The
Ray.Taylor Team of Skilled and Experienced Associates:
Rossi
Ray-Taylor, Ph.D.
Karen Cross, M.P.A.
Ellen
Daniel, M.A.
Celestine Hart, M.B.A.
Jennifer Hein, M.S.
Nora Martin, Ph.D.
Patrick (Rick) O'Neill, M.A.
Karen Schulte, Sp.A.
Mirah Carmichael, M.A.
Courtney Cogburn, M.S.W.
Tiffany Griffin, M.A.
Lumas Helaire, Ph.D.
Kimberly Freeman, M.A.
Mathis Taylor
Janis
Willliams
Rossi
Ray-Taylor,
Ph.D.
President and CEO
Rossi
Ray-Taylor is the President and CEO of Ray.Taylor and Associates,
a private consultancy that provides program evaluation services,
planning, professional development, administrative and management
counsel to a national client base. She is the former Executive
Director of the Minority Student Achievement Network, a national
coalition of 25 suburban school districts committed to eliminating
the gap in achievement among students. Dr. Ray-Taylor was
also an affiliated consultant with Public Sector Consultants,
a Michigan based corporation that provides strategic counsel
to state and local government, among other clients.
Rossi
Ray-Taylor has been featured speaker for a number of national
audiences including the Annenberg Conference on High School
Achievement Gap at Brown University and the American Youth
Policy Forum conference for policy makers on Capitol Hill
along with numerous other national conferences and has provided
staff development and consulting services to several school
districts. Her articles about lessons learned
about eliminating the achievement gap and challenges of high
achieving school districts appear in The School Administrator
(January 2005) and Journal of Staff Development (Spring 2006). Dr.
Ray-Taylor was Superintendent of Ann Arbor Public Schools and
prior to that Deputy Superintendent for Lansing Public Schools. Her
professional background includes curriculum development, program
evaluation, testing system design and validation.
Rossi Ray-Taylor is a proven innovative educator with
a long track record in the academic, business and research
sides of education.
Dr. Ray-Taylor holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees from
Michigan State University. Her Doctorate of Philosophy in Educational
Psychology with a specialty in learning and cognition and in
measurement and evaluation is also from Michigan State.
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Karen
Cross, M.P.A.
Senior Associate
Ms
Cross’ expertise
is in the areas of project management, program and budget development,
job and skills analysis, and training needs assessment. Her
experience includes leadership coaching and training, strategic
planning, group facilitation, cross agency planning and collaboration,
governance and policy development, marketing and public relations,
policy analysis and non-profit development and leadership.
Ms Cross holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Care Administration
and Planning and a Masters degree in Public Administration.
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Ellen Daniel, M.A.
Senior Associate
Ms
Daniel’s
areas of expertise includes adolescent literacy training, achievement
gap strategies, writing for publication, editing, diversity
issues in schools, school reform/school turnaround, teambuilding,
school district demographic planning, governance and policy
development and human resource management.
Ms
Daniel’s
career includes being the former board president and vice-president
for Ann Arbor Public Schools; she is a member of the district
Middle School Review Committee, the Regional Alliance of Healthy
Schools leadership team, the District High School Boundary
Committee and was selected as Scarlett Middle School Teacher
of the Year 2007-2008.
Ms
Daniel’s
has completed a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Marymount
College in Tarrytown, New York and a Master of Arts with Teacher
Certification from the University of Michigan.
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Celestine Hart, M.B.A.
Senior Associate
Ms
Hart has experience in the areas of supervision, risk management,
and policy writing and procurement in the public and private
sectors. Ms Hart’s
educational credentials include a Bachelor of Science degree
in Agriculture and Natural Resources and Packaging and a Master
of Business Administration degree from Michigan State University.
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Jennifer Hein, M.S.
Senior Associate
Ms
Hein’s administrative career includes many years as
a high school assistant principal and as Director of Special
Education where she conducted a major system review and led reform
of special education programming. She has initiated and
implemented Professional Learning Communities at two of the largest
high schools in Michigan; Ann Arbor Huron and Ann Arbor Pioneer
High Schools. Working on comprehensive school reform, Ms.
Hein steers the Adolescent Literacy Leadership and Design Team.
Ms Hein completed her Master of Science degree in Education and
is a Ph.D. Candidate in Educational Leadership.
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Nora Martin, Ph.D.
Senior Associate
Dr.
Martin has experience in the areas of survey research, data
analysis and statistics, writing for publication, editing,
learning disabilities, and methodology for teaching students
with special needs, ways to motivate youngsters, stress prevention
and parental/family involvement. She has particular expertise
in methods for motivating reluctant learners, brain research
as it relates to learning, test taking skills, learning styles,
diversity concerns and development workshops which foster positive
human relations.
Dr.
Martin is a Professor Emeritus and the Eastern Michigan University
Coordinator for the Comer Schools School Development Program.
She is also a member of the National Faculty for Yale University.
Dr. Martin holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
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Patrick
(Rick) O’Neill, M.A.
Senior Associate
Mr.
O’Neill has expertise in the areas of leadership coaching
and training, strategic planning, group facilitation, editing,
school improvement planning, teacher evaluation and coaching,
teambuilding, school building staffing, and school building level
administration for elementary and middle schools. Mr. O’Neill
has central office and building administrative experience and
skill in school redesign and start up.
Mr.
O’Neill’s career includes serving as an elementary
and middle school principal, the president of the Ann Arbor Administrators’ Association,
and chairperson of the Selection Committee for District Planning
Services Consultants.
A
graduate of University of Michigan, Mr. O’Neill
has earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a Master
of Arts degree in Elementary Education.
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Karen
Schulte, Sp.A.
Senior Associate
Ms
Schulte is a Senior Associate at Ray-Taylor and Associates
and is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Special
Education at Eastern Michigan University. Her work as
a consultant includes working with high school students with
emotional impairments and learning disabilities. Also, as a
staff development consultant she worked with teachers and administrators
in ten school districts involving issues of school improvement,
school-wide change processes, student achievement and effective
classroom instruction techniques.
Ms Schulte has strong skills in the areas of writing for publication,
conflict resolution, leadership coaching and training, strategic
planning, professional development planning and design, group
facilitation, special education program review, planning and
audits, editing, diversity issues in schools, school improvement
planning, teacher training and coaching, teambuilding, keynote
and public speaking, and has served as a member of North Central
Audit Teams.
Ms
Schulte holds a Bachelor’s degree in the area of Special
Education for Students with Emotional Impairments, a Master’s
degree in Special Education for Students with Learning Disabilities
and has attained an Educational Specialist degree in the area
of Administration and Supervision in Special Education.
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Mirah
Carmichael, M.A.
Associate
Ms Carmichael has expertise in the areas of program evaluation,
survey research, data analysis and statistics, crisis management,
conflict resolution, leadership coaching and training, professional
development planning and design, group facilitation, curriculum
design and alignment, curriculum audits, diversity issues in
schools, teacher training and coaching, teacher evaluation, teambuilding,
school equity audits, process mapping/ process engineering.
In
addition to her work with Ray.Taylor and Associates she holds
the position of Diversity Coordinator with Northwestern University’s
Master of Science in Educational program and New Trier High School
(IL) working to revise and develop culturally responsive curriculum
and methods of instruction. She consults on issues related
to cultural competency across the district.
Ms Carmichael has completed a Bachelor of Science degree in
Secondary Education and a Master of Education degree in Learning
Sciences at Northwestern University.
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Courtney Cogburn, M.S.W.
Associate
Ms
Cogburn’s areas of expertise include survey research,
data analysis and statistics, writing for publication, group
facilitation, diversity issues in schools, program evaluation
and assessment of instruction and instructional practices. Ms
Cogburn is the author and co-author of numerous
reports, papers and publications and has taught undergraduate
courses. She has received international study scholarships
for work in the Caribbean, Ethiopia and South Africa.
Ms
Cogburn, a graduate of The University of Michigan, holds a Master
of Social Work degree and is a doctoral candidate in the area of
education and psychology.
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Tiffany Griffin, M.A.
Associate
Ms
Griffin possesses expertise in the areas of experimental research,
survey design and research, data analysis and statistics, writing
for publication, and editing. Ms. Griffin has published
research on various issues related to Black adolescents and college
students including motivation, gender and racial discrimination,
and how Black students connect their sense of self to the academic
context. Additionally, Ms. Griffin has conducted comparative
research on Blacks in the United States, Brazil, South Africa
and the Caribbean.
Working
as a research associate at Boston Medical Center, Ms Griffin
examined the relationship between HIV, Hepatitis C and alcoholism.
She has received various fellowship awards for her work and
has research interests in the examination of intersections
of race, class and gender in higher education contexts.
Ms Griffin holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and
Communications, a Masters degree in Psychology, and is currently
a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate studying Social Psychology at the
University of Michigan.
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Lumas Helaire, Ph.D.
Associate
Dr.
Helaire is co-founder and co-developer of THREADS, a mentoring
program that matches undergraduate males to middle school boys
addressing development and transitional issues in adolescence.
Dr. Helaire has expertise in the areas of strategic planning,
professional development planning and design, curriculum design
and alignment, and teambuilding. Dr. Helaire has completed
a Master of Science degree in Developmental Psychology and
a Ph.D. in Education and Psychology from the University of
Michigan.
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Kimberly Freeman, M.A.
Office Manager and Administrative Assistant
Ms
Freeman’s
areas of experience include survey research, data analysis
and statistics, crisis management, conflict resolution, group
facilitation, community organization and engagement, graphic
design and computer graphics, teambuilding, cross agency planning
and collaboration, office management, and non profit development
and leadership.
Ms
Freeman’s career includes work in the area of financial
services and accounting, college student advising, counseling “at-risk” undergraduate
students and specializes in the area of supervision and monitoring
visits of children from displaced families with their non-custodial
parents.
Ms
Freeman holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master
of Arts Degree from Eastern Michigan University.
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Mathis Taylor
Research and Design Assistant
Mathis Taylor is a Research and Design Assistant at Ray.Taylor
and Associates.
Mr. Taylor’s
experience includes survey data compilation and summary, on
line research and graphic design.
Mr. Taylor attends Saginaw Valley State University and is completing
a Bachelor of Science degree in Graphic Design.
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Janis
Williams
Business and Operations Manager
Ms
Williams’ areas
of expertise include school budgeting and financial management,
crisis management, conflict resolution, labor contract review
and analysis, labor negotiations spokesperson, leadership coaching
and training, community organization and engagement, teambuilding,
school district demographic planning, office management, small
business development and leadership, employee evaluation design
and support, school system accounting, and small business accounting.
Ms
Williams’ career
includes work in purchasing and supply management. She has
held positions of Supervisor in Transportation, Bond Committee
Coordinator, President of the Association of Schools and Community
Service Administrators, served as a contract negotiator for
the Ann Arbor Public Schools, was a liaison for United Way
of America and has organized several spiritual and tutorial
programs within her church and the community.
Ms
Williams attended various institutions of higher learning where
she has studied business and computer education.
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