Presidential Dream Course

Dr. Linda C. Tillman is Professor Emerita of Educational Leadership, School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she taught courses in school leadership, central office leadership, and research design. A former public school educator with teaching and administrative experience, Dr. Tillman is a nationally recognized scholar and leader in higher education. Her research and scholarship is focused in three primary areas:  school leadership, the education of all children and particularly African Americans in K-12 education, and culturally appropriate research approaches.  Her work has been featured in top tier educational leadership and education policy publications including Educational Administration Quarterly, Journal of School Leadership, Educational Researcher and Review of Educational Research. Most recently she served as editor in chief of the SAGE Handbook of African American Education, co-editor of the Handbook of research on educational leadership for diversity and equity (with J.J. Scheurich) and co-editor of Identities and the educational leadership of Black women in the USA (with S.D. Horsford). Additionally, her Culturally Sensitive Research Framework has been cited and used across disciplines including educational leadership, teacher education and in medical/health care research including research on diabetes in African Americans by researchers at the University of California-San Francisco and research on pregnancy and childbearing among young African American women by researchers at the University of Minnesota.

In 2004 Dr. Tillman was recognized for her research and scholarship when she received the Early Career Contribution Award from the Committee on Scholars of Color in Education (American Educational Research Association). Dr. Tillman has served in numerous leadership positions in the American Educational Research Association (AERA), including Vice President of Division A (Administration, Organization and Leadership) (2006-2010), Social Justice Action Committee (2002-2006) and is currently chair of the Journal Editors Publication Committee. She also served as Associate Director for Graduate Student Development and Director of the Barbara L. Jackson Scholars for the University Council for Educational Administration from 2006-2009. Dr. Tillman is also a nationally recognized mentor who has advised numerous doctoral students and junior faculty. In 2009 she received the Jay D. Scribner Mentoring Award from the University Council for Educational Administration.  Dr. Tillman serves as an educational consultant and conducts program evaluation for state departments of education, colleges of education and research organizations including the U.S. Department of Education,  Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL), Emory University, Temple University, the Ohio Board of Regents, and The Ohio State University. In 2009 Dr. Tillman received a Kenan Research Leave to conduct a national study of the leadership practices of African American principals.  Dr. Tillman was appointed to the Indiana University School of Education 2015 Blue Ribbon Committee by President Michael A. McRobbie.

Alicia Grunow is a senior partner and co-director of the Center for Networked Improvement at Carnegie. In that role, she oversees the core capacities that support all Networked Improvement Communities: analytics, developmental evaluation, design and development, program technologies and improvement research.

Alicia completed the Improvement Advisor program at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in 2011 and currently leads the Foundation’s efforts to adapt these methodologies for the field of education. Towards this end, she teaches improvement workshops and coaches improvement teams both in and outside of the organization.

Before coming to Carnegie, Alicia was an instructor in Stanford’s Teacher Education Program (STEP), where she taught practices to support the academic achievement of English language learners. Her research at Stanford used a range of quantitative methodologies to examine policy issues regarding English language learners. Alicia received her B.A. in psychology from Reed College. She has a master’s degree in economics and a doctorate in educational administration and policy analysis from Stanford University. Before graduate school, she taught for seven years in transitional bilingual and dual language elementary school programs in both Denver and New York City. She completed the Bilingual and ESL Teachers Leadership Academy at Bank Street College. At the core, she will always identify as a practitioner.

Amanda Datnow is Professor of Education Studies and Acting Associate Dean in the Division of Social Sciences at UCSD. She was chair of the Department of Education Studies at UCSD from 2008-2013. Her research focuses on educational reform, particularly with regard to issues of equity. Her goals are to both improve policy and practice in education and advance theory about educational change. She has conducted prior studies on data-driven decision making, comprehensive school reform, and on the intersection of gender and educational reform. She was recently co-principal investigator of the Pathways to Postsecondary Success study, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She is now conducting a new research project which focuses on teachers’ use of data for differentiated instruction, funded by the Spencer Foundation.

Datnow completed her doctorate at UCLA and held former appointments at USC, University of Toronto, and Johns Hopkins University. She is author or editor of seven books and over 60 articles and book chapters. She recently published a new book (with Vicki Park) entitled Data-Driven Leadership, published by Jossey-Bass. Datnow serves on boards of several organizations that relate to her goals of improving equity and opportunity in public education.