School Success Partners is a team of experienced educators with experience in charter leadership, technology, online learning, pedagogy and special education.
Dr. Glenda Aleman
Dr. Glenda Aleman has worked extensively in the charter school system for over 15 years. She was a founding teacher of the Los Angeles Leadership Academy, designed professional development opportunities for local charter schools, developed and directed a teacher induction program at PUC Schools, and she was the founding principal of Arts in Action Community Charter School and subsequently the Executive Director for nine years. Glenda began her education career as a bilingual elementary teacher in the Watts area of Los Angeles. Glenda continued her higher education by completing a Doctorate in Urban Schooling at UCLA’s School of Education and Information Studies. Glenda served as an Assistant Professor at CSU, Dominguez-Hills’ Schools of Education, and as an adjunct professor at UCLA Extension and National University, teaching credential courses, supervising student teachers and interns in the field.
Dr. Michelle Miller
Dr. Michelle D. Miller is a Professor of Psychological Sciences and President’s Distinguished Teaching Fellow at Northern Arizona University. Dr. Miller completed her Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and behavioral neuroscience at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research interests include memory, attention, and the impacts of technology on learning and on the mind.
Dr. Miller co-created the First Year Learning Initiative at Northern Arizona University and is active in course redesign, serving as a Redesign Scholar for the National Center for Academic Transformation. She is the author of Minds Online: Teaching Effectively with Technology (Harvard University Press, 2014), and she has written about evidence-based pedagogy in scholarly as well as general-interest publications including College Teaching, Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Conversation. She is currently working on a book for the University of West Virginia Press tentatively titled Remembering and Forgetting in the Age of Technology.
Dr. Miller is passionate about helping instructors create more effective and engaging learning experiences, and helping students become more effective learners, all through the application of principles derived from cognitive psychology and learning sciences.
Stephani Sarnoski, M. Ed.
Stephani Sarnoski, M.Ed. has a Master’s Degree in Special Education and Graduate Certificates in Disability Policy and Practice and Early Childhood Intervention. She has developed and instructed online University courses in Disability and Special Education Law as well as various other Special Education topics. Her experiences in the field of Special Education spans 15 years with birth through college age students of various abilities.
Rick McDonald, M. Ed.
Rick began in education as a bilingual 6th grade teacher in 1991 at Hurley Elementary School in La Puente, CA. As the Technology Coordinator for the school, Rick became interested in technology in education. He started building CDROMs, websites and bulletin board systems in the early 1990’s, having grown up programming on the TRS-80. After working in the Los Angeles area for Disney, Spelling and other entertainment companies and advertising agencies, Rick became a community college teacher at Kingwood Community College in Texas in 1998. As the technology coordinator, Rick developed taught classes and developed curriculum in multimedia, the World Wide Web, desktop publishing and video, including the college’s first online student and online class on HTML. Continuing in education at Coconino Community College in Flagstaff, Rick helped develop an online program and videoconferencing classes doing everything from instructional design to network and server administration, completing 13 years at the college as Director of Technical Services. Rick has spoken at numerous education conferences and helped K12 and post secondary schools with their technology.