Bryan Goodwin

CEO & President

Bryan thrives on translating research into practice, scanning the world for new insights and best practices on teaching and leading, and helping educators everywhere adapt them to address their own challenges. A frequent conference presenter, he is the author of Simply Better: Doing What Matters Most to Change the Odds for Student Success, and co-author of The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching and Balanced Leadership for Powerful Learning: Tools for Achieving Success in Your School. Before joining McREL in 1998, Bryan was a college instructor, a high school teacher, and an award-winning business journalist.

Robin Jarvis

Chief Program Officer

Committed to ensuring that all children are given high-quality educational opportunities, Robin and her team work with school and system leaders on policies, structures, and practices that help all students succeed. A career educator from Louisiana, Robin was a classroom teacher, a principal, a superintendent, and an administrator at the Louisiana Department of Education. In 2005 and 2006, immediately following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Robin served as the acting superintendent of the Recovery School District in New Orleans, working with the community, neighborhood groups, school board members, and staff to rebuild the school system.

Ron Miletta

Chief of Staff

Ron ensures the seamless functioning and management of McREL’s executive office, providing strategic support to the CEO and leadership team. He directs, monitors, and contributes to corporate and business objectives and other special projects, and oversees our institutional development, information and technology systems, and marketing and communications departments.

Sue Desch

Chief Financial Officer

Since 1991, Sue has been part of the Business Services team, ensuring that McREL is financially able to continue doing the work we do. As CFO, she oversees our fiscal services, manages complex budgets and systems, and upholds the integrity of our operational and regulatory compliance. As a member of the leadership team, Sue also helps develop and implement strategies and policies that enhance corporate success.

Melissa Gray

Chief Human Resources Officer

Melissa’s focus is finding and developing the high-quality staff we have at McREL, leading the creation and delivery of programs, procedures, and guidelines that help engage employees with our organization and our strategic goals. She oversees recruiting, hiring, orientation, benefits, and compensation and, as a member of our leadership team, participates in strategic planning and policy development.

Roger Fiedler

Senior Director of Communications & Marketing

Roger leads a team of communicators who are committed to sharing McREL’s work and stories of success with educators around the world, spreading the word on effective ways to help students, teachers, and leaders flourish. He oversees internal and external communications as well as events and marketing, and works with colleagues across the organization to develop and implement McREL’s communications and visibility plans.

Dale Lewis

Executive Director

Big-picture systemic improvement for schools and services for special populations of students are Dale’s areas of expertise and experience. He provides strategic vision, direction, and leadership in the development, planning, and implementation of a wide variety of consulting services and technical assistance for districts and education systems. Previously, Dale was director of the Texas Comprehensive Center and director of special education for a cooperative of five Texas school districts.

303.632.5522 | dlewis@mcrel.org

Phillip Herman

Executive Director

Phillip is dedicated to understanding the science of learning, and how best to design and implement learning innovations and methodologies. As director of the REL Pacific at McREL, Phillip leads a team of researchers whose goals are to study and improve the educational outcomes of students in the Pacific Region, including Hawaii, three U.S. territories, and the freely associated states. Previously, Phillip was a director of research at the University of Pittsburgh and Northwestern University.

808.664.8187 | pherman@mcrel.org

Sheila Arens

Executive Director

Sheila brings a wide variety of experience in basic and applied research to her work at McREL, where she leads research and program evaluation projects that translate to better teaching, better learning, and more effective system improvement. She supervises research and program evaluation staff and oversees large-scale studies, including those for federally funded grants and contracts. She also serves as principal investigator and methodological and project advisor to the research team.

303.632.5625 | sarens@mcrel.org

Kathleen Dempsey

Senior Director

With 30 years of experience as a teacher and administrator, Kathleen knows what it takes to make an impact in schools. At McREL, she helps schools, districts, and state education agencies with strategic vision, program development, and delivery of training and coaching focusing on academic standards, curriculum, and instruction. She is also the director of the North Central Comprehensive Center, a federally funded regional center operated by McREL that builds states’ capacity to implement and sustain improvement initiatives.

303.632.5634 | kdempsey@mcrel.org

Kristin Rouleau

Senior Director

Kristin works with schools, districts, and state departments of education as they navigate change and implement practices and structures to reduce variability and increase student achievement. Through consulting, coaching, and facilitation of workshops, she provides services, strategies, and technical assistance to support change efforts. Kristin earned administrative credentials at the University of Washington, and holds an M.A. in Curriculum and Teaching from Michigan State University and a B.A. in Elementary Education from Western Michigan University.

303.632.5547 | krouleau@mcrel.org

Tedra Clark

Research Director

Tedra works to improve K‒12 education through research focused on school climate, classroom instructional practices, formative assessment, and teacher professional development. She provides strategic vision, direction, and leadership in developing, planning, and implementing research endeavors. With more than a decade of experience in cognitive science research and applied education research, her expertise includes research design, instrument development, data collection, statistical analysis (including psychometric analysis, hierarchical linear modeling, structural equation modeling, and longitudinal growth modeling), research synthesis, and dissemination. Tedra received her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Denver.

303.632.5629 | tclark@mcrel.org

Katie Stringer

Research Director

With more than 10 years of experience in research design and program evaluation, Katie leads McREL’s proposal development and research and evaluation projects, including their design, implementation, and reporting. She is the co-director of the IBM Journey i3 development grant awarded in 2016, lead evaluator for Cosmoquest teacher education activities (awarded by NASA in 2016), and lead evaluator on the SEED NW BOCES i3 grant awarded in 2015. She holds a Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from Auburn University, where she focused on adolescent identity and career development and relationships education research and evaluation.

303.632.5567 | kstringer@mcrel.org