Advisory Council
The Chalkboard Project advisory council is a group of education and business leaders from throughout Oregon who provide ongoing counsel and feedback on key education policy issues, as well as on specific Chalkboard initiatives.
Morgan Anderson
Education Manager, Intel Corporation
Morgan Anderson is the Education Manager for Intel's Oregon site and is responsible for donations, outreach and education policy for K-12 schools and universities. She oversaw $3.2 million in education donations in 2006 and managed programs that impacted nearly 25,000 children throughout the state. Morgan joined Intel in 1997 working in community relations and transitioned into her current role in 2000. A native Oregonian, she completed her undergraduate degree at Concordia University and holds an M.B.A. from George Fox University. She sits on a number of non-profit boards and is chairing State Superintendent Susan Castillo’s Business Advisory Team.
Jerry Colonna
Superintendent, Beaverton School District
Jerome Colonna is Superintendent of the Beaverton School District. He has worked in school administration for the past 22 years with the Eugene, Corvallis, and Redmond School Districts. Prior to entering K-12 administration Mr. Colonna was a classroom teacher in Alaska; San Jose, California; and Corvallis, Oregon. He currently serves as Vice Chair of the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory Board, is current Past President of the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators, is a member of the American Association of School Administrators Executive Committee and the Oregon Literacy State Steering Committee. Mr. Colonna was Oregon’s Superintendent of the Year in 2001. His daughter, Ann, works for Oregon State University's Food Innovation Center.
Ed Dennis
Deputy Superintendent, Oregon Department of Education
Vickie Fleming
Superintendent, Redmond School District
Randy Hitz
Dean, Graduate School of Education, Portland State University
Dr. Randy Hitz is the Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Portland State University. His administrative experience includes two other dean positions (eight years each at the University of Hawaii and Montana State University) and work in the Oregon Department of Education as the Early Childhood Education Specialist. His teaching experience ranges from preschool and kindergarten to graduate education. Dr. Hitz has published over 50 professional articles on topics related to educational policy and curriculum. He has served on a wide variety of state and national boards and committees, including the teacher licensing boards of Montana and Hawaii. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education and he is Chair of the American Association for Colleges of Teacher Education. Though he has been an administrator for over 20 years, he still sees himself primarily as a teacher and an advocate for quality education at all levels.
Sandy Husk, Advisory Council Chair
Superintendent, Salem-Keizer School District
Dr. Sandy Husk became the Superintendent of Salem-Keizer Public Schools in July 2006. Her leadership has resulted in the implementation of a district-wide strategic plan with an accountability system for all schools and departments. In addition, she has worked closely with the School Board to adopt a policy governance system that allows a laser-like focus on student achievement.
Prior to assuming this position, Dr. Husk served five years as the Director of Schools for the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System in Clarksville, Tennessee, where her influence resulted in consistent gains in student achievement.
She previously served as Superintendent for Mapleton Public Schools in Colorado. She also served as the Executive Director of Learning Services in Westminster, Colorado; Principal of an Elementary and Alternative Middle School, Staff Development Coordinator, Elementary School Counselor, and Teacher.
Dr. Husk earned her Ph.D. in Administration, Curriculum & Supervision from the University of Colorado, Denver; her M.A. in Guidance and Counseling from the University of Colorado, Boulder; and her B.S. in Elementary Education from the University of Georgia, Athens.
Dan Jamison
Superintendent, Sherwood School District
Dan Jamison currently serves as superintendent for the Sherwood School District in Sherwood, Oregon. Since accepting this position in 2005, the district has, under his leadership, significantly increased student achievement and successfully passed a $98.0 million bond. He is currently working with the staff and community to develop Sherwood’s 2020 Vision, a process to identify the community’s collective vision of quality education for Sherwood students.
Dan is a passionate believer in public education. He has worked as an educator for the past 30 years, teaching at the middle school and high school levels. More recently, he has served as principal at all three levels in the Greater Albany School District. Dan earned a B.A. in history at Washington State University, followed by an EdM at Oregon State University. An avid believer in contributing to his community, he actively serves in a variety of capacities, including Rotary, Sherwood Family YMCA, the Chamber of Commerce, and Innovation Partnership.
Todd Jones
Teacher, West Linn High School
Todd teaches history and economics at West Linn High School. This is his eleventh year in public education. Prior to teaching, he worked nearly five years in government relations and public relations, including stints with Northwest Strategies and Metropolitan Group, and six years in state government, serving as an assistant to Secretary of State Phil Keisling and State Treasurer Randall Edwards. He lives in West Linn with his wife Chris, and his daughters Ellie and Katie.
Nori Juba
School Board Member, Bend-La Pine School District
Jim Mabbott
Superintendent, Northwest Regional Education Service District
Jim Mabbott has served Oregon students for almost 30 years as a teacher, principal, and superintendent. He began his educational career as an elementary teacher in 1980, embarking on his administrative career in 1985 as a school principal. Jim has held the positions of superintendent in the Carus School District, Assistant Superintendent of Washington County ESD, Superintendent of Riverdale School District, and is currently serving as Superintendent of Northwest Regional Education Service District which serves over 110,000 students in twenty school districts. Jim is the president-elect of the Oregon Association of Education Service Districts.
In addition to managing a four-county region with 600 ESD employees, Jim teaches on-line university courses in Educational Administration and serves on the Oregon Education Enterprise Steering Committee, a statewide P-20 partnership helping to drive improved communication and programming across the state in areas of School Improvement and technology.
Annette Mattson
Government Affairs/Public Policy, PGE
Annette Mattson works for Portland General Electric in Government Affairs and Public Policy. Her job entails working with local and county governments in the areas of economic development, franchise agreements, land use and transportation. She has represented PGE as Chair of the North Clackamas County Chamber of Commerce and currently chairs the Clackamas County Economic Development Commission. In her life as a elected official, Annette has served as a school board member in the David Douglas School District in outer east Portland, since 1995. David Douglas is a high growth district with over 10,000 students, a 73% free and reduced lunch rate, and one-quarter of the students speak a language other than English at home. Annette is also the President-elect of the Oregon School Boards Association (OSBA) and will become President in January 2009. The OSBA represents 1400 school board members in all K-12 districts and Community Colleges across the state. Her past volunteer work includes the Coalition for School Funding Now! and her local water district budget committee. Annette moved to Oregon at the age of 20 after growing up in Minnesota. She completed her B.S. in Human Development at Warner Pacific College after her daughters Alyson and Amanda were born, while continuing to work full time. Her stepdaughter Sarah has graduated from Portland State University, stepdaughter Tiffany has graduated from the University of Oregon, daughter Alyson has graduated from Oregon State University, and Amanda is a student at OSU.
Ford Morishita
Teacher, Clackamas High School
C. Ford Morishita is a biology teacher at Clackamas High School in Clackamas, Oregon, and was the 1997 Oregon Teacher of the Year. He also received the 1994 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching. Mr. Morishita’s work includes contributions to the K-12 Science Education Standards and Assessment Committee for the Oregon Department of Education, and two consensus study committees for the National Research Council on Testing Teacher Candidates and Evaluation of the NBPTS (National Board for Professional Teaching Standards). In 1996 he served as President of the Oregon Science Teachers Association. Recently he concluded his term as founding member of the Teacher Advisory Council for the National Research Council. Mr. Morishita received his M.A.T. in Biological Sciences and B.S. in Biology from Lewis and Clark College. He currently lives in Milwaukie, Oregon with his wife Jolene, daughter Alyssa, and son Keean.
Karen Phillips
Director, Oregon Small Schools Initiative
Karen Phillips is the Director of the Oregon Small Schools Initiative, a program of E3 – Employers for Education Excellence with the generous support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Meyer Memorial Trust. She came to E3 from the North Clackamas School District, recognized as a leader in education improvement in Oregon. There she worked in a range of leadership positions, most recently supervising six secondary schools, a professional-technical skills center, and an alternative program. Phillips secured and managed an $840,000 federal Small Learning Communities Implementation grant, and facilitated the design and implementation of high school restructuring for the district. Phillips was a math teacher in her early career, having earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from Portland State University. She is licensed in the state of Oregon in teaching and educational administration.
Kitty Powell
Regional Director of Innovation, Providence
George Russell
Superintendent, Eugene School District
George Russell is the Superintendent of the Eugene Public Schools in Eugene, Oregon. Before becoming superintendent in 1998, he served as the executive director of human resources for the school district. Mr. Russell previously worked with school districts in San Diego and Seattle as assistant superintendent and as human resources director for the Oklahoma City Public Schools. He also worked for Lane County government as director of human resource and management services, county treasurer, and county clerk.
Deborah Sommer
Deborah Sommer, Oregon’s Superintendent of the year in 2006, has a 37 year career in public education, mostly in Oregon. Sommer has taught at every level of schooling -- elementary, middle, secondary and at the university. She has been a teacher, staff development specialist, vice-principal, principal, curriculum director and school superintendent. She has worked in large and small school districts as well as suburban and rural communities and currently teaches administrative licensure classes at Portland State University in the areas of curriculum development and school district finance/facility and operations.
She has extensive experience in curriculum development, including power standards, curriculum mapping and curriculum audits. She is a specialist in relationship building and conflict resolution, including staff relationships, principal and staff issues, contract negotiations, building parent and community support for schools, boundary changes, bond measures and budgets.
Sommer holds a masters in education and a doctorate of education with emphasis on curriculum and instruction.
She lives in Newberg, Oregon.
