Staff Directory
CELL employs education experts with in-depth knowledge and experience in strategies for school transformation. The staff focuses on improving schools, engaging communities, and leveraging resources for progress in academic achievement throughout Indiana. To see a brief biographical sketch, click on the link below an individual's name.
[A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z] [Consultants]
Marcia Capuano, Associate
(317) 791-5704
mbcapuano@sbcglobal.net
[biography]
Marcia Capuano received a bachelor's degree in education at Wittenberg University, a master's degree from the University of Delaware in educational leadership, and completed her doctoral degree in school administration at Indiana University. Dr. Capuano has worked with Indianapolis Public Schools as a regional director and has served as assistant superintendent for human resources and curriculum and instruction in the M.S.D. of Lawrence Township.
Joan Carr, Project Coordinator
(317) 791-5922
jcarr@uindy.edu
[biography]
Prior to joining CELL as a project coordinator, Joan worked as a project manager for a market research company specializing in the food service industry and as a buyer for a major department store. Joan has a B.A. from Colorado College.
Becky joined the CELL staff as a project coordinator for event planning. Previously, she worked for the sixth largest Indianapolis caterer as the operations manager and event coordinator. She has a B.S. in environmental health sciences from Purdue University.
Mark Cosand, High School Conversion Coordinator
(317) 791-5706
mcosand@uindy.edu
[biography]
Mark joined CELL as a coaching coordinator working with schools in the IPS district. Previously, he spent 12 years as a small learning community coordinator, helping Northwest High School convert to small learning communities and then small schools. In addition, he taught social studies at the Pacers Academy and John Marshall Middle School. Recently, Mark completed his certification in secondary administration. He holds a master's degree in higher education and student affairs from Indiana University.
Brandon Cosby, Senior Fellow for High School Transformation
(317) 791-5702
bcosby@uindy.edu
[biography]
Brandon Cosby is the CELL senior fellow for the high school transformation program and works directly with Indianapolis Public Schools on high school conversions. Brandon joined CELL after serving nine years in the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation, where he worked as a principal, assistant principal and high school teacher. A New Castle, Indiana native, Brandon is pursuing his Ed.D. in education administration at Indiana University . He holds an M.A. in education administration from Oakland City University and a B.S. in speech communication and theatre teaching from the University of Indianapolis.
Lisa Dandridge, Finance & Business Operations Director
(317) 791-5920
ldandridge@uindy.edu
[biography]
Lisa Dandridge joined CELL as the finance and business operations director. Prior to joining CELL she worked in various management positions in the areas of finance and business operations for more than 14 years with major corporations. She is a 1989 graduate from the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University. Lisa received her MBA from the University of Detroit Mercy in 1993. In addition, she has taught business courses as an adjunct faculty member at various universities. Lisa received the 2004 YWCA Women of Achievement award in the volunteer category. In addition, Lisa was selected as one of the honorees of the United Way Minority Service award in conjunction with the 2004 Indiana Black Expo. Lisa was honored by Who's Who in Black Indianapolis in 2005 and 2006 in the area of business leadership. Currently, Lisa serves on the board of directors for the Marion County Commission on Youth (MCCOY).
David Dresslar, Senior Fellow for High School Transformation
(317) 791-5927
ddresslar@uindy.edu
[biography]
David Dresslar joined CELL as a senior fellow and works with start-up schools. Dr. Dresslar has had extensive experience in educational administration having served in several positions including assistant superintendent for the M.S.D. of Lawrence Township before becoming superintendent of the Jenison Public Schools in Grand Rapids, Michigan. After 17 years in Michigan, he returned to Indianapolis where he also is leading Indiana's Education Policy Fellowship Program for CELL.
Renaye Frazier joined CELL as operations coordinator, having worked for 17 years as an administrative assistant, project coordinator and office manager for various corporations in Indianapolis and California. She earned a B.S. in business administration from The Defiance College.
Karen Gould, Instructional Coach
(317) 733-9819
thegoulds@iquest.net
[biography]
Dr. Karen Gould has worked as an elementary school principal in the M.S.D. of Lawrence Township where she created a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence that was named one of America's best schools by Redbook magazine. She has been named a National Distinguished Principal by the U.S. Department of Education and served as an expert to Good Morning America on characteristics of great schools. As an assistant superintendent for M.S.D. of Wayne Township, she led school and district improvements. As a start-up schools leadership coach, she now works with high school principals to assist them in leadership skill development
Sandy Haynes, Administrative Assistant
(317) 788-2051
shaynes@uindy.edu
[biography]
Sandy Haynes joined CELL as administrative assistant for the school evaluation team. She comes to the organization with 10 years experience in banking and as assistant to the director of academic records at Franklin College. Sandy attended Indiana University.
Lauren Howard, Communications Specialist
(317) 791-5915
lahoward@uindy.edu
[biography]
Lauren Howard serves as the communication specialist for CELL. Lauren graduated with high honors from Butler University with a degree in public and corporate communications. She has been honored with the Nicholas "Mac" Cripe and Theresa K. Weinberg awards for outstanding undergraduate work and commitment to professional achievement. Prior to joining CELL, Lauren has worked as an event planner, public relations assistant, communications/project specialist, communication lab manager, and high school speech coach.
Adam Lowe, Instructional Coach
(812) 369-1005
alowe@uindy.edu
[biography]
Adam I. Lowe is the founder of Saffron Ventures, an education policy consulting firm based in Bloomington, Indiana. He has supported urban school improvement efforts in Indianapolis and Washington, D.C., working in nonprofit, university and government settings. He also has conducted research nationally on education service providers offering comprehensive school design and/or management.
Steve Lythgoe, Data Management Facilitator
(317) 691-6022
lythgoes@uindy.edu
[biography]
Steve Lythgoe joined CELL as a data management facilitator working with Indianapolis Public Schools. Previously, Steve was a high school principal, assistant principal, and a teacher of language arts and social studies, working in comprehensive high schools as well as smaller learning communities. Steve was the primary writer and first program manager for Logansport Community School Corporation's smaller learning communities project with the U.S. Department of Education.
Steve holds associate degrees in nursing and social sciences from San Antonio College, a B.S. in history from Southern Illinois University, a master of education from Indiana Wesleyan University, and a master's in teaching from Oakland City University.
Wendi Middleton, Project Coordinator
(317) 791-5923
wmiddleton@uindy.edu
[biography]
Before coming to CELL as an administrative assistant, Wendi worked in corrections for 11 years; first with the Prison Fellowship Ministries and then with the Department of Corrections as a transition coordinator. Wendi received her bachelor's degree from the University of Indianapolis.
Kaye Nave, Administrative Assistant
(317) 791-5709
knave@uindy.edu
[biography]
Kaye joined the University of Indianapolis staff in the School for Adult Learning prior to joining CELL as an administrative assistant. Kaye has 14 years experience in banking and various volunteer and leadership opportunities.
Susan Nelson joined CELL as communications director, responsible for directing the strategic public relations/communications initiatives of the organization, including internal and external communications, media relations activities, CELL's Web site, project management, and event planning. With more than 20 years of public relations and communications experience, Susan has worked in both the public and private sectors, including a non-profit sports medicine membership association, state and city government entities and corporate settings. She holds a bachelor's degree in public/corporate communications from Butler University and has achieved her accreditation in public relations (APR) from the Public Relations Society of America.
Mary Jo Ratterman, Research Associate
(317) 788-3775
mrattermann@uindy.edu
[biography]
Mary Jo joined CELL as a research associate. Previously, she was a faculty member at Swarthmore College and Franklin & Marshall College, teaching developmental psychology, statistics and experimental research methods. She has published research on the development of analogical reasoning skills in young children and the development of planning in adolescents and adults. Mary Jo received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Illinois.
Mary Redman, Instructional Coach
(317) 828-5787
meoredman@hotmail.com
[biography]
Prior to joining CELL as a start-up schools instructional coach, Mary Redman served as a literacy coach at Lawrence North High School. As a former high school English teacher, Mary is highly trained in 21st century skills, professional development, instructional coaching, technology, and teaching and learning.
Brian Reid, Associate Dean for Policy & Partnerships
(317) 791-5919
bried@uindy.edu
[biography]
Before coming to CELL as the associate dean for policy and partnerships, Brian served as the director of school and university partnerships at Eastern Illinois University. He ran the Professional Development School (PDS) network and developed projects related to P-16 education.
Brian spent 10 years teaching as an elementary education teacher a special education teacher, and a teacher in a program for the gifted. He helped write the original proposal for the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented and served as the senior research assistant. He was the director of the graduate program in gifted education and taught special education and research courses at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He started the Network on Talent Development in ASCD and has served as an officer for state and national professional organizations for research, special education and gifted education. His research interest is bright students with behavior disorders, planning professional development and monitoring the growth of innovations.
Christine Sego Caldwell works as a research assistant for school evaluation. Prior to joining CELL, she completed her bachelor of arts in English and anthropology at Indiana University-Bloomington and worked in international education at I.U.P.U.I. She currently is a graduate student of I.U.P.U.I.'s English department.
Heather Smith, Administrative Assistant
(317) 791-5924
hsmith@uindy.edu
[biography]
Prior to joining CELL as an administrative assistant, Heather Smith was a children's department manager. She attended IUPUI for two years and now plans on finishing her education at the University of Indianapolis with a degree in elementary education.
E. Lynne Weisenbach, Executive Director
(317) 791-5911
weisenbach@uindy.edu
[biography]
Dr. Lynne Weisenbach has been the dean of the School of Education at the University of Indianapolis since 1993. In addition to her role as dean, she currently serves as executive director of CELL. Dr. Weisenbach began her career in education as a Department of Defense teacher at a kindergarten in England, later taught at several other schools at a variety of levels, and spent a year as Scholar-in-Residence at The George Washington University. Recently, she completed a term on the executive board of American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). She is immediate past president of the Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education (AILACTE). Dr. Weisenbach serves on the board of directors for the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC), the Education Workforce Development Committee for the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce and on the advisory board for the Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) Program at the University of Notre Dame.
Sharon Wilkins, School Change Facilitator
(317) 714-6206
swilkins@uindy.edu
[biography]
With more than 30 years of experience in public education, Sharon joined CELL as a school change facilitator with the high school transformation work. She has been a teacher at the high school and middle school levels, a high school principal and central office administrator. As a high school principal in Indianapolis and education director for high schools in Seattle, her work focused on creating and supporting high schools as equitable communities of learning for all students and adults.
David Wintin, High School Conversion Coordinator
(317) 791-5708
dwintin@uindy.edu
[biography]
David joined CELL as a coaching coordinator for high school transformation. He spent the previous year as the small learning communities coordinator at Arsenal Tech High School working to develop small schools. He taught biology and physical education at Maconaquah, Tri and New Palestine High Schools and earned his B.S. from the University of Indianapolis and M.A. from Ball State University. David currently is working on his Ed.D. in educational leadership at Indiana University.
Susan Zapach, Fellow
(317) 788-3776
szapach@uindy.edu
[biography]
Susan Zapach joined CELL as a fellow and has worked on building leadership capacity for education transformation, improving the achievement of substance-impacted children and standards-based and differentiated instruction. A former instructor in the School of Education, middle school teacher, and remedial reading tutor, her major areas of interest are special education and literacy.
Zora Ziazi, Research Associate
(317) 791-5705
zziazi@uindy.edu
[biography]
Zora joined CELL as a research associate. She has extensive knowledge and background in designing research and research methods and has worked on various research projects pertaining to education and schools for more than 15 years. She also has a background in developmental psychology. Zora obtained her Ph.D. in family and child ecology from Michigan State University with an emphasis on positive youth development.
Consultants
In addition to our staff, CELL utilizes the expertise of a number of people involved in the field of education. The combined skills of the consultants allow CELL access to a wide range of resources relevant to today's educational concerns.
Daniel Baron
[biography]
Daniel Baron has spent more than 30 years working in public, private and Native American education, pre-K through college, as a teacher, coach, whole school change facilitator and curriculum developer. Daniel is a founder of the Harmony School in Bloomington, Indiana as well as the senior fellow of the National School Reform Faculty. For the past 15 years, Daniel's work has focused on providing professional development to school districts and equity-based projects across the country, including partnerships with CELL, the Small Schools Coaching Collaborative, the Coalition of Essential Schools, the Rural Schools and Community Trust, and ATLAS Learning Communities. He is a teaching and learning coach for the Manual High School campus in Indianapolis.
Leonard Burrello
[biography]
Leonard C. Burrello is Professor of Education, Chair of the Educational Leadership Program and Executive Director of The Forum on Education at Indiana University. He currently is studying school improvement in rural schools within a distributive leadership framework and consulting with the Gates Initiative on Small Schools for the University of Indianapolis in the Indianapolis Public Schools.
Diana Daniels
[biography]
Diana Daniels is the president of the National Council on Educating Black Children, an organization focused on improving assessment, academic rigor and relevant instruction to prepare African American students for a competitive global society. Diana shares her expertise locally in her work as a teaching and learning coach at Arlington and Broad Ripple High School campuses in Indianapolis.
Peter Gerber
[biography]
A founding partner of the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida-based EdDesigns Group (EDG), Pete Gerber is Senior Advisor of Young Audiences and Special Advisor to the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education. He was the founding executive director of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Education Foundation and founder-advisor of the South Florida Annenberg Challenge. He also served as the first education program director of The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and was the first staff director for the National Council on Education Research, a federal policy board. He held senior staff positions at the U.S. Office of Educational Research and Improvement and played a leading staff role in the National Commission on Excellence in Education that issued A Nation at Risk in 1983. He held faculty and administrative positions at Kauai Community College and the Washington-Baltimore Campus of Antioch College.
Barbara Gillenwaters
[biography]
After 36 years of experience in K-12 education, Barbara joined CELL as a consultant for the start-up and implementation of the New Technology High School model in Indiana. Prior to her work with CELL, she taught and served as an administrator at both the middle and high school levels, worked at the district level coordinating professional development, and directed secondary education and the Office of School Transformation for Indianapolis Public Schools. Dr. Gillenwaters taught curriculum, assessment and instruction for over 15 years at Indiana Wesleyan University and is an Indiana Ambassador for the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA CASI).
Megan Howey
[biography]
Megan Howey currently serves as the director of the Harmony Education Center's AmeriCorps program. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Megan moved to Indianapolis in grade school. She graduated with dual undergraduate degrees in business administration (management and human resources) and psychology. She will complete her master's degree in I.U.P.U.I.'s Urban Principal's Program in May 2007 and envisions a long career supporting youth in achieving their dreams.
Sir Dexter Hutt
[biography]
Sir Dexter Hutt is the executive head of the Ninestiles Federation in Birmingham, England. The Federation is made up of the Ninestiles School, a 1500 student comprehensive school and two other secondary schools - Waverly and The International School; all of which have been recognized for significant transformation and student achievement under Hutt's leadership. Hutt is also a commissioner for the Commission for Racial Equality. He was knighted in 2003 for services to education. Hutt is working with CELL on the University of Indianapolis/United Kingdom Leadership Collaboration - a partnership focused on data-driven school improvement.
Bob Pearlman
[biography]
Bob Pearlman has been a nationwide leader of educational reform efforts and is currently the director of strategic planning for the New Technology Foundation in California. He has been a leader in building coalition organizations that bring together educators and business and community leaders to support education reform.
Kaaren Rodman
[biography]
Kaaren Rodman is a retired foreign language teacher from North Central High School in Indianapolis. She was active in the Washington Township Education Association and chaired many of its minority affairs committee. Kaaren serves on the Mayor's charter school board, as well as on the site visit team.
David Scott
[biography]
David Scott is a British and Scottish school inspector from the United Kingdom. Scott is working in tandem with Sir Dexter Hutt and CELL on the University of Indianapolis/United Kingdom Leadership Collaboration to bring promising and proven practices from across the globe to improve education in Indiana, including site visits, conferences and a study tour trip to the U.K.
Glenn Singleton
[biography]
Fifteen years ago, Glenn Singleton founded Pacific Educational Group, Inc. in California to support families in their transitions within and between K-12 and higher education. His company now addresses systemic issues of educational inequity by providing guidance to school districts on how to meet the needs of underserved students of color. Singleton is partnering with CELL and IPS in sharing information from his book, Courageous Conversations About Race: A Strategy for Achieving Equity in Schools.
Nancy Sutton
[biography]
Nancy Sutton serves as a consultant with CELL's New Tech initiative, having recently retired as the initiative's director. Previously, Nancy was director of the Small High Schools Network in Colorado, and an assistant superintendent and high school principal in the Denver Public Schools. Nancy worked in IPS from 1987 to 1996 as supervisor of guidance and counseling, director of pupil personnel services and later as principal of Northwest High School.
Tim Wise
[biography]
A noted author and activist on race and education issues, Tim Wise has trained educators as well as corporate, government, media, health care, and law enforcement leaders on eliminating racism from their organizations. Wise is working with CELL and Indianapolis Public Schools on managing race and cultural issues in today's classrooms.
