education for more than 20 years, and has significant expertise and experience at the statewide level in improving results for students with disabilities. She came to WestEd having served as Nevada’s Interim State Superintendent, a position she held by appointment of Governor Brian Sandoval. (read more)

  Fitzpatrick’s previous responsibilities included serving as Nevada’s Chief Deputy State Superintendent and Nevada’s Director for Special Education and Federal and State School Improvement Programs.

  Before joining Nevada’s state education agency in 1998, Fitzpatrick was a faculty member at the University of Nevada, Reno. She has provided early intervention services in center-based and natural environments, as well as taught early childhood special education in inclusive and self-contained settings.

  Through Fitzpatrick’s years of experience as a senior SEA leader in special and general education roles, she has built lasting relationships with national colleagues, policymakers, and researchers, and brings these important perspectives to NCSI work.

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  Michele Rovins has 25 years of experience in the field of education, and over 15 years of experience managing a portfolio of ED contracts including 7 years creating and implementing collaborative communities. She specializes in the areas of capacity building, systemic change, technical assistance, dissemination, technology systems (read more)

  development, implementation, and evaluation, and has worked to improve educational outcomes for students with and without disabilities.

NCSI Coordination Team

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  Jessica Arnold is a Senior Program Associate at WestEd. She serves on the National Center for Systemic intervention (NCSI) where she leads the development and implementation of the Learning Collaborative technical assistance model, which builds networks of shared leadership and peer support among states in order to improve (read more)

  outcomes for children with disabilities. She is also on staff at the National Deaf Center (NDC), where she supports the design and implementation of the Engage for Change | state model, which aids states in projects to improve post-secondary outcomes for deaf individuals. Additionally, she leads teacher professional development (PD) efforts focused on curriculum, assessment, and instruction.
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  Lauren Artzi is a Senior Researcher at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). She brings sixteen years of experience in education, five as an ESL teacher and school-based instructional mentor, and eleven years of experience in education research as well as technical assistance. (read more)

  Dr. Artzi’s research and technical assistance activities focus on the areas of second language education, literacy instruction and assessment for English learners and students with disabilities, leadership, and multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS). Currently, Dr. Artzi provides technical assistance through several federally funded national centers including the National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI), the Lead for Literacy Center, the Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform (CEEDAR), and the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII). In her role on NCSI, Dr. Artzi co-leads the Language and Literacy Cross-state Learning Collaborative, serves as a content expert on the knowledge utilization team and serves as a TA facilitator to individual states. Dr. Artzi also serves on the EL technical work group focused on assessment and instruction for ELs in MTSS. In previous years, Dr. Artzi directed a project through the Midwest Comprehensive Center focused on considerations for ELs within MTSS structures. Dr. Artzi holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from the Second Language Education and Culture (SLEC) department at the University of Maryland and a master’s degree in TESOL from Tel Aviv University.

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  Louis Danielson, Ph.D. a national leader in the field of special education, has been involved in programs for students with disabilities for more than three decades. He brings an unparalleled depth of knowledge in both special education policy and research to his current position as an AIR managing director. (read more)

  Prior to his work at AIR, Dr. Danielson held a leadership role in OSEP and was responsible for the IDEA national activities programs, which included the Technical Assistance Program and the Research Program. He initiated efforts in the U.S. Department of Education that led to widespread adoption of RTI. Since joining AIR, he has served on the leadership team for the National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI), as a senior advisor to the Response to Intervention (RTI) Center, and as co-director of the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII).
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  Sara Menlove Doutre is a Senior Program Associate with the Center for Prevention & Early Intervention at WestEd. As a key contributor to the center’s National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI) and Center for IDEA Fiscal Reporting (CIFR) projects, she facilitates communities of practice, provides direct technical assistance, and (read more)

  develops tools and resources for strengthening the capacity of special education leaders across the country. With strong education and experience in developing, evaluating, and implementing state policy for special education and early intervention services, Doutre is an excellent partner in collaborative work in states and districts. In addition to her expertise on special education and early intervention finance and fiscal requirements, she helps special education leadership assess and improve systems for ensuring compliance with IDEA and improved outcomes for all students including students with disabilities. Doutre’s areas of expertise include policy and procedure development, gaining consensus among diverse stakeholders in special education, and ensuring that practice informs policies and procedures. In addition to being a former special education teacher and evaluating programs as an employee of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs, Doutre is also the parent of a child with a disability and brings the perspective of a consumer of the public education, early intervention, and special education systems.
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  John Eisenberg assumed the role of Executive Director of the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) on December 4, 2018. Before this new role, Mr. Eisenberg worked in the Office of Special Education and Student Services at the Virginia Department of Education for fifteen years, seven of those (read more)

  as the State Director of Special Education. Throughout his career in special education, he worked in a variety of other roles including Director of the Virginia Deaf-Blind Project, Technical Assistance Specialist with the National Technical Assistance Consortium for Deaf-Blindness, and a classroom teacher for students with developmental disabilities and deaf-blindness. Mr. Eisenberg proudly served on the NASDSE Board of Directors for over four years and became President in 2015. Mr. Eisenberg earned his M.Ed. in severe disabilities from Hunter College at the City University of New York and his B.A. from New York University. He is also a proud graduate of the Virginia LEND program from Virginia Commonwealth University. He comes from a family of teachers and special educators and is very passionate about improving the educational outcomes of children and families across the United States.
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  Susan Hayes is a Senior Program Associate with WestEd’s Learning Innovations program. Throughout her career, Susan Hayes has maintained a commitment to closing achievement gaps and helping build state education agencies’ capacity to create and sustain meaningful change in schools and districts. (read more)

  Hayes has supported state education agencies and Part C lead agencies to improve outcomes for all students, particularly students with disabilities, through her work with several federally-funded technical assistance centers including the National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI), the IDEA Data Center (IDC), and the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO). Within these centers, Hayes works closely with state clients on a myriad of priority issues related to improving outcomes for students with disabilities including the development of special education general supervision systems that prioritize results while ensuring compliance, implementation and evaluation of OSEP’s required State Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP), design of state assessment and accountability systems for students with disabilities, data quality and reporting challenges, and general/special education collaboration in state agencies. Prior to joining WestEd, Hayes served as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) State Coordinator for the Vermont Department of Education. In this role, Hayes drew attention to persistent achievement disparities between low-income students and their peers that emerged on both the NAEP and state assessments. In addition, Hayes supported low-performing schools and districts and assisted in the development of Vermont’s statewide system of support.
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  Stephanie Jackson, Ph.D., is a Managing Research Analyst at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and directs policy, technical assistance, and evaluation projects for federal, and state policymakers. Dr. Jackson has more than 35 years of experience in a variety of educational environments, including general and (read more)

  special education settings, magnet schools, charter schools, and higher education. She has been recognized for her educational leadership in schools and her practical and realistic perspective to foster the learning of all students, including students with disabilities. Currently, Dr. Jackson serves as a principal investigator and senior advisor for the National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI). In addition, Dr. Jackson is project director of the IDEA Part D Analysis, Communications, Dissemination, and Meeting Task Ordering Contract for the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). In this role she has assisted OSEP with communicating evidence-based research to practice, supporting students with disabilities in schools across the country. From 2010-2012, Dr. Jackson served as the project director for the National Center on Response to Intervention, another federally funded technical assistance center, which helped states build their capacity to support districts in implementing RTI. Prior to joining AIR, Dr. Jackson worked as a general education and special education teacher, a special education administrator, an elementary school principal, and associate director of a research institute in a large, urban university.
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  Debra Jennings currently serves as the Executive Co-Director of SPAN Parent Advocacy Network, Inc. (SPAN). She also directs the national Center for Parent Information and Resources (CPIR) where she works with the network of 96 OSEP funded Parent Centers focused on empowering parents as effective advocates and partners (read more)

  in improving outcomes for infants, toddlers, children and youth. These centers provide information, training and support for hundreds of thousands of families and professionals each, with a major focus on families with children with the greatest need due to disability, health challenges, behavioral needs, racial disparity, language access, poverty, geography or involvement in juvenile justice or child welfare systems. For more than 15 years, Jennings has worked with national centers of expertise in special education and education reform to develop and disseminate products that assist states, districts, schools and community and parent organizations in improving outcomes for children. She currently serves as an advisor and consultant to the National Center for Systemic Improvement, the National Association for Family School and Community Engagement (founding member), the National Center for Intensive Intervention, the National Technical Assistance Center for Transition, the AEM Center (on accessible educational materials), the Statewide Family Engagement Centers’ Technical Working Group, and the National Center for Leadership in Intensive Intervention.
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  Laura Berry Kuchle, Ph.D., a Senior Researcher at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), works with National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI), the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII), and the Collaboration for Effective Educator Development, Accountability, and Reform (CEEDAR Center). (read more)

  She also directed a state pilot program evaluation project from 2015-2018. For NCII, she serves as Evaluation Coordinator, leading the formative evaluation, coordinating with the independent summative evaluator, and serving as the evaluation liaison to the project officer. She also supports the Tools Charts work and English Learner Technical Work Group. She previously served as a TA liaison. For the CEEDAR Center, she supports the Center’s evaluation, focusing on internal/formative evaluation efforts, including data analysis and reporting, and supporting the external evaluation team with protocol development and report review. She previously served as AIR’s formative evaluation task leader and TA State Facilitator, also contributing to product development. For NCSI, she is a member of the Data Use Team, providing technical assistance related to using high-quality data for planning and evaluating State Systemic Improvement Plans. She holds B.A.s in Spanish and Psychology from the University of Kentucky and earned her M.Ed. and Ph.D. in School Psychology from the University of Cincinnati. Her training emphasized applied behavior analysis, Response to Intervention, data-based team problem solving, and systems change. For her dissertation and internship, she focused on culturally responsive practices and services for English language learners. Prior to joining AIR, she worked as a school psychologist in Ohio public schools.
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  Angela McGuire, M.A., is a Project Director for WestEd’s Center for Prevention and Early Intervention (CPEI). McGuire serves as a Technical Assistance Facilitator and a Content Specialist for the National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI). She provides supportive guidance and technical assistance to state lead agency personnel (read more)

  regarding planning, implementation, data collection and analysis, and evaluation of IDEA Part C State Systemic Improvement Plan activities. She assists constituents and NCSI teams to integrate program considerations in the development, implementation and support of technology solutions for stakeholder engagement, data collection and reporting, and design and delivery of technical assistance. She also promotes and expedites the fusion of family perspectives and family-accessible messaging with accurate policy- and practice-related guidance in the development of technical assistance resources and activities produced by NCSI. She has expertise in strategies for evaluation for program improvement, tailored professional development, and intentional family engagement. As co-director of CPEI’s long-standing Early Start Comprehensive System of Personnel Development and Resources project, she leads the design and delivery of web-supported training for the California Early Start Online Personnel Development System, deploying a multidisciplinary team and optimizing a variety of platforms to deliver, reinforce and enhance the integration of new knowledge and policy into effective practice. As a “veteran parent” of a child with disabilities, McGuire actively advocates for and integrates the “parent voice” and parent-professional partnership approaches into technical assistance and training activities and deliverables.
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  Dona Meinders, M.A., is a Project Director at WestEd. Meinders’ career focus has been the improvement of outcomes for children and youth with disabilities and other special needs at both the systemic and individual student levels. In her role on the leadership team for the (read more)

  National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI), Meinders used her expertise in systems alignment and improvement to provide coherence across the Center’s structures internally and externally. She has also been a co-lead for the Systems Change Service Area team, a lead for the Professional Learning internal team, and a technical assistance facilitator for several states. In addition, Meinders has also worked on several other federal projects including the IDEA Data Center and the California Comprehensive Center. Meinders also works at the State Education Agency level developing tools and resources for the California Department of Education to improve their State System of Support in support of students with disabilities. Meinders led the California Department of Education work to integrate strategies, supports and processes for students with disabilities and other special needs within the new Curriculum Frameworks for California’s Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics. Meinders has a Master of Arts in Education from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and a Bachelor of Arts in Child Development from California State University, Sacramento and administrative and teaching credentials in general and special education.
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  Katherine Nagle, Ph.D., is a Senior Program Associate at WestEd. Nagle has over 16 years’ experience providing technical assistance (TA) to states, conducting special education policy analysis, designing and conducting research and evaluation into programs and practices, and implementing continuous improvement practices. (read more)

  She has also taught in special and general education classrooms. On the National Center for Systemic Improvement, Dr. Nagle provides TA to six states, co-leads the Communication and Collaboration service area team, serves on the Systems Change service area team, and is part of the results-based accountability cross state learning collaborative. Dr. Nagle reviews state systemic improvement plans, helps states to identify and implement evidence base practices, assists in improving state general supervision systems and increasing stakeholder involvement. On the National Center for Education Outcomes on she provides TA on assessment issues and students with significant cognitive disabilities. Dr. Nagle has worked on the IDEA Data Center, the Center to Improve Project and Program Performance, and the Model Demonstration Coordination Center. She was involved in the Evaluation of Response to Intervention Practices for Elementary School Reading, lead evaluator on an Investing in Innovation development grant to improve secondary mathematics achievement in rural communities, and co-director of the Montana Continuous Improvement in Education Research project to improve secondary literacy for American Indian Students. Dr. Nagle also supported work on the National Study of Alternate Assessments, the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2, and provided TA to enhanced assessment grantees to improve the technical quality of alternate assessment.
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  Amy Peterson, M.A., is a Senior Researcher at American Institutes for Research (AIR). Her areas of interest and expertise include engaging stakeholders and using data to drive decisions about effective instruction and implementation of evidence-based practices through multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) and (read more)

  early warning systems. Through the National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI), Peterson provides technical assistance to Michigan in support of the state’s systems alignment efforts, and co-leads a cross state learning collaborative that brings 25 state leaders and teams focused on improving language and literacy outcomes through a lens of continuous improvement together to problem solve and explore effective literacy instruction, systems change, stakeholder engagement, and data use. Peterson also helped develop self-paced modules to support stakeholder engagement and tools focused on fidelity and sustainability. As the coordinator for communication and collaboration for the National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII), Peterson oversees website development and maintenance, mass communications, product development, and partnerships to ensure educators are aware of and equipped to support the implementation of intensive intervention. Peterson has provided technical assistance to states, districts, and schools through numerous federal and state projects including efforts to: support dropout prevention efforts in rural area in partnership with West Virginia and North Carolina; implement intensive intervention with Minneapolis Public Schools; and refine MTSS implementation and data collection process to support specific learning disability identification with the Vermont Agency of Education. Ms. Peterson graduated from St. Lawrence University with a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Education and received her M.A. in Education Policy from The George Washington University.
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  Kathleen L. Pfannenstiel, Ph.D., Senior Researcher at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), provides technical assistance (TA) and professional development to states and school districts with an emphasis on improving results for students with disabilities. Currently, she serves the National Center on Systemic Improvement (read more)

  (NCSI) as the lead of the mathematics cross-state learning collaborative, co-lead for Knowledge Utilization service area, and as a TA facilitator to three states. Through this work, she works to build state capacity in the areas of systems-level and instructional coaching, core mathematics instruction, Multi-tiered System of Support (MTSS), differentiated TA, and special education general supervision and monitoring. In addition, Dr. Pfannenstiel is also the principal investigator for an Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) model demonstration grant. She works with middle school general and special educators to increase the use of evidence-based practices in mathematics to increase outcomes for students in special education. Prior to joining AIR, Dr. Pfannenstiel was an educational specialist in special education at the Region 13 Educational Service Center in Austin, TX and a project coordinator for three MTSS-mathematics grants at the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk. She also has experience teaching at the university level and has taught in public schools in Illinois and Texas at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.
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  Colleen McCarthy Riley, M.Ed, is currently serving as a senior technical assistance content specialist for the Council for Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI). Riley provides mentoring to state directors of special education and supports state education agency staff in developing (read more)

  the infrastructure to align systems of general supervision, technical assistance and tiered support in order to improve outcomes for at risk students and students with disabilities. Previously, Riley served as the Director of Early Childhood, Special Education and Title Services at the Kansas Department of Education (KSDE). Riley provided the leadership necessary to bring the Kansas Multi-Tier System of Supports (MTSS) framework from a grassroots effort to scale with a focus on creating a sustainable system to meet the academic and social needs of every student. In addition, Riley worked to align state and federal accountability and technical assistance systems to implement the Kansas Integrated Accountability System (KIAS) and the Kansas Technical Assistance System Network (TASN). As a member of the KSDE leadership team, Riley’s responsibilities included providing and aligning resources for district and school teams to meet the requirements of multiple accountability plans including the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the Kansas State Performance Plan (SPP), State Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP), and the Kansas Education Accreditation System (KESA). Prior to joining KSDE, Riley was principal of a year-round K-6 elementary school in West Jordan, Utah, a local special education director, and an assistant director. Riley’s teaching experience focused primarily on students with learning disabilities and students with challenging behaviors at all levels, elementary through high school.
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  Jana Rosborough, J.D., M.S.E., is a Senior Program Associate for WestEd’s Center for Prevention and Early Intervention. Rosborough’s work focuses on assisting states in transforming systems of early intervention and special education, leveraging her legal background to drive systems alignment, to improve outcomes for all students.
  (read more)

  Rosborough is the co-lead of the Systems Change Service Area Team, co-lead of the Systems Alignment Learning Collaborative, the technical assistance facilitator for five states, and a member of the fiscal service team for the National Center for Systemic Improvement. Rosborough is also a technical assistance provider for the Center for IDEA Fiscal Reporting. In national center work and other support provided to states and districts, Rosborough has served as a consultant, facilitator, and coach on outcome driven accountability across systems- vertical and horizontal- to impact student outcomes. Rosborough’s work focuses on the intersection of general supervision, program, fiscal, technical, and adaptive issues in effective systems alignment and change at the state and district level. Prior to joining WestEd in 2015, Rosborough was an Assistant Director on the Early Childhood, Special Education, and Title Services team with the Kansas State Department of Education. With a focus on student outcomes, Rosborough provided consultative and directive services in the area of education requirements and best practices in accordance with federal and state law.
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  Kristin Ruedel, Ph.D., a Principal Researcher at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), currently directs streams of work focused on enhancing educational opportunities for students with disabilities. (read more)

  Dr. Ruedel focuses her technical assistance and research on best practice in developing a data-driven culture to inform state/district improvement efforts, applying the principles of implementation science to guide continuous improvement, using appropriate evidence-based practices with fidelity, and integrating digital technologies to transform and enhance the teaching and learning experience. She currently serves as the AIR project lead on two OSEP-funded Centers – the National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI) and the Center on Inclusive Technology and Education Systems (CITES). Dr. Ruedel also directs the Data Use Service Area on NCSI which is focused on increasing state and local capacity to develop, implement, and evaluate their state systemic improvement plans. She has extensive experience evaluating system and classroom supports that are critical for continuous improvement and sustained implementation, developing TA/PD to build capacity of educational leaders and teachers, conducting quantitative and qualitative data analyses, and writing reports. Dr. Ruedel has worked in both domestic and international program and policy development, implementation, and evaluation with the aim of improving learning opportunities and policies to support students with disabilities. Dr. Ruedel earned her doctoral degree in special education policy with a concentration in using large-scale data sets from the University of Maryland.

External Evaluators

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  Colleen K. Reutebuch, Ph.D., is a Senior Project Manager at The Meadows Center, University of Austin Texas. Reutebuch conducts and manages research and external program evaluation at The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, The University of Texas at Austin. (read more)

  Reutebuch has experience directing federally funded large-scale intervention (Institute of Education Sciences, Goals 2, 3, and 4), external evaluation (Office of Special Education Programs), and professional development and technical assistance projects at the state and national level (U.S. Department of Education, Texas Education Agency; Reading First, Texas Reading First; Targeting the Two Percent). Currently, Reutebuch serves as the evaluation project director and co-primary investigator for WestEd’s National Center for Systemic Improvement, the National Deaf Center, and Leaders for Literacy) and co-investigator on an Efficacy and Development Grant. Reutebuch executes and directs all aspects of research and program evaluation, including protocol development, data collection planning, data management, analysis, and reporting. Since 2014, Reutebuch has worked closely with NCSI leadership and staff, as well as OSEP representatives to identify and capture evidence of program quality and effectiveness. In the field of education for 26 years, Reutebuch has been an assistant professor of special education, lecturer in special education and reading education, and educational specialist. Reutebuch has published in peer-reviewed journals on the topics of RTI, reading difficulties, and academic enhancements and interventions.
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  Myriam Lopez Wallace, Ph.D., is a lead methodologist at The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, The University of Texas at Austin. Wallace leads the evaluation team on all data-related program evaluation efforts across several OSEP-funded Technical Assistance and Dissemination projects. (read more)

  Wallace has led the formative and summative evaluation activities for the National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI) and the National Deaf Center (NDC). She earned her Ph.D. in educational psychology, specializing in quantitative research methods. Wallace’s research has explored quantitative methods as they are applied in social sciences, educational research, and program evaluation, including methodological dilemmas found in structural equation modeling and cross-classified random effects modeling.