Stephanie Baker (BA, Oakwood University; MA, Chicago State University) has 45 years of experience as an educator/administrator in private and public PreK-12 settings, and retired in 2018 as the Deputy Superintendent/Chief Academic Officer of the Pomona Unified School District. She provided leadership assistance to the Superintendent for the development, promotion, and implementation of the district’s Strategic Plan priorities, objectives, and improvement efforts. She has served as an elementary and middle school teacher and site administrator of a public school which won both the National Blue Ribbon and California Distinguished School awards during her administration. At the district level, Stephanie served as Director and Administrative Director of Professional Development and Categorical Programs. As the CAO, she implemented leadership development programs for new, aspiring and experienced administrators, including the Great Leaders for Great Schools federally-funded grant program and the creation of the Pomona Administrator Clear Credential Program (PACCP), an approved California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) program to enable school administrators to achieve their California Tier II Administrative Credential. Stephanie received her BA from Oakwood University and her MA from Chicago State University.
Michael Bossi is a forty-year veteran of California education. He has taught inall grades K-8 and in 9-12 alternative education. He served as an elementary, middle, and alternative school principal for twenty-three years. The National Association of Elementary School Principals named him the California National Distinguished Principal in 1996. For twenty summers Michael served first as a Team Leader, then as Director of ACSA’s New and Aspiring Principals’ Colloquium at UCLA, providing leadership induction to well over 1,500 new educational leaders in California. He has also worked in K-12 district level curriculum and staff development. He founded the LEAD Network providing coaching and coaching-based credentialing to school leaders in four contiguous districts in the San Francisco bay area. In 2006, Michael became the first Director of Leadership Coaching for the Association of California School Administrators and led the growth of a leadership coaching program partnership between ACSA and the New Teacher Center from a small Bay Area based coaching provider to the largest coaching-based clear credential program in California. Recognized as an expert in leadership coaching, Michael was a leading influence in the development of California’s new coaching-based Clear Induction Credential Program Standards adopted by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Over 2000 administrators have cleared their Administrative Services Credential through this program. In 2010 Michael developed the Mentor Program for ACSA, linking new and experienced leaders in the ACSA regions in California. Michael received his bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley as a Phi Beta Kappa graduate. He earned his masters, “with distinction,” from Cal State University, Chico.
Leslie And
erson retired in 2014 as Assistant Superintendent for Educational Services in the Castro Valley Unified School District after 40 years in education. She taught elementary school and was a reading specialist, served as principal of K-5 school and a K-7 school over 8 years and then became Director of Assessment followed by Senior Director of Educational Services in the San Ramon Valley USD. She also worked for ACSA for a short time as Professional Development Executive. For five years, she was an Adjunct Professor in Curriculum and Instruction for the Tier 1 program at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, CA, She currently serves as a leadership coach in various districts and provide statewide Coach training for ACSA. She received her B.A. from the University of California and her M.S in Supervision and Leadership from CSU, Hayward.
Bob Blackney has a breadth of experience in education. He has taught grades 1-12 for 19 years and has served as a mentor teacher for a number of years. He directed the TASC II academic model technology project in California from 1988 until 1994. The TASC II Project focused on using technology to teach at-risk students technology. Bob has administrative experience at the elementary and middle school levels before he became an administrator at the county level. He directed the RIMS region Professional Development Consortium that coordinated staff development in Riverside, Inyo, and Mono Counties. Bob wrote the initial California Technology Assistance Project (CTAP) plan for Region 10 and was appointed to be the first director for CTAP in that region. He served as the director of Instructional Support for the Chino Valley Unified School District and the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District where he directed assessment, professional development and technology. He has recently retired as the Director of Curriculum and Instruction in the Azusa Unified School District.
Lead Learner Associates Founders
Jeanie Cash retired as the Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District in Southern California after 33 years in education. She taught elementary and middle school and served as a principal for 14 years. For 13 years, Jeanie was the Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services for two large suburban districts in Southern California. In addition to her role as the founding partner of Lead Learner Associates, she serves as a coach and consultant for both the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) and for Leadership Associates. Jeanie has had several articles published on leadership. She coaches both district and site leaders and provides leadership development training throughout California. Jeanie is the past- president of ACSA’s State Council for Curriculum, Instruction and Accountability. She led ACSA’s Southern California Academy for Curriculum and Instructional Leaders for several years. For the past 28 summers she has been a team leader and coach for ACSA administrative training programs at UCLA. Jeanie has received numerous awards in her professional career including Curriculum and Instruction Leader of the Year for Orange County in 2011, the CASCD Outstanding Educational Leader Award and, in 1997 was honored in Washington D.C. as NAESP’s National Distinguished Principal. Jeanie earned her BA from Whittier College and her MA from the University of La Verne.
George Manthey retired as the Assistant Executive Director, Educational Services, of the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) after 40 years in education. He taught elementary school as a regular classroom teacher and taught both elementary and middle school students as a special day class teacher and resource specialist. He was an elementary school principal for 10 years in the San Francisco Bay Area. George was selected by ACSA to lead the Bay Area School Leadership Center, funded as a project of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. He served as the director of ACSA’s external evaluator program, which served over 150 schools through the Immediate Intervention for Underperforming Schools Program. He served as Assistant Executive Director from 2006 to 2013, responsible for all of ACSA’s educational programs and conferences. At ACSA, George created a number of tools that harness the power of technology for leaders such as The Standard Finder and the The Walk’bout. George has received a number of awards including the Whitney Foundation Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education (1984) and the California Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development’s highest honor – the Helen Heffernan Award for Outstanding Instructional Leadership (2012). He has written over 60 columns for Leadership magazine as well as numerous articles that have been published in Leadership, the School Administrator, Learning Environments Research Journal, and Educational Leadership. George earned his BA from Willamette University, his MA from the University of San Francisco, and his EdD from the University of California, Santa Cruz.