Marie Shipley
marieshipley@mindspring.com

Marie Shipley (Vice President)  is an educator with over twenty years of administrative experience who now serves as Vice President of Jim Shipley & Associates. Marie served as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, supervisor of management development and Director of Professional Education in a large school district.

As Director of Professional Education, Marie was responsible for the training needs assessment and facilitation of training for over 17,000 employees. Her responsibilities included the development and coordination of all Baldrige aligned leadership development programs, including an administrative assessment center and a certification program for assistant principals seeking principalships. She was also responsible for the coordination of a Baldrige aligned Beginning Teacher Program and an innovative university partnership providing specialized training to prepare aspiring teachers to be high performing in a Baldrige-based classroom environment.

At the university level, Marie directed a Masters level Educational Leadership Program in Florida and had the opportunity to align curriculum to provide educational leadership candidates with a Baldrige framework for use as they assumed roles as principals.

Marie served as a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Examiner and as a Senior Examiner for the Florida State Sterling Quality Award. She also served as a commission member on the Florida Education Standards Commission, setting standards for teachers throughout the state. She has served as a consultant to state boards of education and has conducted numerous district management development reviews and Baldrige-based system assessments.

Marilyn Wescott
learningsystems@mindspring.com

Marilyn Wescott  (Director of Product Design and Development/Senior Consultant) is a former elementary teacher with Masters’ Degrees from the University of South Florida in both Early Childhood Education and Educational Leadership. She has over twenty years school-based experience at the elementary school level. In addition she has taught the Quality Management and Baldrige Audit courses for the Executive MBA program at the University of South Florida. Before joining Jim Shipley & Associates, Inc. Marilyn was employed by Pinellas County Schools as a Quality Training Specialist and has served for two years as an Examiner for the Florida Sterling quality award process.  She has spent the past ten years working with teachers, principals, and district administrators as well as teacher association governance, management, and staff across the nation who are interested in using the Baldrige Education Criteria as a framework for continual school improvement. She presently serves as the Baldrige in Education Initiative Coach for the State of Illinois.

Mike Anderson
manders@zoominternet.net

Mike Anderson (Consultant) has over 31 years of educational experience, retiring in 2005, as a teacher, quality director, and facilitator.  Mike earned a BA in Mathematics and began teaching Mathematics at the high school level in 1974.  In 1986, Mike earned a Masters in Business Administration.  He has taught all levels of high school math from remedial mathematics to Advanced Placement Calculus in his career.  In addition, Mike has coached many high school varsity sports teams.

Mike has been distinguished for his teaching many times over the years.  He has been selected as his school district’s Teacher of the Year, one of seven distinguished as State of Ohio Mathematics Teachers of the Year, and one of three selected in Ohio to receive the Martha Holden Jennings Master Teacher Award.

Over the past few years his role has been evolving from a part time Quality Director to full time Director in his last three years.   Mike served as a practitioner, facilitator, trainer, and an examiner for Ashland City Schools. He is a 5 - year examiner for Ohio Partnership for Excellence (Ohio’s Baldrige-based award system) and served as the point person for Ashland City Schools in preparing and receiving the Ohio Partnership for Excellence level II and III award.  Mike has been a presenter at many state and national Quality conferences and has been a consultant for Jim Shipley & Associates since the fall of 2000.

Chris Collins
collinscc@earthlink.net

Chris Collins (Senior Consultant)  is a national Baldrige in Education consultant and coach.   Chris has had 26 years of public school system experience including ten years as an administrator and supervisor of Florida’s Pinellas County Schools, Quality Academy. Pinellas provided a particularly challenging arena with over 110,000 students, 155 schools and approximately 18,000 employees. 

Chris has focused on the use and application of the National Performance Excellence Criteria for over fifteen years.  Her leadership helped to support the change process leading to three Florida Governor’s State Sterling Quality Awards, one for the school district and two for individual elementary schools.  10 years of the hands-on, day-to-day practical, and strategic effort required to transform a large metropolitan school system gives Chris a strong background in what it really takes “to get the job done” in public education.  She has worked with both instructional and non-instructional employees.

Chris routinely provides strategic consultation to district, state, and national leadership teams.  Chris represented The National Alliance of Business and The American Productivity and Quality Center by serving as the state coach for Maryland’s Baldrige in Education Initiative for two years.    Her work has included coaching state Education leaders and decision makers in North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Maryland and New Mexico.  She continues to coach key state system leaders in this national effort.  Chris has particular interest and experience working with state and local school boards.  Her national work promotes and supports the use of the Baldrige criteria as an essential ingredient for high performance in Education. She is a frequent presenter at state and national conferences on quality and educational reform.  She is co-author of the book, "Going to Scale with TQM," published for the US Department of Education.

Chris has a master’s degree in Research, Measurement and Statistics from the University of South Florida.  During the past 15 years Chris has served as an adjunct professor for National Louis University, coordinator for the Tampa Bay Deming Study Group, Director for the Tampa Chapter of the Association for Quality and Participation, and Director and Vice President of the Tampa Bay Total Quality Network. 

Karen Edwards (Consultant) taught elementary school for 25 years, retiring in 2004.  Karen worked for the last eight years of her career, teaching first grade at Georgia O’Keeffe Elementary School in Albuquerque New Mexico, one of two Baldrige in Demonstration Schools (BIDS) in the state.  Karen has worked for JSA in the summer and during her breaks for the last five years of her teaching career.

She has special expertise in training schools on the development and use of Short Cycle Assessments. She is very experienced in using assessment to create a “learning” system that involves and engages the students. She can be instrumental in helping teachers see the “power” of the assessment system and how it can create positive changes in the classroom.

Karen graduated from the University of New Mexico with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education. She has 45 hours in early childhood education at the post graduate level.  She has had several articles about her success in the classroom printed in national and local publications, presented at three state and three national conferences on Quality in Education. A video featuring her students “The T.Q. Kids, A Baldrige-Based Classroom” is used in national trainings on Baldrige.

Alicia Hatch
ahatch@yucca.net

Alicia Hatch (Consultant)  is a former elementary Special Education teacher with 17 years experience. During this time, she worked with a diverse student population ranging from severe/profound to gifted and talented. She has served on numerous committees and leadership teams. Alicia has been an examiner for the Quality New Mexico Award process which is modeled after the National Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award.

Alicia has served as the District Quality Coordinator for Portales Municipal Schools in Portales, New Mexico from 2003-2005. In this capacity she helped the District deploy a systems approach to continuous improvement. From this position, she brings experience in working with students, classrooms, teachers, goal teams, school boards and administration.

Alicia received her Bachelors degree in Special Education (K-8) at Eastern New Mexico University. She also holds an Early Childhood license.

Cheryl Kmiecik
ckmiecik@earthlink.net

Cheryl Kmiecik (Consultant) has over 20 years of educational experience as a teacher, administrator, and facilitator.  She began her teaching career in a small K - 8 building in the suburbs of Chicago, where she initiated a Home Economics program.  Cheryl received her Masters Degree in Educational Administration in 1985 and became a principal in the fall of 1985.   From 1985 – 1999, Cheryl was a school administrator in the suburbs of Chicago.  She began to learn about the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and the quality principles of improvement in the early 1990’s and immediately began to implement what she learned by using quality tools with her teaching staff to help with decision-making processes.   From 1997 – 99, she was a principal in Palatine, IL, a district that received the state Baldrige based Lincoln Award and later received the national Baldrige Award. While in Palatine, Cheryl learned the many methods of Baldrige implementation at the district level.

In 1999, Cheryl moved to New Mexico to become involved in their statewide initiative to use the Baldrige framework for improving schools and districts.  She became a member of Strengthening Quality in Schools (SQS) and in her capacity as the Assistant Manager, attended a wide variety of training sessions, assisted with the implementation of the SQS initiative, and provided instruction and consultation on the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and quality principles to SQS school sites. 

As principal of Georgia O’Keeffe Elementary School (GOK) in Albuquerque, NM since the 2001 – 2002 school year, Cheryl brought the necessary expertise to establish Georgia O’Keeffe as a model Baldrige school.  She has been the catalyst to move GOK forward with its understanding and deployment of the Baldrige criteria to improve the schools performance in processes and student academics.   Based on these experiences, Cheryl brings “real life” examples and knowledge to her training and consulting sessions. 

Carole McGurk
ctmcgurk@earthlink.net

Carole McGurk - (Senior Consultant) shares her knowledge of Baldrige processes,  trainer/ consultant skills, and classroom experiences with educators at every level.  Carole is an educator with 30 years of experience in Pinellas County Schools, Florida, as a teacher and quality trainer.  She was one of six national coaches selected by the National Baldrige in Education Initiative (BiE IN) to create and support the use of the Baldrige Criteria for the state of New Mexico. In this role, Carole worked with key business and education stakeholders to support and deploy a preK-20 statewide Baldrige based education system.

Carole brings both the academic knowledge and the practitioner's perspective to working with teachers and principals in building classrooms and schools for high performance. Carole's return to the high school classroom from 2001-2003 increased her classroom application of Quality principles and expanded her portfolio of best practices with students. Carole has worked with a variety of diverse learners, including non-English speaking students and students with exceptional education needs, provided the opportunity to practice and improve many learning processes. As a former high school teacher and middle school teacher, Carole understands what it takes to involve students in owning their learning as well as aligning the classroom to school, district and state standards and expectations. She was a classroom teacher who was recognized as "a teacher who truly walks the talk" in using the Baldrige criteria to build a high performing classroom.

Carole holds a BA from the University of Florida, an MA in Public Administration-Political Science, and another Master's in Educational Leadership from the University of South Florida. She has been a Governor's Sterling Quality Award Examiner for the State of Florida and has been a presenter at many state and national Quality conferences.

Cay Moore
cay_moore@comcast.net

Cay Moore (Senior Consultant) has dedicated 23 years leading children to learning.  Cay has taught at both the middle school and elementary school levels, served on numerous school leadership committees and councils, and worked as a district gifted program facilitator.

In 1998, Cay began teaching at Georgia O’Keeffe Elementary School in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  At O'Keeffe, Cay was introduced to a system to improve student performance.  As Cay transformed her teaching system to a learning system, she finally witnessed a true change in her students and their achievement as they became active learners.  She joined Jim Shipley and Associates in 2002 to share her enthusiasm for using the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence with educators around the nation. Cay is one of the JSA consultants partnering with the NM Public Education Department, coaching priority schools to use continuous improvement principles.  She also serves as a State Examiner for the New Mexico State Quality Award process which is modeled after the National Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award.

Janelle Gates
janelle1026@earthlink.net
 

Janelle Gates (Consultant) comes to Jim Shipley and Associates with 30 years of experience as an educator, 12 as a classroom teacher and 18 as a school leader.  She is a proud graduate of the University of Texas at Austin where she received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees and currently serves as a member of the Advisory Board and Panel of Judges for the U.T. Center for Performance Excellence.

In 1998, while serving as principal of Gattis Elementary School, part of the Round Rock Independent School District, Janelle began her quality journey via the Greater Austin Quality Council or GAQC.  Janelle was privileged to serve as a panel member at the Texas State Quality Awards in July 2002 and as a keynote speaker at the Executive Launch of the University of Texas Center for Performance Excellence in January 2003.  Her past service includes two years as the K-12 chairperson for the GAQC, work as a member of the Board of Examiners, and awareness and award process training both for the GAQC and Austin Community College.  

Rick Sulewski, Ph.D.
rsulewski@earthlink.net
 

Rick Sulewski (Senior Consultant) has 30 years of experience as an educator and has earned a Ph.D. in educational administration and curriculum/instruction. Rick's extensive career in education includes experience as a teacher, building administrator, and superintendent. He has had many rewarding experiences leading and supporting school districts on quality journeys. His educational paths incorporated processes involving strategic planning, operational planning, deployment and training. Rick has enjoyed many results-based experiences that raised district graduation rates, improved student achievement, and provided parental choice options.  Rick’s experience as an educator, who has served at all levels, has provided him with diverse perspectives on the current challenges facing educators.

Rick participated in the National Alliance of Business, Baldrige in Education initiative (BiE-In). He has served as an Examiner in the Ohio Quality Award program that uses the National Baldrige Award Criteria and assessment process. Rick facilitates school and district deployment of a systems approach to continuous improvement and serves as a quality improvement system evaluator.

Nadine Torres
nttorres@msn.com

Nadine Torres (Consultant) has had experience at the elementary level in the state of New Mexico for the past seven years and  received her Baldrige training through the New Mexico initiative Strengthening Quality in Schools, SQS.  Nadine worked in a School in Need of Improvement (SINOI) in Albuquerque and was the site’s quality coach and served on the school’s deployment team.  She continued using quality tools and a systems approach in her classroom when she relocated to the Taos area.  In Taos she served as a district quality coach by assisting the board, administrative council, schools, and parent groups with training in the Baldrige Framework.

Nadine received her Bachelors degree in Elementary Education at the University of New Mexico.  She also received her ESL and Bilingual endorsements in 2003.

She completed the Cooperative Educational Administration Internship program through UNM receiving a Masters degree in Educational Leadership.  Nadine is currently in training to become a Baldrige Examiner through Quality New Mexico.  A focus of her current work to train and support staff in New Mexico’s priority schools.

Denise Woody
dwoody36@comcast.net

Denise Woody (Senior Consultant) is a product of public education having attended five elementary schools as her family moved to five western states during her early childhood years.  As a high school student in Arlington, Virginia she became interested in the teaching profession and was encouraged by several memorable teachers. 

Denise earned a Bachelor's Degree in Education from Radford University; then went on to the University of Virginia to work on a Master's Degree in Family Services. She began her teaching career in Virginia in 1975 at the upper elementary/middle school level.   Denise received several Teacher of the Month honors and has received a Teacher of the Year award for her work in program development with inter-city students and their families. Her work in education spans 26 years and includes experience teaching at all levels with a focus on elementary regular and special education.  Denise’s most recent classroom experience is with gifted students at the elementary level.

Denise received training in the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence through the Strengthening Quality in Schools Initiative in New Mexico where she currently resides.  She enjoyed six years of classroom implementation using Baldrige in the classroom and working as a practitioner with Jim Shipley and Associates prior to leaving the classroom in January 2001. Currently, Denise works with educators around the country, in support of using the Baldrige Criteria for improving learning systems to support student success.

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Jamie Bell
jbellnm@comcast.net

Jamie Bell (Consultant) retired after teaching at the elementary level for over 30 years and is now a JSA consultant. Her last 15 years as a teacher was at Georgia O’Keeffe Elementary, one of the two Baldrige in Demonstration Schools (BIDS) in New Mexico. Her first training in the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence principles began over 10 years ago through the Strengthening Quality in Schools Initiative. After applying the Quality model in her classroom and working with her school’s goal and leadership teams, Jamie became a true believer in how Quality principles can benefit and further develop children’s learning. Along with her classroom work Jamie helped train numerous new staff members and has been a presenter at both state and national Quality conferences.  Jamie’s efforts helped to not only move her school into a learning system with proven processes for improvement, but also to be recognized as one of the benchmark schools for Quality Education in the state.

 Jamie graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Eastern New Mexico University and a Masters degree from the University of New Mexico.  Both degrees are in elementary education with endorsements in language arts, science, and social studies. Post-masters education has included work in science and technology.  She has received recognition for teaching excellence at the state and local levels, as well as by Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico.

Marlane Parra
marlane@zianet.com

Marlane Parra (Consultant) is a speech/language pathologist, retired from the public schools with 31 years of experience at the elementary, mid-high and high school levels.  Marlane served on the Leadership Team and Continuous Improvement Team at Mesilla Park Elementary in Las Cruces, New Mexico, one of two Baldrige in Demonstration Schools (BIDS) in the state. She developed a K-5 writing system for the school, including aligned rubrics and instructional materials.  Marlane received her training in the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence through the Strengthening Quality in Schools Initiative in New Mexico where she currently resides.  She has been an examiner for the Quality New Mexico Award process, which is modeled after the National Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award.

 Marlane earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in the Speech Honors Program at Iowa State University and a Master of Science Degree in Communication Disorders from Colorado State University.  For the past two years she has coached schools in the development of departmental, grade level, and classroom academic systems, as well as the implementation of PDSA in the classroom.