Jeanie Cash is the Co-founder of Lead Learner Associates. She 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. 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. her M.A. from the University of La Verne.

Donnita Davis-Perry joined the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) Training and Technical Assistance Center (T/TAC) at William and Mary in 2002, with 30+ years of experience as a general and special educator. At T/TAC Donni provides professional learning sessions and follow along coaching to support educators to full implementation of evidence-based practices. Donni has expertise as an Instructional Consultation Team (ICT) facilitator and coaches new ICT members to enhance, improve, and increase student and staff performance nationwide. Donni has multiple coaching certifications and is the lead certifier for Evocative Coaches at the Center for School Transformation and Lead Learner Associates. Donni’s areas of expertise include assistance with instructional and leadership coaching, student progress monitoring, formative assessment, learning strategies, inclusive practices, providing specially designed instruction to students with disabilities, project based learning and co-teacher collaboration. She earned a M.Ed. in Education from Old Dominion University.

George Manthey is the Co-founder of Lead Learner Associates. He 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 served as Assistant Executive Director of ACSA from 2006 to 2013, responsible for all of ACSA’s educational programs and conferences. In addition to his work with Lead Learner Associates, George serves as the Program Coordinator for all educational credential coaches in the ACSA program in the Silicon Valley. 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 Ed.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Shane Safir has worked at every level of the education system for the past 25 years, with an unwavering commitment to racial justice and deep learning. After teaching in San Francisco and Oakland, California and engaging in community organizing to launch a new public high school, Shane became the founding principal of June Jordan School for Equity (JJSE), an innovative national model identified by scholar and policy leader Linda Darling-Hammond as having “beaten the odds in supporting the success of low-income students of color.” For over a decade, Shane has provided equity-centered leadership coaching, systems transformation support, and professional learning for schools, districts, and organizations across the U.S. and Canada. She writes for Edutopia, Ed Week, Educational Leadership magazine and is the author of The Listening Leader: Creating the Conditions for Equitable School Transformation (Jossey-Bass: 2017). Shane is thrilled to co-author this book with Dr. Jamila Dugan, a long-time collaborator who conducted foundational research for The Listening Leader and facilitates equity workshops with Shane, as well as Carrie Wilson, a colleague whose groundbreaking program for teacher-driven inquiry centers street data in the pursuit of equity.