Team Bios

E-mail: alicata@collaborativecommunications.com

Celia Alicata, associate, manages publications and knowledge products, supports product development through research and writing, and contributes to communications, engagement and Web site strategies for clients. Celia works to impact public education through the development of leading education-related publications, online tools and organizational strategies that support children and communities.

She assisted the Foundation for Orange County Public Schools with its community engagement strategy around the future of the Hungerford Preparatory Academy in historic Eatonville, FL. Celia helped prepare a report on the community conversations that was presented to the Orange County Public School Board in Orlando. She also completed the development and production of two landmark publications for the National Association of Elementary School Principals. These two publications, Leading Learning Communities 2nd Version and Vision 2021: Transformations in Leading, Learning and Community, capture the organization's vision for the future of school leadership, as well as explore the transformations in society that will affect education and change the principal’s role. Additionally, she managed the creation of two publications for the National Art Education Association (NAEA) and is managing the complete redesign of NAEA’s Web site. Combining her interests in the disciplines of arts education and communications, she will work to position the Web site as a resource for art educators by supporting the development of an innovative and creative look and usability.

Before joining Collaborative, Celia worked at the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. While there, Celia managed all member communications and worked on a variety of advocacy issues related to the performing arts. She also brings experience from Boston-based Project Bread – The Walk for Hunger, a statewide anti-hunger organization. Celia worked to provide a voice for low-income populations across the state. She helped formulate outreach strategies for several progressive initiatives that addressed the availability and nutritional quality of school meals.

Celia holds a Bachelor’s degree in public communications and government from the American University in Washington, D.C.

Michelle L. Bishop, senior consultant,  technology and web-based strategies, works with Collaborative to create and support Web-based tools and resources for our partners. Michelle is helping the National Art Education Association to create a new, user-friendly Web site that will serve as a dynamic virtual community of practice for art educators across the country. Michelle is also working with the National Association of Elementary School Principals on redeveloping its Web site to better serve members and other administrators in the field.

Michelle has spent 15 years providing communications, training, facilitation and technical services to customers in the not-for-profit, government and corporate business sectors. Since 1994, Michelle’s focus has been on Internet and interactive communications. Michelle has experience in both the technical and communications aspects of Web development. As a project manager, she helps facilitate understanding and brings together the necessary stakeholders to build successful interactive tools and Web sites that meet business and organizational goals. Michelle has also been an adjunct professor at the Corcoran School of the Art and Montgomery College in Maryland. She has designed and conducted several custom courses for not-for-profit clientele. 

She is currently working on the final stages of a Master’s in Business Administration from Warwick Business School in the United Kingdom. Michelle holds a Bachelor’s in political communication from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Jack D. Dale, senior consultant, leadership strategies and support, works with Collaborative as a member of the National Support Team that is working to facilitate the Arkansas Leadership Academy Superintendent Institute.

Dr. Dale joined Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia—the nation’s 13th largest school system—as Superintendent on July 1, 2004. From 1996 until June 30, 2004, Dr. Dale served as Superintendent for Frederick County Public Schools in Maryland where during his fourth year as Superintendent, he was named Maryland’s Superintendent of the Year. Previously, Dr. Dale was the Associate Superintendent for School Administration, Curriculum and Instruction of the Edmonds School District in Edmonds, WA.

He is co-editor and author of the book Creating Successful School Systems and has conducted workshops on teacher compensation systems for No Child Left Behind initiatives.

Dr. Dale holds a bachelor’s in mathematics and education; a master’s in educational administration and a doctorate in education, with an emphasis on effective school leadership and organizational change, from the University of Washington.

E-mail: faison@collaborativecommunications.com

Derrick Faison, associate, works to help local communities leverage citizen and stakeholder insight to create positive changes in public schools. He is supporting efforts in Naples, FL, to assist in building a community engagement strategy that can allow the community to establish a stronger vision for education. Derrick also helped to document and analyze the challenges and aspirations voiced by the Board Members of the D.C. Education Compact to help them articulate how the organization can reflect the community’s goals for education in the nation’s capital.

Before joining Collaborative, Derrick worked at Hager Sharp, Inc., a public relations firm, where he developed a deep understanding of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as The Nation’s Report Card. He tracked media coverage and wrote weekly media reports to keep the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics informed of national education issues impacting NAEP. Through his work managing the exhibit activities at national education conferences and with graphic designers to create promotional items and materials, Derrick helped to strengthen the NAEP brand among teachers, principals, superintendents and education researchers. He also brings policy research experience from the American Academy of Actuaries, a national membership organization that ensures the voices of its members are heard in public policy and professionalism discussions. 

Derrick holds a Bachelor’s degree in communication studies from Christopher Newport University in Newport News, VA.  

Gloria Frazier, senior consultant, collaboration and knowledge utilization, guides consulting and research services for the leadership and management of large-scale local, state and national systemic change efforts. Her work demonstrates that visions for a better society can be translated into reality by focusing on the networks, linkages and intersections between people, programs, structures and policies. She is known nationally for her ability to understand system design issues, frameworks and benchmark practices of large-scale complex organizational change, strategic planning, human resource development, formative and summative assessments and teaching and learning for children and adults.

In her work with rural and urban districts, state government, national nonprofit organizations and business, Gloria provides strategic and capacity building support to implement systemic restructuring initiatives related to: superintendent and school board development, distributed leadership, collaborative architectures, performance-based systems for leading and managing system change and community engagement. She designs and facilitates strategic planning and acts as an executive coach to superintendents, school board presidents and leaders of state and national education organizations.

Gloria contributes to Collaborative’s work with the Arkansas Leadership Academy to help superintendents’ learning be at the center of systems change, advise on the National Elementary School Principals Association product development, and support Collaborative’s own organizational learning, capacity building and development.

She is a former K-12 teacher, counselor, researcher, school and district administrator, and staff development trainer. Gloria has also been CEO of a video technologies firm. Gloria founded her private consulting practice, WEB Associates, in 1981 and is the founder and Managing Senior Partner of a nonprofit foundation, The International Center on Collaboration, dedicated to supporting American public education.

Gloria holds a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the George Peabody College at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. She received a Masters of Education in counseling from Florida Atlantic University and a Bachelor’s of Science in journalism and political science from the University of Florida, Gainesville.

E-mail: glover@collaborativecommunications.com

Bill Glover, creative director, is founding principal of Design Partners and has served as Collaborative’s primary designer since 2001. Bill contributes to Collaborative’s products with designs that brand client work with unique identities, while allowing designs to help make products accessible and useful. He produces multifaceted and multimedia products and has worked with Collaborative to produce complex print publications, electronic presentations and ideas for using creative technology solutions. Bill has designed more than 20 publications with Collaborative, and he has produced meeting materials, graphics and signage for several convenings and publication release events as well.

Before starting Design Partners, Bill was vice president of environmental design for Creel Morrell Inc., a national graphic design firm. His responsibilities included design and project management for exhibits, as well as for graphics used in everyday environments. He has also held the position of Senior Designer at DesignLink in Bethesda, Maryland as well as Senior Designer for the Rockbridge Group, a marketing, public relations and communications firm.

Bill’s experience includes being a professor of graphic design and three-dimensional design at Marymount University, and as a participating member of Society of Environmental Graphic Designers and American Institute of Graphic Arts.

Bill graduated from Western Michigan University with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts in graphic design and photography.

E-mail: jordan-meldrum@collaborativecommunications.com

Janalee Jordan-Meldrum, senior consultant, research and writing, helps the Collaborative team develop strategies, initiatives, print and electronic products that further client goals to ensure a quality public education for all children in America.

Her Collaborative portfolio includes two large-scale resource mapping projects with the National Academy Foundation and the development of a communications plan and several tools to support job-embedded approaches to professional development for Arkansas educators, with the Arkansas Department of Education. Additionally, Janalee contributed to several projects with the National Association for Elementary School Principals (NAESP), including redesign and development of NAESP’s Web site and work on Leading Afterschool Learning Communities, NAESP’s premier standards publication series. She also helped to create Full-Day Kindergarten: An Advocacy Guide with the National Education Association and the Schools for a New Society Web site with Schools for a New Society and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Janalee has 20 years of progressive work experience in business, education and community development. In 2003, she founded her own education research and program development business. Prior to that, she served as Senior Program Officer for K-12 and Community Programs at the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Educational Foundation. There, she led the development of a premier national fellowship program and training institute for teachers and managed a large-scale community-school coalition project, funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

She has served as an Advisor to the NASA Student Involvement Program and the U.S. Department of Energy Student Science Competitions program, and as an invited grant-reviewer for the National Science Foundation (NSF). An accomplished presenter and facilitator, Janalee has conducted over 100 workshops and training sessions on topics such as: school and community collaboration; connections between in school and after-school learning; school sexual harassment programs and policies; and equity in education.

From 2006-2008, Janalee lived and worked in Mendoza, Argentina, where she served as Vice President and Chief of Staff at the Vines of Mendoza, a multinational wine company. She helped to build the business from the ground up—she developed an organizational framework and staffing structure for the bilingual company; created and implemented staff training programs; provided consultation to the CEO; and lead strategic and operational planning processes. At the end of 2007, the Vines posted revenues in excess of $5 Million US.

Janalee received a Master of Arts, and a Bachelor of Arts, both in Politics, from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.

Anne Lewis, senior writer, is an education policy writer with extensive experience in analyzing national trends, and in narrative documentation of education reform. She has worked with Collaborative to author A New Day for Learning, a report of the Task Force on Time, Learning, and Afterschool.

Anne’s writing experience spans many mediums. She has authored several reports, including the final report of Public Education Network’s hearings on No Child Left Behind entitled, Open to the Public, How Communities, Parents and Students Assess the Impact of the No Child Left Behind Act: Realities Left Behind and Add It Up, a report for the Poverty and Race Research and Action Council on overcoming racism and poverty in low-performing schools. Among the books she has edited is Shaping the Future for American Youth, published by American Youth Policy Forum in 2006, and she was an editorial team member of the Teachers College Project on the “Status of Schools of Education.” Anne is also a long-time national columnist for Phi Delta Kappan magazine.

She has been the recipient of awards from the Texas Associated Press, EdPress and the Casey Journalism Center. Anne earned her bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Texas.

E-mail: mcgloin@collaborativecommunications.com

Dave McGloin, senior consultant, leadership support and communications, works with school and community-based leaders to help them synthesize information that strengthens student learning and educational systems. At Collaborative, he helps education stakeholders document their roles in school reform processes; shares critical information with colleagues, partners and the general public; and fine-tunes understandings of roles and responsibilities among different education stakeholders. 

Previously, in his work with districts and non-profit organizations, Dave has focused on developing messaging and structures necessary to take programs to scale to produce results for students and communities. He has conducted assessments of and for stakeholders, and developed accessible tools to help education leaders work effectively in increasingly complex systems.

Dave is a former 2nd grade teacher who started the National Education Association’s (NEA’s) Read Across America celebration of Dr. Seuss’s birthday. He also was a Vice-President of product and business development for an Internet start-up company, Teachscape, that used video-based case studies to support teachers’ professional development. Here, he served as the project manager of teams developing professional development programs to help teachers implement effective classroom management, work with English language learners, lead early childhood education and promote K-3 students’ literacy development. 

Prior to his work in education, Dave worked as a television producer, winning an Emmy as a co-producer of a CBS News special Killing Fields of America. In that and other programs with 60 Minutes, he was a regular visitor to some of the best and most challenging classrooms in inner-city schools across America, where he saw firsthand what was and wasn’t working in the lives of children surrounded by violence.

Dave holds a Master’s from Columbia University’s School of Journalism where his thesis examined programs established to help high school dropouts earn GEDs in the South Bronx, New York, and a Bachelor’s in Political Science from Princeton University.

Lori Meyer, researcher, writer, assists with research and writing on a variety of Collaborative projects. Her knowledge of education organizations and research resources helps the Collaborative team on a variety of projects.

Lori helped provide a wealth of research and data in creating Beyond NCLB: Fulfilling the Promise to Our Nation's Children, the report of the Aspen Institute’s Commission on No Child Left Behind. She also provided research and conceptualization for the National Academy Foundation’s maps of education resources.

Lori also works as a consultant with the National Association of State Boards of Education, where she directs efforts to increase and enhance student leadership in state policymaking. Lori has written publications and provided professional development on a range of education topics including school health, teacher quality, curriculum, civic engagement and No Child Left Behind. Prior to her work with state board of education members, Lori was a researcher at Education Week for the Quality Counts and Technology Counts reports.

Lori holds a Bachelor’s in political science/public policy management from the University of Akron. She is currently completing her doctoral studies in public policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where she also earned a Master’s of Policy Sciences degree. The focus of her dissertation research is state education governance.

E-mail: moore@collaborativecommunications.com

David Moore, vice president, directs work on public engagement and building civic infrastructures. He also consults on organizational development and research efforts.

David is an accomplished manager of small- and large-scale public engagement, training and leadership development projects. He works closely with school district administrators, school boards, local education funds and other community organizations to strengthen the relationship between communities and schools. He also works as a consultant to senior managers of nonprofit organizations handling internal systems, planning, fundraising and communications.

David leads Collaborative's current work on public engagement with the Mobile Area Education Foundation (AL), the Foundation for Orange County Public Schools (FL) and the Education Foundation of Collier County (FL). He also leads consulting efforts with the Washington D.C. Education Compact and other local education funds. He directs the partnership with the Arkansas Leadership Academy and conducts research on the connections among educators, community organizations and school change.

Before joining Collaborative, David served as the chief operating officer at the Forum for Youth Investment and as director for community initiatives at the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation. He also founded and led an organization for the development of leadership among school superintendents. David has worked with the University of Cincinnati’s College of Education as a grant writer and partnership manager, working on relationships with school districts in the areas of teacher development, technology and advanced/alternative certification. He was a researcher for the Kettering Foundation’s publication Is There a Public for Public Schools?.

While at the University of Chicago, where he received his Master’s degree in public policy, David worked for nonprofits working on Chicago school reform. He also has a Doctorate in Education from the University of Cincinnati and a Bachelor’s degree in high school social studies teaching from Capital University.

E-mail: williams@collaborativecommunications.com

Julie Pierce Williams, managing director, directs the core operating and office functions.  She oversees the workflow of staff across practice areas, human resources functions, implementation of project work, and communications systems across practice areas. She supports business and finance management, product and tool development, and marketing. Julie serves as an internal consultant on various projects.

Before joining Collaborative, Julie served as Director of External Initiatives for the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation. While there, she built a public leadership-training tool out of 15 years of harvested knowledge and materials. While serving as Vice President and General Manager of BNA Communications, Inc., Julie specialized in developing and implementing strategies for transforming organizational and community cultures. 

As a professional facilitator and consultant, she has developed curricula and led training sessions on executive management coaching, cross-cultural communication, valuing and managing diversity, organizational development, and multicultural issues in education. Her client list includes NASCAR, Daimler Chrysler, Commercial Women in Real Estate, The Mott Foundation, Prudential and The Corporation for National and Community Service.

Julie has presented several papers on a variety of workplace and community issues and is a keynote speaker and presenter for seminars and conferences both domestically and internationally. Julie has appeared on national news outlets as a human resources and diversity subject matter expert and has received numerous awards and honors, which testify to her commitment to quality programs and services. 

Her publications include: Diverse Communications: Investing in Relationships, Diversity Works Resource Series and Unfinished Business, and a number of award-winning training programs. Julie received her Bachelor's degree from Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, GA and her Master's in Psychological Counseling from Teachers College, Columbia University in New York.

Dr. Jesse Register, senior consultant, leadership strategies and support, contributes to Collaborative’s educational leadership work. Currently he is affiliated with the Arkansas Leadership Academy’s Superintendent Institute as a member of the National Support Team.

He serves as the first Annenberg Senior Advisor for District Leadership at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University in Providence, RI. In this role, he shares his experiences with partnerships between reform support organizations and school districts and provides advice and consultation to a new generation of school leaders.

Dr. Register has worked in education for almost 40 years—as an English teacher, principal, district administrator and superintendent in three districts in North Carolina and Tennessee. Under his leadership, the Chattanooga/Hamilton County School District in Tennessee successfully completed a merger of urban and suburban school districts, restructured nine low-performing schools and launched a major redesign of all the districts’ high schools. 

He holds a bachelor’s degree of arts and a master’s degree in education from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Additionally, Dr. Register earned an advanced school administrator’s certificate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a doctorate of education specializing in administration from Duke University.  

Robert Rothman, senior writer, writes and edits many Collaborative publications. He was the principal author of Beyond NCLB: Fulfilling the Promise to Our Nation's Children, the report of the Aspen Institute’s Commission on No Child Left Behind that detailed recommendations to the U.S. Congress for improving the No Child Left Behind Act. Bob also worked with Collaborative and the Kettering Foundation to produce New Relationships with Schools Volume 4, a publication that analyzes the work of organizations that build community by connecting with schools.

In addition to his consulting work, Bob is a principal associate for the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, where he edits the Institute’s quarterly magazine, Voices in Urban Education. Previously, he was a senior associate for Achieve, a study director for the National Research Council, and a reporter and editor for Education Week. He is the editor of City Schools: How Districts and Communities Can Create Smart Education Systems (Harvard Education Press, 2007) and with Richard F. Elmore, Testing, Teaching and Learning (National Academy Press, 1999), and the author of Measuring Up: Standards, Assessment, and School Reform (Jossey-Bass, 1995). Bob's insight on "Smart Education Systems" was featured in a July 2007 Commentary piece in Education Week, in which he looked at the role of out-of-school factors in educational success.

Bob has a Bachelor’s degree in political science from Yale University.