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
manders24@verizon.net

Mike Anderson (Consultant) brings to JSA over 31 years of educational experience as a teacher, quality director, and facilitator prior to his retirement from Ashland City Schools in 2005.  Mike earned a BA in Mathematics and 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 recognized for his teaching many times over the years.  He was 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.

Mike’s duties evolved from a part time Quality Director to full time Director in his last three years. These duties included 2 days of training for all K-12 staff, as well as extensive training with the district's support staff which included transportation, food service, custodial, and maintenance services. 

He served for four years as an examiner and two years as the team leader for Ohio’s State Baldrige award system.  This involved examining organizations against the Baldrige criteria, including their metrics.  These organizations included schools, a large hospital network, and a multi-million dollar business.  In addition, he served as the lead for Ashland City Schools in preparing and receiving Ohio’s State Baldrige 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.

Karen Edwards
redwards105@comcast.net
 

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 30 years of educational experience as a teacher, administrator, and consultant.  She began her teaching career in a K - 8 building in the suburbs of Chicago.  In the summer of 1985, Cheryl received her Master’s Degree in Educational Administration, and in the fall of 1985 began her career as a school administrator in the suburbs of Chicago, IL. and also served as an administrator  in Albuquerque, NM.  She studied the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence along with the quality principles of improvement in the early 1990’s and immediately implemented what she learned with her teaching staff to help with decision-making and school improvement processes.  Her experiences include being a principal in Palatine, IL, a district that received the state and national Baldrige Awards.   

In Albuquerque, NM, Cheryl brought the necessary expertise to establish Georgia O’Keeffe Elementary as a model Baldrige School with deployment of the Baldrige criteria to improve the schools performance in student academics and processes.  As a model school, Georgia O’Keeffe Elementary in Albuquerque, NM was visited by educators from across the nation who were interested in applying the Baldrige Criteria to improve their schools and districts.  Cheryl and other Georgia O’Keeffe staff were presenters at the National Quality in Education Conference in 2002 and 2003.  Based on these experiences, Cheryl brings “real life” examples and knowledge to her training and consulting sessions. 

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.

Rick Sulewski, Ph.D.
rsulewski@bex.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 (Senior Consultant) has been in education for 12 years.  Her teaching career started in the Albuquerque Public School district.  She started her Baldrige training through the New Mexico initiative Strengthening Quality in Schools (SQS).  Nadine's experience includes teaching, administration, training and coaching.  She has been a site and district quality coach, led deployment teams, assisted school boards, district teams, schools, and parent groups with training in the Baldrige framework.  Nadine Torres has been a JSA consultant since 2005.  Currently, Nadine works with 9 districts in the state of New Mexico on implementing the continuous improvement model.

Nadine received her Bachelors degree in Elementary Education with ESL and Bilingual Endorsements from the University of New Mexico.  In 2004, she completed the Administration Internship program through UNM receiving a Masters degree in Educational Leadership.  Nadine has also been a State Baldrige Examiner through Quality New Mexico. 

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.

Marlane Parra
marlane@zianet.com

Marlane Parra (Consultant) is a special educator, 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, which was one of two Baldrige in Demonstration Schools 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.  She has been awarded Fellowship of the New Mexico Speech/Language and Hearing Association.  For the past three years she has worked with administrators, principals, department and grade level teams, and classroom teachers/instructional specialists in the use of a systems approach to continuous improvement in districts and schools.