Following a rewarding 30-year career in public education, Debra Friedman is excited to be a staff developer with LSI. Debra holds a bachelor's degree in education from the State University of New York at Geneseo, and a master's degree in leadership from Nova Southeastern University, Florida. She is privileged to have worked with a diverse variety of schools from all socio-economic ranges in urban, suburban, and rural communities. Debra has served as a teacher, reading specialist, assistant principal, principal, and director of program development and alignment for one of the nation's largest school districts, where she was in charge of the district's professional development center, a multi-million dollar training grant, and on-line professional development programs providing teacher enhancement and certification courses.

Under her leadership as an elementary principal and through the hard work of committed teachers who embraced Dr. Marzano's teacher evaluation model, her school rose from one of the state's 300 lowest-performing schools to scoring in the top 10% in reading. This experience combined with her love of children and learning is the foundation of her strong commitment to supporting schools in their quest to improve student achievement.

Tracy Duval has been in the field of education for over 20 years. Her career in education began as a paraprofessional and since then, she has spent many years serving students and teachers in various capacities. Her educational expertise ranges from writing curriculum at the school and district level, developing professional development for teachers, analyzing data to determine trends and helping to create plans to meet the needs of all students. When Mrs. Duval is not busy offering training through LSI, she works with graduate students at Johns Hopkins University.

Mrs. Duval received her Master’s Degree from Florida Gulf Coast University in Special Education and her Educational Specialist Degree from Nova Southeastern University in Educational Leadership.

Jaime Bailey, M.Ed has more than 33 years of experience in K-12 education. She has served as a teacher, special education teacher, instructional coach, curriculum coordinator, assessment coordinator, and professional development coordinator for five rural school districts. Her diverse experiences give her a broad perspective as she supports systems in refinement and change.

Jaime has a rich background in data-driven decision-making, standards-based instruction, and performance task development. She has supported schools and school systems on Priority Improvement or Turnaround status. Jaime earned her bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Northern Colorado.

In addition to providing professional development Jaime's semi-retired status allows her to spend time designing and delivering S.T.E.M. lessons to children during their dialysis treatment.

For more than 30 years, Gary Hess has been working in PreK-12 public and charter schools. This experience includes serving as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, and 14 years as a building administrator in an urban school district. As a school principal and instructional leader, he led his team in continuous improvement, and has experience utilizing the “Marzano Teacher Evaluation Model” and “Essentials for Achieving Rigor”, and now delivers these school trainings to teachers and administrators.

Gary has also worked as a School Improvement Facilitator with the Pennsylvania Department of Education as a member of Pennsylvania’s Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) School Improvement Initiative “to engage school leaders and school-based teams in a continuous improvement process.” Now through his facilitation of LSI’s “Leadership Academy”, Gary also supports school and district-based teams to develop, implement, and monitor improvement plans that are based on evidence-based practices.

He is committed to the success of at-risk students and has served in schools with high populations of students of poverty and English language learners. Working now as an LSI Staff Developer, Gary delivers professional development in “Ignite Core Instruction” and “Academic Teaming” which has the power to improve academic achievement and social-emotional learning simultaneously, while also closing gaps between students of differing abilities, preparing students for college and the workplace, and promoting equity and access.”

Gary has a robust background in leading standards-based instruction, evidence-based pedagogy, decision-driven data collection, formative assessment, school systems improvement, and PLC facilitation. His diverse experiences give him a broad perspective as he supports systems in refinement and change for successful student achievement.

Karen Doty, Ed.D., serves as a staff developer for LSI, specializing in research-based professional development for school leaders, administrators, and teachers aimed at school improvement. Prior to consulting, she served over 30 years in public schools and higher education as a teacher/instructor, school leader, and administrator. Dr. Doty is a lifelong learner who enjoys challenges that aim to better schools and the people in them.

She became a National Board Certified Teacher in 1994 and has worked closely with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and state organizations to mentor teachers undergoing this process. This powerful self-reflective professional development was a catalyst for coaching and mentoring others for growth. She was a teacher in a demonstration school, for Georgia Southern University, for 10 years and conducted research collaboratively with professors as well. Her strong commitment to teaching has been a key element in her ability to provide professional development for others.

As an administrator, Dr. Doty served at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. This gave her a broad perspective of leading school personnel at each level. She has collaboratively written and was awarded four competitive grants aimed at professional development and literacy growth during her tenure as principal. She earned her doctorate in Curriculum Studies/Education Leadership from Georgia Southern University in 2001.

Dr. Doty works collaboratively with the Leadership Academy and Instructional Essentials teams at LSI.