The School Reform Initiative creates transformational learning communities fiercely committed to educational equity and excellence. Jen Benkovitz PERSONAL STORY I am a career educator with 18 years of experience in public education and have served in principal, assistant principal and classroom teacher roles in North Carolina and Washington. I earned a BS in Education from Ohio University and both a Masters in School Administration and Doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Throughout my career, I have consistently and persistently viewed teaching and learning from an equity perspective and insist that it is our moral imperative to ensure educational excellence for all children. In my free time, I enjoy hiking, kayaking, camping, reading, listening to music and walking my two dogs. Most recently, I served as the principal of a K-‐8 Alternative School in Seattle, WA. I am currently working as an independent educational leadership consultant, providing instructional leadership coaching for schools and districts. Areas of focus and support include the development and implementation of mission, vision, values and school improvement plans, professional learning communities, data analysis, instructional feedback and evaluation, culturally proficient practice, inclusive education, whole-‐child education, multi-‐tiered systems of support and performance assessment. Aside from hands on leadership experience in various schools and districts (small, large, Title I, magnet, option, alternative, rural, urban, primary, secondary, etc.), I attribute much of my professional growth and development as an administrator to two significant experiences that continue to influence my practice. First, while working as a principal in my home state of North Carolina, I served as a “Community Organizer” for the Institute of Democratic Education in America (IDEA), developing and implementing community-‐ based programs within my school and district to raise and address issues of equity. Second, again through IDEA, I was given the opportunity to attend the School Reform Initiative “Winter Meeting” which served as my first (personal) introduction to “Critical Friends Groups” (CFGs) and the use of protocols to collaboratively examine and improve teaching and learning. I officially became an affiliate of SRI soon after attending my first Winter Meeting in 2012. In 2014, I worked with my school’s PTO to raise enough funds for seven staff members to attend Winter Meeting so that we could work together to facilitate CFG implementation upon our return. Our collective learning experiences at Winter Meeting led to much improved processes for our Student Support Team and Professional Learning Community (PLC) meetings. Over the years, my affiliation with SRI has provided me with the opportunity to widen my professional network, to increase staff collaboration and improve student learning, and to learn from like-‐minded educators who are committed to making schools more equitable for all students. 1550 Larimer Street, Box 257 | Denver, CO 80202 www.schoolreforminitiative.org STATEMENT OF INTEREST It would be an honor to serve on the SRI board. Through my teaching, coursework and administrative experiences I have developed and refined my skills focusing primarily on facilitative leadership, professional learning communities, issues of equity, best practices/current trends in curriculum and instruction, differentiation in an inclusive setting, mission/vision development and implementation and the alignment of human and material needs and resources. My professional accomplishments were always made possible through my collaboration with others. Facilitating this type of school community relationship is rewarding; dreams become realized and tangible, and sustainable change becomes evident. It would be an honor to serve as a member of the SRI board to support SRI’s mission and vision and to serve as an extension of the organization to further promote and share collaborative practices that improve teaching and learning. The professional development, support and encouragement that I gained through SRI continues to play a significant role in my professional life. While I have long recognized the power of collaboration, it was not until my first Winter Meeting, that I was introduced to the practice of using protocols to provide the safety and structure needed to facilitate authentic dialogue and collective understanding and to support sustainable school improvement. I am interested in joining the SRI board because I want to rekindle and share the inspiration, enthusiasm and optimism I felt on the heels of the Winter Meetings that I attended. I felt this way after each experience because we were treated professionally, we were given time to collaborate and time to process and reflect. We had the opportunity to learn with like-‐minded educators from around the world. It was exciting to feel a part of something that I knew would make a difference in schools around the world, including my own. We walked away with tangible tools to take back to our respective schools and on a number of occasions I still find myself reaching out across the country to other SRI affiliates for support. More than anything, I want to continue learning with and from other educators who are committed to addressing issues of equity in our schools. In my experience one of SRI’s successes is the annual Winter Meeting. This opportunity to network with like-‐minded educators from around the world is invaluable. Each meeting I attended was very well organized, included exceptional speakers and events and always afforded participants the opportunity to collaborate in meaningful ways to improve teaching and learning. While publicity for SRI has increased in the past few years, it also seems that this has been a challenge. I learned about SRI through another nonprofit organization a number of years ago, but wish I had known about it sooner. It would be interesting to learn more about how SRI communicates its services and/or to be able to review and share snippets, case studies, etc. that highlight results stemming from collaboration with SRI.