Curt Adams is the Founder and former Director of San Miguel Tulsa and past Research Director of the Trust Project.  He is currently an assistant professor in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Oklahoma where he conducts research on social phenomena in school organizations.

Alison is dedicated to helping people reach their full potential and demonstrates that commitment in both her professional and personal life. The Mayor's Commission on the Status of Women honored Alison with the Pinnacle Award in 2007 for significant contributions toward improving the status of women in the community and for taking risks on behalf of others. Her current community involvement includes serving on the board of directors for the Oklahoma State Human Resources Council, The Tulsa Ballet, and Planned Parenthood of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma. Alison also serves on the Tulsa Reaches Out Advisory Committee and the Fine Arts Advisory Board for Tulsa Public Schools. She is a member of the 23rd class of Leadership Oklahoma. Alison and her husband Mark Wilson reside in Sand Springs, Oklahoma and have five children.

Before becoming the Superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools, Dr. Keith Ballard was Executive Director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association (OSSBA).  He has more than 36 years of service in public education.  He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology and Speech from Kansas State University in Hays, Kansas; a Master’s Degree as a Reading Specialist from Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, Oklahoma; and a Doctorate in Educational Administration from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. 

He currently serves as a professor in Educational Leadership at the University of Oklahoma, but is on a leave of absence while serving as Superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools.  In addition, Dr. Ballard currently serves on the State Superintendent’s Advisory Council and is past chairman of the Oklahoma Education Coalition and of the Oklahoma Educational Technology Trust.  Dr. Ballard has also been active for several years with the Oklahoma State Legislature regarding educational issues.  He meets regularly with key legislators and other state leaders to help shape educational legislation and policy.  Dr. Ballard has been honored as being named one of NSBA’s “Executive Educator 100” in 1988, “Who’s Who in American Education” and “Who’s Who Among Top Executives.”

Monica Basu is with the George Kaiser Family Foundation in Tulsa where she works with the foundation’s health care and higher education initiatives and has been there for 2 ½ years.  Her previous experience has been in various management positions in the corporate sector working in the insurance, financial services and telecom industries.  Monica holds an MBA from Duke University.  She is a native of India and speaks seven languages.

Cory Bowman has been working for Penn Program for Public Service since 1991 and for Penn’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships since its inception in 1992. As an Associate Director, Cory helps coordinate the core functions of the Netter Center, particularly developing academic partnerships with schools, non-profits, and communities of faith.  These partnerships emphasize the integration of the teaching, research, and service missions of the University.  His primary focus is the development of University-assisted community schools that are designed to function as centers of education, services, engagement and activity for all members of the community.  This work is anchored by Academically Based Community Service (ABCS) courses, grades K-16+, and incorporates Penn interns, workstudy students, and faculty, staff, alumni and student volunteers. Cory supervises the Agatston Urban Nutrition Initiative, Moelis Access Science program, College Access and Career Readiness program, Community Arts Partnership, Extended Day and Summer programs (which are connected to the school day), and other school and community partnership efforts at Penn. He is a founding board member and was the interim Executive Director of the Sayre Health Center, a 501(c)3 federally qualified health care center that includes the Sayre High School community, the School District of Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania and its Health System, and other community partners and is focused on the joint missions of clinical care, community health promotion and job training.

Dr. Burden has been a psychologist and educator for thirty-six years and has received numerous awards including the Oklahoma State Superintendent of the Year, the University of Oklahoma’s Career Educator of the Year Award and one of the nation’s most Tech-Savvy Superintendents of the Year Award.  She has been recognized as a “difference maker” by the OU College of Education, the Journal Record Woman of the Year program, Tulsa People and the Broken Arrow Ledger.  Women in Communications has honored her as their Newsmaker of the Year and Union with their Benchmark Award. The Boy Scouts of America presented her with the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Service Award for unselfish service to the youth of America. 

Dr. Burden is the chair of the Tulsa Metropolitan Human Services Commission and is helping to coordinate fund raising for the Tulsa Area United Way in the educational division.  She is on the boards of the Community Action Project, the National Conference for Community and Justice, Junior Achievement, the Oklahoma Curriculum Improvement Committee, and the Broken Arrow Chamber of Commerce.  Previously she has served on the boards of the Tulsa Area United Way, Leadership Tulsa, the Metropolitan Tulsa Chamber of Commerce, and the Oklahoma Business and Education Coalition.  She has participated in Leadership Oklahoma, the Educator’s Leadership Academy and is a member of the State Superintendent’s Advisory Council and the United Suburban Schools Association. 

Kevin Burr is currently a fourth-year doctoral student in the Department of Education Administrations, K-12 at the University of Oklahoma.  He is currently the Area Superintendent for High Schools for Tulsa Public Schools.  Prior to that he served as the Executive Director for High School Re-Design for TPS.  He has served for more than twenty years as a high school principal and most recently led high school improvement efforts for the Southern Regional Education Board and High Schools That Work.  He is a nationally recognized presenter for high school reform issues and educational leadership.  He has twice been named Kansas Principal of the Year (KASSP and KFHA) and was a finalist for National Principal of the Year (NASSP) in 2000.  He has also been recognized as a Milken National Educator.  His research interests include urban high school reform, educational leadership, reflective practice in curriculum delivery and professional learning communities.  His work is referenced throughout literature on school reform, the High Schools That Work Newsletter, and published curriculum from SREB.

A Tulsa native, Lamont Cavanagh, M.D., earned his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Oklahoma.  After an I internship in Tulsa, he spent five years as an Air Force flight surgeon and currently is chief of aerospace medicine for the 138th Fighter Wing of the Oklahoma National Guard.  In 2000, he completed a family medicine residency and a sports medicine fellowship at OU-Tulsa.  He joined the clinical faculty of the Department of Medicine in 2001.  He sports medicine activities include serving as tournament physician for the Western Athletic Conference Basketball Tournament and team physician for three universities in Tulsa and a high school in the Tulsa area, and for the Colorado Rockies Baseball A farm club.  He is married and enjoys spending time with his children.

Dr. Gerry Clancy was born and raised in Iowa City, Iowa. He attended the University of Iowa for the majority of his formal education. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry in 1983, completed an American Heart Association Research Fellowship in 1985 and completed his medical degree in 1988 graduating with Alpha Omega Alpha honors.

He continued his residency training in Psychiatry at the University of Iowa and served as that Department’s first Chief Resident in 1992. He began active duty in the United States Air Force in 1992 and was stationed in Texas and South Dakota. While serving in the Air Force, Officer Clancy was promoted to major, graduated from pilot survival school, served as a flight surgeon and flew B1s, B-52s, T 38s, KC 135s and H1 helicopters.

In 1995, Dr. Clancy returned to the University of Iowa as a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Clancy was involved in the leadership of several major initiatives at the University of Iowa including establishing mobile clinics for the homeless mentally ill, mobile teams to provide medical, psychiatric and rehabilitative care for those with severe mental illnesses on a state-wide level and a redesign of chemical dependency services. In 1997 he graduated from the Harvard Executive Program in Health Care Policy and Management.

Dr. Clancy was named University of Iowa College of Medicine Assistant Dean of Students in 1998 and Department of Psychiatry Vice Chair in 1999. In 2000, he added the responsibilities of associate medical director of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Iowa. While at Iowa, Dr. Clancy received 7 major teaching awards from resident physicians and medical students. He was named by the medical students as the graduation speaker for the University of Iowa College of Medicine Class of 1999.

Dr. Clancy was named Dean of the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Tulsa and the Morningside Health Care Foundation Endowed Chair in Leadership in August of 2001. Since that time the Tulsa programs have grown significantly. OU-Tulsa physicians are the primary providers of care to the underserved in northeast Oklahoma. Under his leadership, the medical school has received 5 Blue Cross Blue Shield Champions of Health Awards. Dr. Clancy serves on numerous community Boards in the Tulsa area. His most recent work has been in extending health care to vulnerable and under served populations. He has assisted in the development of a state-wide network of mobile psychiatric teams (PACT teams), developed after-hours free clinics for the poor and 26 pediatric school-based clinics located in disadvantaged areas of Tulsa.

In June of 2006, Dr. Clancy was appointed as President for the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa. This campus has over $ 98,000,000 in new facilities being developed, over 1,500 employees, 1,500 graduate level students and an annual budget of $100,000,000. In 2008, with a $ 50,000,000 gift from the George Kaiser Family Foundation, Dr. Clancy led a successful effort to rename the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Tulsa as the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine. The vision of the nation’s first school of community medicine is to leverage the resources of the medical school to improve the health of entire communities.

Dr. Clancy has received several awards for his work with the mentally ill and the underserved. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill awarded him the Service to the Homeless Award in 1997 and the 1998 Exemplary Psychiatrist Award. He received the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Community Psychiatry Award at the 2002 national meeting in Cincinnati. In 2004, he received the Oklahoma State Medical Association Award for Community Service for the development of a community partnership to improve access to care for the medically underserved. In 2005, Dr. Clancy received the University of Iowa Distinguished Alumni Award – Early Achievement. In September of 2006, he received the Zarrow Families Foundation Award for service to the mentally ill. He was named the Tulsan of the Year by Tulsa People magazine in 2009 for his work on providing health care to the underserved.

Dr. Clancy has published in the basic, clinical and educational sciences. He has written a modifiable electronic medical textbook on Emergency Psychiatry that has been adapted for use in Spain and on US Navy Ships across the world. He continues to work across the country on the development of outreach psychiatric programs for those with refractory severe mental illnesses. He continues to teach students and residents and sees patients regularly

Dr. Clancy has been married to his wife Paula for 24 years. He has three children, Sam age 18, Mary age 15 and Joey age 10.

Jan Creveling began working at the Community Service Council in 1989 and currently serves as the Senior Planner for the Tulsa Area Community Schools Initiative (TACSI).  Her responsibilities include program, resource, and policy development, community mobilization and capacity building, hiring and training of resource center staff, sustainability and communication planning, staffing TACSI committees and collaborating with state, regional and national partners.

Prior to her current position, Ms. Creveling was the Community Service Council’s Consultant to the Metropolitan Human Services Commission providing research and guidance in the development of the local community school concept.  She has also served as the Sr. Planner for Family Support and directed the implementation and management of the Tulsa Alliance for Families collaborative family support/family preservation federal Department of Health and Human Services grant.  She is a founding member and past president of the National Network of Child Abuse Centers.  She holds a B.A. from Oklahoma State University.

Dr. Pamela Fly serves as assistant dean of the College of Education at Northeastern State University, Oklahoma’s largest preparer of teachers.  Prior to coming to NSU as assistant dean, she served as associate dean for the College of Education and Professional Studies at the University of Central Oklahoma and the director of accreditation for the Oklahoma Commission for Teacher Preparation where she worked at state and national levels in the areas of accreditation, standards, and teacher preparation reform.  At the university level, Dr. Fly has worked with candidates at all preparation levels from initial field experiences to student teaching. She believes that field experiences and clinical practice play a vital role in preparation, and has worked to strengthen practitioner involvement, learning activities, and assessment in this area.  Dr. Fly earned her Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma, her M.Ed. from Drury University, and her BS Ed. from Missouri State University.

Ira Harkavy is Associate Vice President and Director of the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships, University of Pennsylvania. As Director of the Netter Center since 1992, Harkavy has helped to develop service-learning courses as well as participatory action research projects that involve creating university-assisted community schools in Penn's local community of West Philadelphia. Harkavy is a member of the Advisory Committee for the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Directorate of the National Science Foundation; the International Consortium on Higher Education, Civic Responsibility, and Democracy (US chair); and the Coalition for Community Schools (chair).  His recent publications include: Dewey's Dream: Universities and Democracies in an Age of Education Reform (Temple Press, 2007), which he co-authored with Lee Benson and John Puckett, and The Obesity Culture: Strategies for Change. Public Health and University-Community Partnerships (London, Smith-Gordon, 2009), co-authored with Francis E. Johnston.

Dr. Kirt Hartzler is assistant superintendent for Teaching and Learning at Union Public Schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has served in this capacity since 2003.

Over the past several years, his research and work have centered on creating smaller learning communities within schools in order to engender greater trust among students, teachers, and parents. His current focus in on restructuring the traditional learning environments across all grade levels to ensure that they are more academically engaging and highly personalized to support our students, our families, and our community.  

He received his bachelor of science degrees in social science and HPER from Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri in 1985. In 1990, he completed his master’s of education degree from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. He later completed his doctorate in education degree from Oklahoma State University in 2003.

Since graduating from Muhlenberg College with a BA in Environmental Studies, Tyler has had extensive involvement in the fields of youth development and education reform.  His experiences include:  Teaching as fellow at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center, Public Allies and Habitat for Humanity AmeriCorps member, Philadelphia Teaching Fellow, spearheading and supervising the PYN carpentry crew worksite, College and Career Access Academic Coordinator and most recently as the director of Health Promotion at Sayre High School.  His work with Educational Pipeline in 2008-2009 as the director of the Penn-Sayre partnership provides a foundation to create the sustaining partnership that engages students from both Penn Medical school, nursing schools and Sayre High school .

Nancy J. Hong is the Assistant Director of the Institute for Innovation and
Entrepreneurship at UT Dallas.  In that role, she is responsible for the coordination, implementation and marketing of the Institute’s wide range of educational and community outreach programs, including the Entrepreneurial Development Series, the Research and New Venture Showcase series and the UTD Innovation Opportunity Camp.   Ms. Hong is a graduate of the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and completed her Microsoft Certification Systems Engineer Program at Southern Methodist University School of Engineering, Advanced Computer Education Centers. Ms. Hong was the first LeCroy Scholar of the LeCroy Foundations and was a member of the All American Junior Colleges.

As a teacher within Tulsa Public Schools. Ebony took pride in being a teacher of 7th and 8th grade students at Monroe Middle School. After teaching for four years and being named teacher of the year at Monroe Middle School, she developed a passion for school administration. Upon completion of her degree in 2001, she worked as an instructional coach and enjoyed putting on workshops about how to teach urban children. Mrs. Johnson later became a high school Dean of students at McLain Magnet High School and a year later named assistant principal. She then began principal at Academy Central and is currently co-principal at McLain Magnet High School. Ebony is pursuing an Ed.D in School Administration in the Urban Context. She loves children and she believes that this is truly her calling.

Micah Kordsmeier

Micah is Project Coordinator for CareerAdvance and works in the Innovation Lab at Community Action Project. CareerAdvance is a pilot program that offers career advancement opportunities to parents with children enrolled in CAP's early childhood programs at Skelly and Disney. The opportunities focus on training in secure, good-paying jobs; we currently offer training along a nursing career ladder. Micah studied Economics and Political Science at the University of Tulsa and got his start at CAP as a student volunteer tax preparer in its free tax program.

Mr. Lapolla is a lecturer and Co-Director of the Center for Health Policy in the College of Public Health of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences. Mike has 28 years experience in Oklahoma as a health care administrator, health policy researcher and graduate level faculty member. He has been a full-time health policy researcher in Oklahoma since 1987.

Mr. Lapolla teaches Health Care Marketing to students in the College’s MPH and MHA programs; and has made presentations to state MGMA organizations on two other occasions. He is a graduate of West Point and earned a Master’s in Health Care Administration form Trinity (TX) University.

Elizabeth Martin entire career of 29 years in Education has been in Oklahoma. She has a B.A. in Education and taught English and History.  She also has a Masters Degree from Northeastern State University.  She was a middle school counselor for 7 years and has been a high school Principal for six years.  She is currently in her fourth year as Principal at Memorial High School.  She has been with the Tulsa Public Schools for 20 years, is a Native Tulsan and is a member of Oklahoma’s Principals’ Academy, Class 25. 

David J. Maurrasse

Michael Mills has approximately thirty years of diverse experience in private industry and higher education.  For the past twenty years he has held a variety of administrative management positions at The University of Tulsa, encompassing the areas of academic support services and student services administration.  Currently, he holds the position of Associate Dean of Students and Coordinator of University and Community Engagement.  Mr. Mills received his undergraduate degree from Oklahoma State University and his master’s degree from The University of Oklahoma. 

Dr. Kara Gae Neal, Superintendent and CEO of Tulsa Tech, has over 30 years of experience as a professional educator. She began her teaching career in Woodbridge, Virginia and returned to Dewey, Oklahoma as an English teacher. Moving to Tulsa to work on a doctorate, she became an administrative intern to the Graduate Dean at the University of Tulsa.  She next served as Assistant Principal at Broken Arrow High School and later advanced to become Principal of North Intermediate.  She became Superintendent at Glenpool Public Schools and later was elected as Tulsa County Superintendent of Schools serving for seven years.  From there she became Superintendent of Metro Tech Vocational-Technical Center in Oklahoma City.  After seven years she returned to the private sector as a volunteer and educational consultant.  She is active with numerous civic activities and non-profit organizations.

Mary Philpott has been in the Education field for 30+ years.  She has taught secondary education, Career-Tech, and is now the Dean of Workforce Development Programs at Tulsa Community College.  She received her Bachelor’s degree in Business from Oklahoma State University.  She received her Master’s in Adult and Occupational Education from OSU as well.  She serves on numerous councils and committees including the TCC Department of Labor $1.7 million Information Technology Grant Steering Committee, Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Economic Development Council, Governor’s Council for Workforce and Economic Development-Youth Council & Communications Team, and Tulsa Mayor’s Champions for Education-Workforce Readiness Council.  Other community involvement Mary participates in she serves on the Asbury United Methodist Sunday School Co-Presidents Committee and previously served as President of the Tulsa Area Chapter of Chi Omega Alumnae.  Mary is married and has two sons.  One in law enforcement in Tulsa and the other in electrical engineering, intellectual property rights attorney in Los Angeles, CA.

Kim Piper is the School Redesign and Community Liaison for Will Rogers High School.  Previously, Kim was an English teacher for six years.  Kim received her BA in Education in 2002 from Northeastern State University where she graduated Summa Cum Laude.  In May 2009, she received her MA in Educational Leadership from the University of Oklahoma.  Kim is also the recipient of the 2009 Oklahoma University Outstanding Graduate Student and the 2009 Charles Schusterman Award of Excellence.

Pam is an University of Oklahoma graduate with a Bachelor’s of Science degree and an Oklahoma Board-certified Registered Nurse.  After years of practicing in hospital settings, Pam’s ongoing participation in chairing non-profits fundraisers and developing programs for social services led her to completing a Master’s Degree in Human Relations with a Concentration in Applied Behavioral Research.  Receiving the faculty-nominated award, the Charles B. Schusterman Award for Academic Excellence, Pam stayed at OU-Tulsa Schusterman Center as Director of the Community Outreach Partnership Center (COPC). Initial seed funding was provided to establish the COPC at OU-Tulsa from 2005-2008 through the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of University Partnerships (COPC) Award which Pam co-wrote with 3 OU-Tulsa departments. One of 11 university grants sites awarded from over 200 submissions, the center at OU-Tulsa was named OU CORE – Center for Outreach, Research and Education.

OU CORE was honored to receive the inaugural replication award and was established as the 5 State Southwest Regional Training Center through the Barbara and Ed Netter Center for Community Partnerships, University of Pennsylvania, in November 2008.  OUCORE became institutionalized as the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa Community Engagement Center – OUCEC.

Among other areas of focus, OUCEC established and facilitates the nine institution Higher Ed Forum of Northeast Oklahoma to promote and sustain the Forum mission of linking higher education to area high schools through experiential learning internships and career pipelines. The Forum Advisory Board developed a full cycle RFP, request for proposal, document submission process.  The OUCEC revised website was unveiled August 2009 and houses descriptions of interdisciplinary initiatives, faculty collaborations and Forum agendas/processes. The 5 State Inaugural OUCEC Conference “Community Schools 101: Linking Higher Education to High Schools to Better the Community” will be hosted on November 9 – 10, 2009, with over 20 universities attending along with high school principals, district and higher ed administrators and faculty, and community based organizations.  As Executive Director for the OUCEC the local, state and national outreach continues as Pam pursues her doctoral degree in the Education Administration, Curriculum and Supervision program through OU-Tulsa’s College of Education.

Susan Robb is a native Tulsan with a B.S. in Education from the University of Tulsa.  Prior to coming to OU, she spent 25 years in health care financing.  She spent 20 years at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Oklahoma, the last seven of those as Vice President, Benefits Administration.  After that, she helped with the start up of what is now the Oklahoma Surgical Hospital, as the Compliance Officer and Director of Managed Care and Provider Contracting.  She was there for 5 years until coming to OU where she has managed projects for Dr. Robert Block and is now the Senior Project Manager for the OU Community Engagement Center.  Susan is a graduate of Leadership Tulsa Class XVII, and has served on the American Red Cross Blood Services Board of Directors in various capacities over the last 15 years, as Director, Board Chair, and Board Secretary. 

Shawn Michael Schaefer

Gretchen Suess (Dr. Suess) received her PhD in social/cultural anthropology from Temple University, with a focus on civic engagement, public education, and urban poverty in Philadelphia.  She joined the Netter Center as the founding Director of Evaluation in August of 2008.  Prior to joining the center, Gretchen spent five years at Research for Action, a nonprofit organization conducting research and evaluation in public education.  She has also done private consulting work and contributed to two large policy research studies at Temple University and the Center for Bioethics, at Penn.  Gretchen embraces a mixed-method, collaborative, and participatory approach to evaluation.

Mayor Kathy Taylor was elected Mayor of the City of Tulsa in 2006, and has been a continual force in youth issues, and education efforts specifically. In 2008, she co-sponsored the Youth Dropout Prevention Summit, arranged through the America’s Promise Alliance and attended by Colin Powell. She also established Mentoring to the Max and Mentoring to the Max with Music, both efforts to increase adult mentorship in disadvantaged communities, and has held several meetings with high-level education officials and members of the Harlem Children’s Zone, among other prominent youth-based organizations.

During her time as Mayor, she was elected the Vice-Chair of Jobs, Education, and Workforce Standing Committee under the U.S. Conference of Mayors. She has also recently been tapped to serve as Governor Henry’s Chief of Education Strategy and Innovation, after finishing her term as Mayor in December 2009. 

Prior to being elected Mayor, Ms. Taylor was appointed Secretary of Commerce and Tourism under Governor Henry in February 2003. She entered the governmental world after serving as a senior officer in a car rental company, an owner and board member of an international business, and counsel to numerous small franchises. 

Melissa Venable

Since graduating from Northeastern State University with a BS in Biology, Melissa has been involved in the field of education and education reform.  Melissa has been a science educator at Tulsa Public Schools and Broken Arrow Public Schools, and works full time in educational reform as a Small Learning Communities Coordinator at Will Rogers High School on the implementation of the University-Assisted Community Schools Model.   Currently she is collaborating with the OU Center for Community Engagement in development of university pipelines, as well as working with the community served by Will Rogers  in developing future career-focused courses as well as internship opportunities in the areas of Community Health and Social Justice.

Stacey Vernon graduated with bachelors degrees in Spanish and Education from the University of Tulsa. Her Masters Degree is from Northeastern University in Educational Administration. Stacey earned her National Board For Professional Teaching Standards certification in 1998 in the area of Early Adolescence/Generalist. Stacey has taught Spanish, English, Study Skills and Student Leadership as well as holding the position of Assistant Principal prior to her Principalship at Edison. Stacey is currently in her 17th year with Tulsa Public Schools.

Joann Weeks is an associate director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Netter Center for Community Partnerships, focusing on its regional, national and international programs.  She directs the national adaptation of the Netter Center’s university-assisted community school program, as well as its training and technical assistance activities.  She also organizes the numerous site visits to Penn’s work in West Philadelphia.  She supervises the staff of the Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND), a consortium of over 40 institutions of higher education in the Philadelphia region. Ms Weeks works closely with the Coalition for Community Schools and is a member of the Urban Affinity Network and has been on the planning committee for all of the Coalition’s National Forums.  Ms. Weeks is the assistant editor of Universities and Community Schools.

Paula Wood serves as the Special Assistant for School and Community Relations for Tulsa Public Schools.  She has a background in public relations and is a former Tulsa Public Schools’ teacher.  Prior to her position with Tulsa Public Schools, Paula was Project Director of Student Voices, a civic education initiative of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.  Paula is also an active volunteer in the Tulsa community and is currently a board member of Project Creates and serves as secretary of the Tulsa Preservation Commission, a mayoral appointment.  Her avocation includes jewelry design and creating one-of-a kind objects of art.