Dr. Allison Wright

Dr. Allison Wright began her career as a second-grade teacher in an inclusive classroom until she started working at the College at Brockport, State University of New York as a Lecturer in 2006. She received a doctorate in Elementary Education with a concentration in Social Studies Education from the University at Buffalo. She has also completed an advanced certificate in Teaching and Leading in Diversity.

Dr. Emma O'Connor

Dr. Emma O’Connor is a Senior Evaluator at BRI. She has extensive experience in qualitative and quantitative research methods to evaluate and investigate social issues related to interpersonal violence, homelessness, and substance use disorders. Prior to joining BRI, Emma served as a project manager for the 2022 Multnomah County Point-in-Time count and completed a dissertation investigating the role that masculinity ideologies hold in the perpetration of domestic violence. She is primarily interested in evaluating the effectiveness of programs related to social issues ranging from violence perpetration to creating equitable access to STEM education.

Dr. Erin Cole

Dr. Erin Cole has been a practicing social worker for 18 years. She started her career working with pregnant and parenting teen moms in emergency and transitional housing. She then worked as a pediatric social worker before moving into school social work. Dr. Cole has experience in a charter school and within a more traditional urban school district. Dr. Cole holds a certificate in trauma counseling and trauma informed care as well as being a certified school social worker and a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW). She recently completed her Doctorate in Social Work (DSW) with a focus on implementation science and now teaches social work full-time.

Dr. Cole has experience facilitating professional development in the following areas:

• Social emotional learning, specifically using the CASEL framework
• Creating trauma informed classrooms
• Restorative practices
• Seeing past behavior to identify the underlying need
• De-escalation techniques
• How to respond if a child discloses sexual abuse (Less is More curriculum)

"Dr. Erin Cole was the most transparent, antiracist-practicing, trauma-informed, and passionate speaker! I appreciated how interactive, reflective, and transparent her workshops were! Thank you for your time!" - Quote from course participant

Dr. Jie Zhang

Dr. Jie Zhang is a Professor of Special Education at State University of New York (SUNY) Brockport. Her research focuses on the efficacy of interventions for children with disabilities; services for children with diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds and their families; and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in higher education. She received SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, Open SUNY Online Teaching Ambassador Award, the Outstanding Academic Advising Award, and the Inaugural Outstanding Global Engagement Award. Dr. Zhang serves as the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) Program Lead Reviewer at the national level.

Dr. Katrina Arndt

Dr. Katrina Arndt is Professor of Inclusive Education at St. John Fisher University. Before working in higher education, she spent 11 years in classrooms as a preschool teacher, paraprofessional, and special education teacher. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses including: Schools, Ability and Learning, Inclusive Education in Today's Schools, Assessment, Classroom Management, Educational Technology, and Introduction to Differentiated Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. She is the co-author of Teaching Everyone: An Introduction to Inclusive Education (2011), Picture Inclusion! (2019), and Universal Design for Learning in Physical Education (2021). Her research interests and consulting focus on inclusive practices in schooling.

Dr. Kelley Madden

Dr. Kelley Madden is the Director of Evaluations at BRI and manages a portfolio of over 30 educational evaluation projects for school districts, state agencies and institutions of higher education. Dr. Madden has extensive experience developing and managing research studies, designing evaluation instruments, protecting human research subjects, conducting primary and secondary field research, synthesizing data, and supporting federal reporting. She holds a Ph.D. in Immunology and has authored more than 50 peer- reviewed publications, reviews, and book chapters.

Dr. Kimberly Ganley

Dr. Kimberly Ganley is the Director of Professional Learning at BRI. She brings a wealth of experience in public education (Pre-K to 12+) in urban, suburban, and rural settings. Her experience with data analysis for school improvement and her technical knowledge have been applied to numerous BRI projects. Kimberly has served as a lead evaluator for many projects. She has also written grants and conducted Perkins V needs assessments for secondary and post- secondary schools. She has also supervised evaluations of several 21st Century Community Learning Center grants.

Dr. Logan Rath

Dr. Logan Rath is a Librarian at SUNY Brockport where he focuses on instruction and student research support. He is a 2016 recipient of the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Librarianship. Logan’s Ph.D. is in Curriculum, Instruction, and the Science of Learning from the University at Buffalo. His current research interests include the intersection of literacy, information literacy, and technology.

Dr. Marcie Prinzi

Dr. Marcie Prinzi teaches courses at SUNY Geneseo in the Reading and Literacy Department, along with supervising student teachers and contracting with multiple organizations to support curriculum development and professional learning efforts. Formerly, Marcie taught in various classroom settings, including high school Spanish and ESL, middle school, and both mono- and dual-language elementary classrooms. Marcie’s passion is designing curriculum and facilitating professional learning that focuses on best practices in foundational literacy instruction, effective classroom techniques to support multilingual and multicultural students, and meeting the linguistic needs of English language learners.

Dr. Matt Spindler

Dr. Matt Spindler is an evaluation specialist with Penn State Cooperative Extension. He has also held teacher preparation faculty roles at Virginia Tech and SUNY Oswego, worked as a high school agricultural educator in Minnesota, and as an instructional designer at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, where he was also recognized as a Wisconsin Technical College System DEI Fellow. Matt holds a Ph.D. in Work, Community, and Family Education from the University of Minnesota and is a certified Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory practitioner. Matt’s research and practice interests revolve around designing and actuating equitable and inclusive learning experiences and evaluation processes that focus on improving the cooperative and problem-solving capacities of individuals, organizations, and communities.

Dr. Pamela Haibach-Beach

Dr. Pamela Haibach-Beach is a Professor of Kinesiology at College at Brockport: State University of New York where she received the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Roland Fontaine Award for student engagement. She is the author of the textbook Motor Learning and Motor Development. She founded and co-directs the Institute of Movement Studies for Individuals with Visual Impairment (IMSVI) and served as Chair of the National Association of Sport and Physical Education's Motor Development and Learning Academy.

Dr. Sumara Case

Dr. Sumara Case is an educational equity leader with a specific emphasis on fostering cultural proficiency in both classroom and leadership spaces. She comes with a plethora of experiences in the realm of equity and culturally responsive and sustaining educational practices. As a current educational leader, Dr. Case models how to embrace, create and sustain equitable educational practices and learning experiences wherein all students have access to high levels of achievement and opportunities for success. In a variety of educational building and district leadership roles, Dr. Case has utilized her extensive knowledge and experiences in Equity and Culturally Responsive Teaching in working as a thought partner with district and building leaders, as well as classroom instructors in transforming the teaching and learning within systems. Currently, Dr. Case continues her academic work in serving as an Adjunct Professor in the Education Department at Roberts Wesleyan College where she instructs several courses focused on educational equity and culturally responsive and sustaining instructional practices.

Dr. Susan M. Hildenbrand

Dr. Susan M. Hildenbrand is an Associate Professor in the Inclusive Education Department in the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. School of Education at St. John Fisher University. Before working in higher education she taught for ten years in general and special education elementary classrooms. Dr. Hildenbrand teaches courses on the special education process, inclusive practices, and family/school partnerships. She is a co-author of the textbook, Picture Inclusion! Snapshots of Successful Diverse Classrooms (2019). Dr. Hildenbrand facilitates professional learning trainings with in-service teachers, and has trained over 300 area educators on brain research and trauma-sensitive pedagogy and practices. Dr. Hildenbrand is also a co-primary investigator and researcher on an NSF grant for Noyce Scholars, implementing trauma-sensitive strategies trainings and their impact on the Scholars’ future practice.