Keynote Speakers 2007
Dr. Lorraine Monroe
Dr. Lorraine Monroe, Founder of the Lorraine Monroe Leadership Institute, was the founding principal of the renowned Frederick Douglass Academy in Central Harlem and is on extended leave from Bank Street College of Education where she taught graduate courses and founded and directed the Center for Minority Achievement.
Dr. Monroe translates her extensive experience in New York City public schools—as teacher, dean, assistant principal, principal and deputy Chancellor for Curriculum and Instruction—into the guiding set of Monroe Leadership Principles that define the work of the School Leadership Academy.
Dr. Monroe's groundbreaking work has been featured on 60 Minutes, Tony Brown’s Journal, The McCreary Report, in Ebony Magazine, The New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Parade Magazine, and most recently in the nationally acclaimed Fast Company Magazine.
Dr. Monroe is a national and international consultant who works through lecture, video presentations, hands-on activities, and large and small group discussions to share her powerful message about the role of leadership in creating effective schools.
Her book, Nothing’s Impossible: Leadership Lessons from Inside and Outside the Classroom, was first published by Random House and has been translated into Swedish and Norwegian. Nothing’s Impossible is now available in paperback through Harper Collins.
Dr. Richard Sagor
Dick Sagor is the director of the Educational Leadership Program in the Graduate School of Education and Counseling at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Previously, he was on the faculty at Washington State University (WSU) to organize and coordinate the educational administration programs at the WSU-Vancouver campus. While at WSU, Dick founded Project LEARN (the League of Educational Action Researchers in the Northwest). Project LEARN provided training and support for schools seeking to build their internal capacity for data-based school improvement. In September of 1997, Dick started ISIE (pronounced “I see”), the Institute for the Study of Inquiry in Education, to continue and expand the work begun by Project LEARN. In the Fall of 2000, the demands of ISIE became so great that Dick left his position at WSU to devote his full attention to providing service to schools, districts and professional organizations.
Dick has 14 years of public school administrative experience including service as an assistant superintendent, high school principal, instruction vice principal, disciplinary vice-principal, and alternative school head teacher. He has taught the entire range of students, from the gifted to the learning disabled, in the areas of social studies, reading, and written composition.
Beyond his work as a teacher and administrator, Dick has extensive international consulting experience. He worked as a site visitor for the United States Department of Education's Blue Ribbon Schools Program, he has consulted with international schools throughout Asia and Africa, numerous State Departments of Education, and with over 200 independent school districts across North America. His work with school faculties focuses primarily on leadership development, data and standard-based school improvement, collaborative action research, teacher motivation, and teaching at-risk youth.
Ms. Esmé Raji Codell
Esmé Raji Codell is a teacher, literature specialist, author and a self-proclaimed “readiologist.” Her diary of a first-year teacher, Educating Esmé, received favorable reviews from People magazine and The New Yorker. She is the author of the acclaimed novel, Sahara Special, winner of the IRA Children’s Book Award, a Kirkus Editors’ Choice for 2003, and a BookSense 76 #1 title; as well as a memoir for young readers, Sing a Song of Tuna Fish: Hard to Swallow Stories from Fifth Grade. Other books she has written include Diary of a Fairy Godmother and How to Get Your Child to Love Reading. Ms. Codell is a featured speaker at national events, on the radio and also appears on television. The former bookseller and children’s librarian lives with her husband and son in Chicago.
Technology Consultant
Roanoke College