About
Curriculum design, professional development, and advanced learning systems
I've spent more than two decades close to this work — as a classroom teacher, curriculum designer, and district leader in gifted and advanced learning. That proximity shapes everything about how I consult.
What I've consistently observed: students identified as advanced often don't experience appropriate challenge in classrooms, and the conditions that develop advanced thinking are rarely consistent across a school. This isn't a people problem. It's a systems problem.
Identification matters, but instruction determines whether potential develops.
Approach
My approach holds two things at once: close attention to what's happening in individual classrooms, and a view toward what needs to change at the system level. The work stays near practice — time with teachers, student work, real instructional decisions — while building toward coherence that doesn't depend on any one person.
Expertise
Systems and Curriculum
Designing advanced learning systems that hold up in classrooms
Curriculum design for depth, transfer, and authentic application
Aligning programs to the learners in front of us
Expanding access without lowering expectations
Instruction and Practice
Building rigor through questioning and student thinking
Translating gifted education theory into daily practice
Designing professional learning that shifts classrooms
Working alongside teachers for real-time implementation
Credentials and Experience
Author
Shakespeare Amazes in the Classroom ( Routledge)
Crimes Against Potential (Substack)
University-affiliated professional learning
Belin-Blank Center for Gifted Education, University of Iowa
University of St. Francis, Adjunct Instructor Gifted Learner Endorsement
Elected board member — Illinois Association for Gifted Children
20+ years across classroom teaching, district leadership, curriculum design, and professional learning in gifted and advanced education