North: Regional Coordinators
Mark Shinn
Dr. Shinn currently is the Project Director for I-ASPIRE North and is a professor of School Psychology at National Louis University. From 1999-2003, he was a professor of Special Education at the University of Oregon. From 1984-1999, he was a professor of School Psychology and Director of the University of Oregon School Psychology Program. He received the 2003 Jack Bardon Award from Division 16 (School Psychology) from the American Psychological Association for Distinguished Service. The award, in part, read, “for more than two decades, Dr. Shinn has assessed effective assessment tools for the diagnosis, placement, and remediation of learning and behavioral problems.” He currently serves a one of the six members of the Technical Review Panel for the US Department of Education, Office of Special Education (OSEP) National Center on Student Progress Monitoring.
Dr. Shinn has taught pre-service courses on contemporary educational assessment, including Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) and Problem Solving, since 1980 to general and special education teachers, school psychologists, and administrators. He has consulted with school districts and state departments of education in 38 states and has contributed over 50 articles and 20 book chapters to the literature on using CBM in a Problem-Solving model. Dr. Shinn has been a principal investigator on more than $4.1 million in federal training and research grants since 1988.
Barb Curl
Barbara Curl, Ph.D. has had over 30 years of experience working in publlc school systems. She has been a special education LD/BD resource and self-contained teacher at both the elementary and secondary levels. She has been a director of special education and support services in two suburban districts and has worked as a school psychologist for ten years. Dr. Curl has been very interested in the RtI model for over ten years as she has seen the need for school reform in all past work experiences. Her specific areas of interest are improving reading instruction across 3 tiers of support and data-based decision making. Dr. Curl has done extensive training at the local and state levels. She was trained in Educational Psychology from National Louis University and also has Ph.D. from Northwestern University from the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department, with a specialty in reading and cognitive psychology.
Madi Phillips
Madi Phillips, PhD., NCSP is a Regional Coordinator for I-ASPIRE North, an OSEP and Illinois State Board of Education funded project designed to support implementation of Problem-Solving in a 3-Tier model, including RtI. She has spent the last 13 years as a school psychologist and consultant for urban, suburban, and rural school districts that included students from diverse socio-economic, racial, and ethnic backgrounds. Her focus in these districts was ensuring effective academic and behavioral programming through data-based decision making. She received her doctoral degree from the University of Oregon in school psychology.
Christine Martin
Christine Martin is a Regional Coordinator for I-ASPIRE North and a Problem Solving Coach for Indian Prairie CUSD 204. She has worked as a school psychologist in pre-K through high school at both the special education cooperative and district levels and has considerable experience with implementation of data based decision making and the problem solving model, including RtI. Christine received the Illinois School Psychologist Association Practitioner of the Year award in 2006.
Pamela M. Radford
Pamela M. Radford, Ph.D. is currently working as a Regional Coordinator for the I-ASPIRE grant to support the implementation of a Problem Solving Model, including Response to Intervention in North Shore District 112. Dr. Radford also serves as the Problem Solving Services Coordinator for the Northern Suburban Special Education District (NSSED) and has been coaching NSSED schools in the implementation of a Problem Solving model for 6 years. In 2006, she received an award of recognition for her consultative work with NSSED schools in the implementation of a Flexible Service Delivery Model to improve student outcomes. Her training and consultation experience include problem solving and data based decision making, functional behavioral assessment and behavior intervention plans, Curriculum Based Measurement, and Direct Instruction curricula.
Benjamin Ditkowsky
Benjamin Ditkowsky is the regional evaluator for I-ASPIRE. He received his Ph.D. in the area of Special Education from the University of Oregon in 2002. Ben has taught courses in instruction, characteristics of special education students, and assessment. In addition, he has supervised and evaluated pre-service teachers, coached teachers in the field, provided staff development in data-based, decision-making, and he has collaborated with school staff in grant writing activities. Ben has worked as an educational consultant, a behavior specialist, and as a classroom teacher in both general and special education classrooms. Finally, in addition to being the regional evaluator for IASPIRE, Ben is currently working as the Director of Assessment, Intervention and Research in Lincolnwood School District 74.
Christine Malecki
Christine Malecki is the proud supervisor of the ASPIRE North - NIU Regional Outreach Coaches. Christine is an Associate Professor in the School Psychology Program at Northern Illinois University. She has been involved in problem-solving in the schools since her days as a school psychologist in Iowa. Christine consults and trains extensively in the schools, maintains an active research program, and enjoys training future school psychologists at NIU.
Mary Miller
Mary Miller has been a School Psychologist in the Illinois public school system for the past 29 years. Currently, she is a Regional Coordinator for IASPIRE North and the District Problem Solving Coach for Community Unit School District #220 in Barrington, Illinois. Her experience includes early childhood, elementary and secondary assignments. As District Problem Solving Coach, she is assisting CUSD #220 in the implementation of a three tier problem solving model.
Ruth Poage-Gaines
Ruth Poage-Gaines has been a school psychologist for 15 years in an Illinois public school setting. After receiving her Type 75 Administration certificate, Ruth is currently the Psychologist/EIS Coordinator for the Special Education District of McHenry County and an I-ASPIRE North Regional Coordinator. Her experience of the last 6 years include training, implementation, and consultation in the areas of response to intervention, problem solving model, data based decision making, positive behavior intervention and support (external coach training), curriculum based measurement, and the AIMSWEB and SWIS data systems. Ruth was acknowledged by the Illinois School Psychologist Association in 2008 as a finalist for the "Practitioner of the Year" award.
Kristen Smith
Kristen Smith is a Regional Coordinator for I-ASPIRE North, an external coach for Mendota Elementary School District 289, and a program coordinator for LaSalle/Putnam County Educational Alliance for Special Education. She has worked as a special education teacher and special education administrator at both the primary and secondary levels. Kristen regularly evaluates staff and programs, provides staff development in a wide variety of topics including problem solving and data based decision making, and supports teachers in their use of data to guide instruction.
Terry Schuster
Terry Schuster, currently a PPS Supervisor and School Psychologist at Ogle County Educational Cooperative (OCEC). Served as a School Psychologist for 12 years at Winnebago Special Education Cooperative, and for the last 18 years at OCEC. For four of those years he was also Early Childhood Coordinator at OCEC, and for seven years was an adjunct instructor of second year practicum students for Northern Illinois University's School Psychology program. Currently assigned to the Oregon District #220 as School Psychologist for grades 7-12, he participates on school improvement teams and the data analysis team for the district, and consults with other local districts in developing their own RtI systems.
The vast majority of his experience has been within small to medium districts in largely rural settings. In the last few years his interests have focused on the unique needs and obstacles of RtI implementation at the secondary level. He has also been a presenter of the Level 1 RtI training module series developed by IASPIRE.
Through his experiences he has concluded that Illinois's commitment to RtI as an "Every Ed." process is a reasonable and largely achievable goal. It is his belief that we do many things right - and an RtI framework is not so much a process of rebuilding educational structures - but is more often a matter of reorganizing existing resources, paying closer attention to data, and developing more efficient decision-making processes.
Sue Gallagher
Sue Gallagher is a Program Administrator with LaGrange Area Department of Special Education (LADSE) where she oversees professional development, school psychology, and early childhood services. Sue received her Ph.D. in school psychology in 1996 from the University of Oregon. She has worked in Oregon, Illinois, and Iowa as a school psychologist, staff development trainer, and special education coordinator. This year, Sue is an external RtI Coach for LaGrange Highlands District 106 as well as a Regional Coordinator for the near west suburbs of Chicago.