I’ve spent more than two decades in classrooms and schools around the world trying to answer one question well:

What does it actually take for students to learn deeply and well—and for teachers to feel supported while they do that work?

I’m an educator, coach, curriculum leader, and educational consultant. I’ve taught middle and high school social studies, math, science, and language arts in the United States, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Vietnam, and Myanmar. I’ve served as a learning coach, director for learning, and curriculum leader—and now I partner with schools and systems as a consultant when they’re ready to rethink curriculum, assessment, and professional learning.

I’ve sat with students who were convinced they “weren’t math people,” teachers who felt stuck teaching the same content year after year, and leaders who could feel that their systems weren’t quite matching their aspirations. Those experiences have shaped a simple belief that sits at the heart of my work:

The central purpose of teaching is student learning—deep, durable learning that shapes who students become.

Everything else—curriculum documents, initiatives, reports, PD plans, professional growth models—is only as valuable as the learning it helps make possible.

Where It Began For Me

My own learning journey began in a middle school social studies classroom with a teacher named Mr. Blevins. I didn’t know it then, but he was doing something powerful: he made it safe to be curious. History wasn’t a list of dates; it was stories, questions, and dilemmas that felt like they mattered.

That combination of safety, challenge, and curiosity stayed with me.

As a classroom teacher, I tried to build that same space. Over time I taught across multiple subjects and age groups, and I saw the same pattern repeat: when students understand the goal, see what quality looks like, and are trusted as thinkers, they almost always rise to it. When they’re reduced to points and averages, they shut down—or play school instead of learning.

That tension pushed me to keep learning. I pursued a doctorate in curriculum and instruction, moved into instructional coaching, and eventually into system‑level roles leading curriculum and learning. Each step took me a little further away from my own classroom, but closer to a realization:

Individual teachers can do extraordinary things; coherent systems let more students experience that kind of classroom more of the time.

In recent years, that realization has taken concrete form in work like designing a professional growth model for a large international school. We built a system that moves beyond “evaluation” toward continuous improvement—teachers choosing growth pathways (orientation, partnership, research & innovation, leadership), engaging in self‑reflection, and receiving multiple forms of feedback that are actually useful. That experience reinforced for me that when you align systems with what we know about learning, adults grow—and students feel the difference.

As I’ve shifted into educational consulting, I’ve carried all of this with me. My focus now is helping schools design coherent systems—curriculum, assessment, and professional growth—that make the daily experience of learning line up with what they say they value.

What I Believe About Learning

A few convictions guide how I work with schools:

• Every student deserves to be known, challenged, and supported.

  Strong relationships and high expectations are not opposites; they depend on each other.

• Clarity is an act of care.

  When we are clear about standards, success criteria, and feedback, we remove guesswork and anxiety for students and teachers.

• Assessment should serve learning, not sort learners.

  Evidence gathered over time, used formatively, tells us who needs what next. Grades should say, “Here’s where your learning is right now,” not “Here’s every mistake you’ve ever made averaged together.”

• Adult learning should mirror the learning we want for students.

  If we say we value inquiry, feedback, and collaboration for kids, our professional learning, coaching, and growth models should look and feel the same way.

• Context matters.

  International schools, local schools, big systems, small teams—each brings its own history, culture, and constraints. Good ideas only become good practice when they’re adapted thoughtfully to real people in real places.

Living and working overseas, and raising two third‑culture kids, has deepened my commitment to equity, inclusion, and flexibility. Students bring many ways of knowing into our classrooms. Our systems need to be robust enough to provide coherence, and humane enough to recognize individual stories.

How I Show Up in the Work

People often describe me as calm, curious, and steady. I tend to listen before I speak, ask a lot of questions, and keep circling back to purpose:

• What are we really hoping students will know and be able to do?

• What evidence would convince us they’re on their way?

• What support do teachers and leaders need to make that possible?

In my consulting and coaching, I don’t arrive with a prepackaged “fix.” I prefer to co‑design with you—surfacing what’s already working in your context, naming tensions honestly, and building practical structures that your teachers can actually use on Monday morning.

Underneath the strategies and frameworks, I see this work as personal. I am always aware that every child in your school is someone’s son or daughter, as my boys are mine. The decisions we make about curriculum, assessment, grading, professional learning, and growth systems should be worthy of that trust.