Letter from the Incoming Executive Director
Dear Members of VASCD,

Words cannot express the honor, humility, and gratitude I feel to be given the opportunity to serve you as VASCD’s new Executive Director.

THANK YOU does not begin to describe my appreciation for your trust in me to serve educators across the Commonwealth and for the work that we will all engage in moving forward. Thank you for your commitment to the students of Virginia and for making this a great place to live, work, and learn.

The honor to serve you is something I do not take lightly. My promise to you is that I will work as hard as I can to ensure students across the Commonwealth receive the experience they deserve. My promise to you is that educators in Virginia will receive the high-quality programs and services they’ve come to expect from VASCD and that our organization will sustain a culture of growth and excellence. Understanding the value of education from my humble background, my life’s work is rooted in preparing every student at every level for what’s next. Our students deserve educators who are experts in teaching the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to be future-ready and life-ready no matter what path they choose.

For our educators to deliver on the promise of the highest readiness levels, they will need high-quality experiences in learning environments rooted in trust, communication, and relationships. Students across the Commonwealth have and deserve expert teachers who inspire, school leaders who engage, and an entire community committed to their success.

Our path to develop VASCD 3.0 begins with leaders who listen, engage, give thoughtful consideration and evaluation, and empower teams through deep support. The most effective leaders know and understand how to build and extend trust, and to earn your trust, you will see and hear from me early and often. As Dr. McCullough concludes her term as Executive Director and we work closely together to transition roles, I will be fully present to listen and learn from you. I will host several in-person meetings (as allowed under COVID restrictions) and virtual events for us to get to know one another and to give me an understanding of what’s on your mind and in your heart.

Over the coming weeks, I will be sharing my entry plan that outlines how I will work with intention to engage with as many members of VASCD as possible, evaluate our existing efforts throughout the Commonwealth, and empower you to act with impact. Thank you, once again, for the opportunity to serve you. I am excited to get started on our work together!

With sincere gratitude and appreciation,
Chris Jones
Meet our 2022
Team, Impact, & Leadership Award Winners!!
2022 VASCD Leadership Award

VASCD selects one recipient for the Educational Leadership Award each year. This award recognizes an outstanding educational leader who exemplifies the best qualities of learning, teaching and leading. It is a person who not only demonstrates true understanding of curriculum, assessment, and instruction and how each component influences the whole learning experience for students but has also influenced other educators to improve their teaching and learning. 
Dr. Melissa “Missy” Hensley
Principal of Harrisonburg High School
in Harrisonburg City Public Schools
Missy has been the Lead Learner in every school she has served. She gives her best every day and expects nothing less from her staff. She is a talented leader and cultivator of leadership and excellence from students and those with whom she works. Her passion for instruction creates great determination to improve teaching and learning. This passion, along with her sense of humor, respectful manner, and openness to new ideas create an ability to develop strong connections to adults and students. These connections are the foundation for her work to drive innovation and change toward a new vision of education. Her push for change includes creating innovative and collaborative work and learning spaces, hands-on – minds-on pedagogy, teacher autotomy, student ownership, and a mindset around learning by doing. Missy balances these practical approaches to change with data informed decision-making. As data driven has become a major focus in some schools, Missy has remained student driven but data informed. 

While maintaining a laser focus on learning, Missy never ignores the more fundamental needs of her students. Currently at Harrisonburg High School, Dr. Hensley has initiated structured Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum and professional development to support both teachers and students who live with the effects of trauma. Often Harrisonburg High School students come from violent and war-torn regions of the world, many without the social support most of us take for granted. Ms. Hensley is tireless in her effort to provide for students who may feel abandoned after the loss of families, friends, and homes. And while many educators are just now, as a result of the pandemic, turning to SEL as a focus, Ms. Hensley has been leading efforts for years. At her previous school, Central High School, she was instrumental in designing and supporting a counseling room, designed with both comfort and safety as guiding principles, where students could take a positive time-out to regain their composure. She also led professional development on recognizing and responding to post-traumatic behaviors to a room full of skeptical teachers who were married to traditional methods of behavior management. Her ability to persuade those teachers and disrupt outdated methods illustrates just one example of how her commitment to students is unwavering.
2022 VASCD Impact Awards

These are individuals who are examples of great teaching or who offer exemplary support to teachers. In addition, they are individuals who continue to grow, to learn, and to mentor others. 
Robert “Peyton” Anderson
Coordinator of Professional Learning
for Chesterfield County Public Schools
As PBL specialist, Peyton developed institutional capacity for PBL through recruitment, training and coaching. While working as a Learning and Design Specialist, he supported multiple programs that deepened learning for teachers and leaders. As Coordinator of Professional Learning, he launched an employee badging program to ensure the annual professional development requirements would build capacity of all teachers across all 65 schools. In addition, his efforts to strengthen his department with additional staff allowed the division to redesign their annual CCPS Leadership Academy to be conducted virtually and to provide virtual professional development opportunities to all teachers.
Sierrah Chavis
Curriculum Specialist/Instructional Coach at Samuel P. Morton
Elementary School in Franklin City Public Schools
Sierrah provides coaching for K-5 teachers on curriculum and best teaching practices. She also coordinates cross-content integrated opportunities for an instructional program that may include reading, writing, math, science, social studies, STEM, service learning, and/or instructional technology. While working with Centura College she created a program for young women with low self-esteem. She is someone who displays a passion for educating students and has proven herself to be a remarkably responsible, organized, tenacious and confident leader. 
Abigail (Abby) French
Teacher at Frederick County Middle School
in Frederick County Public Schools
Abby is a 7th grade social studies teacher who focuses on the whole child. As an instructional leader across the Commonwealth, Abigail regularly presents on equity and high quality project-based learning practices. She has presented at various conferences. A strong supporter of the value of micro-credentials as a means for advancing personalized professional growth, she has taken advantage of this opportunity provided by VASCD. A leader on a national level, Abigail has been recognized as an ASCD Emerging Leader and routinely engages with colleagues across the nation related to providing students with high quality and authentic learning opportunities. 
Debbie Gilbert
Principal of Parry McClure Middle School
in Buena Vista City Public Schools
Debbie is a life-long learner who actively seeks opportunities to increase and improve her skills as an educator and leader. Throughout her career she has maintained high expectations for everyone, including herself, and has mentored many educators. She has engaged her community to impact students through donations of everything from a pick-up truck, to appliances, to birthday cakes for students to have at school and to take home. She has worked to assure that every student and his/her family within the whole division, not just her school, have a Thanksgiving dinner. At her own school she established a school store, “The Giving Tree” where students can shop -- at no cost -- for clothing, shoes and personal hygiene items.
Andrea Ross
Director of Federal Program
in Caroline County Public Schools
Andrea’s leadership has enabled the county to receive approximately $10 million in grants during her time within the division. She forms and shepherds collaborative teams through grant writing and demonstrates great attention to detail throughout the process. Ms. Ross’ effective use of communication, collaboration critical and creative thinking has resulted in additional funds to allow Caroline County to provide enhanced programs such as the Caroline Summer Academy/Extravaganza; staffing to support before/after school programs & tutoring; professional development for staff; funds to support family engagement; and many other needed items. In addition, Ms. Ross provided leadership for the adoption of a decentralized Family Engagement Program by establishing a family engagement coordinator at each of the five schools in Caroline County. Her vision was to increase emphasis on engaging and empowering families to support their students academically, behaviorally, and socially-emotionally. She built on these efforts by creating a community bus known as the Caroline Cruiser which goes out to families, sharing free educational resources, school supplies, clothing, books, learning kits, and connecting parents, families and students to wrap around services to ensure all learners are successful in school and in life.
Laura “Paige” Swaim
Special Education Teacher at Western Branch Middle School
in Chesapeake Public Schools
Paige teaches students with Autism in a self-contained model. All of her students have significant developmental, academic, and social needs. While many may find teaching students with special needs challenging, Ms. Swaim is a devoted teacher who has a strong passion to work with students who require time and endless attention. She works to provide individualized educational opportunities for each of her students. She has created sensory hallways within the school and a sensory garden on its grounds to enhance the experiences, not only of her students but of all students in the school.
Sundar Thirukkurungudi
Teacher at the Academies of Loudoun
in Loudoun County Public Schools
Sundar, or Mr. T, teaches MultiVariable Calculus; mentors Engineering Research; advises the VEX Club and QuartNet; serves as CLT Leader of Integrated Science I and II; is the New Teacher Coach for Integrated Science I and II, Math 9 and Engineering Research; is the Equity Lead; and serves as the PTSA secretary. Sundar possesses a depth of knowledge and dedication to his students. He is a master of inquiry-based pedagogy and always utilizes a student centered and student driven approach to instruction in all of his courses. He regularly meets students before and after school for additional help. During the pandemic closures, he opened up his house for students to continue their research projects.
Jennifer Wall
Administrator of Mathematics Curriculum
in Montgomery County Public Schools
Jennifer is an outstanding leader in all aspects of curriculum, instruction, and assessment, and she works continuously to increase her knowledge and hone her skills. Over the past five years, her positive influence on teachers and students has grown steadily as she transitioned from coaching the math teachers at two schools to supporting all 300 MCPS math teachers. Each year she hosts a full-day meeting with a team of math teachers from each grade level or course to collaboratively develop, review, refine and expand pacing guides, assessments, chapter guides and resources. Her expertise in curriculum development and instructional practices in all areas led to her being selected to lead development of the Alternate Model for Professional Studies (AMPS) program developed to which provides ongoing training and support to enable provisionally-licensed teachers to complete their professional studies requirements through job-embedded learning.
2022 VASCD Team Awards

These awards are presented to a group of educators who work collaboratively to achieve specific goals to create, implement, or improve programs that have a high impact on student and/or educator learning. The work completed by these teams exemplifies successful collaboration and reflects best-practice research and evidence. These teams influence, impact, and inspire others to implement innovative practices that improve student learning and/or professional practices.
The Common Formative Assessment Team
from Henry County Public Schools
This team has created, verified, and updated common formative math assessments; revised math curriculum documents, created pacing guides, and connected a large number of resources to these documents; and begun creating performance assessments to provide opportunities for students to apply their mathematical knowledge and skills. In 2020, acknowledging the impact that COVID had on student learning, the team began working to create diagnostic formative assessments (DFAs) for each Standard of Learning in order to have a better understanding of where each student was within their learning. Each assessment item correlates directly with specific performance-level descriptors to accurately pre-assess and/or assess students’ readiness levels. DFA documents allow for students to track their own progress in learning. Additional professional development for classroom teachers was provided on how to use DFA data to create differentiated lesson plans, including small group instruction based on students’ needs.
Algebra, Functions, & Data Analysis Collaborative Learning Team
from Garfield High School
in Prince William County Public Schools
Shannon Miller, David Postlethwait, Jeanette Newman, and Neal Oakman implement innovative and highly effective practices to ensure that students are engaged in aligned, relevant, and rigorous learning experiences. This collaboration has resulted in positive changes in pass rates, as well as more student discussion about math and engagement in the classroom. This team has worked especially hard to shift the mindset of many of their students, who based on previous experience, believe that they are “not very good at math” by providing more project-based and student centered instruction that makes real world connections for their students. Not only have they impacted instruction at their own school, but they have also shared their expertise within the division and have been selected to present at state and national conferences. 
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