NCSI Leadership

NCSI Directors

NCSI Director Rorie Fitzpatrick and and Associate Director Michele Rovins set the vision for NCSI as well as provide administrative oversight.

Fitzpatrick and Rovins bring more than 40 years of combined experience in promoting outcomes for children and youth with disabilities across special and general education, having served as teachers and administrators at the school, district, and state levels, and as technical assistance providers on a large scale.

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.

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

NCSI Leadership Team

With representation from nationally and internationally recognized leaders in research, policy, and evidence-based practices for improving outcomes for children and youth with disabilities, the NCSI leadership team functions as a think tank and decision-making body.

Louis Danielson brings extensive knowledge in both special education policy and research to his current position as a Managing Director with American Institutes for Research (AIR). He is nationally recognized for designing and delivering technical assistance on intensive interventions at the state, district, and school levels.

At AIR, Danielson directs the National Center on Intensive Interventions, leads research and development work related to the education of students with disabilities, and has served as a Senior Advisor to the National Center on Response to Intervention and the National High School Center.

Danielson previously held leadership roles in OSEP and was responsible for the IDEA national activities programs.
Stephanie Jackson, AIR Managing Director, oversees policy, research, and evaluation studies for federal, state, and private policymakers.

Jackson has more than 30 years of experience in a variety of education environments, including general and special education settings, magnet schools, charter schools, and higher education. Since 2002, she has served as Co-Project Director of the OSEP Task Ordering Contract.

In 2010, Jackson became the Project Director for the National Center on Response to Intervention, a federally funded technical assistance center that helps states build their capacity to support districts in implementing Response to Intervention.
Theron (Bill) East has been Executive Director of the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) since 1989, providing ready access to state special education directors and the NASDSE Board of Directors, as well as partner organizations and individuals important to NCSI’s goal of helping to improve the outcomes of children and youth with disabilities.

East has extensive leadership, expertise, and experience at the school, state, and national levels. Currently, he is Principal Investigator for NASDSE’s IDEA Partnership, Co-Principal Investigator for the Center on Online Learning for Students with Disabilities, and a partner with the Schoolwide Integrated Framework for Transformation Center.
Debra Jennings is Executive Co-Director of the Statewide Parent Advocacy Network (SPAN), a nonprofit organization that provides support for families, parent organizations, and professionals in negotiating the complexities of child- and family-serving systems.

Since 2003, Jennings has directed OSEP’s Region 1 Parent Technical Assistance Center, providing coaching and consultation to 20 parent centers serving families with children with disabilities in the Northeastern states. The Center also provides technical assistance to almost one hundred Parent Training and Information Centers and Community Parent Resource Centers across the United States and its territories.
Virginia Reynolds, Co-Director of WestEd’s Center for Prevention & Early Intervention, contributes expertise in Part C and Section 619 of Part B of IDEA and holds extensive knowledge of special education within the context of systems improvement.

Reynolds’ comprehensive approach to technical assistance includes building the capacity of state and local personnel in general and special education; supporting meaningful engagement of parents; and working across divisions within state and local agencies on federal and state initiatives for improving outcomes for children and youth with disabilities.

Reynolds has served as a classroom teacher, a principal, a district and regional special education administrator, an administrator at the California Department of Education, and a director of special projects spanning a number of states.
Margaret Heritage is Senior Scientist at WestEd. She develops and implements standards-based curricula, supports teachers in pedagogical approaches leading to deep and connected learning for all students, guides the implementation of assessment in the service of improved learning, designs and delivers professional development for teachers and administrators, and investigates effective teacher evaluation.

Prior to joining WestEd, Heritage was the Assistant Director for Professional Development at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) at UCLA.
Susan Mundry is Director of Learning Innovations at WestEd and is a Senior Researcher for the Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast & Islands, where she leads the Northeast Educator Effectiveness Research Alliance.

Mundry is also lead evaluator for the National Science Foundation Math-Science Partnership program at Pennsylvania State University.

She co-wrote The Data Coach’s Guide to Improving Learning for All Students; Designing Effective Professional Development for Teachers of Science and Mathematics; Professional Learning Communities for Science Teaching; and Leading Every Day: Actions for Effective Leadership, as well as three widely used simulation games on organizational change in education settings.