About Us
Who Directs Teach for Success?
Huck Fitterer
Director of Field Services
Comprehensive School Assistance Program at WestEd
Huck Fitterer directs WestEd's Teach for Success. He also oversees technical assistance services to schools participating in the School Assistance Intervention Team (SAIT) and High Priority School Grants (HPSG) programs in California; the Reading First program and Yuma Professional Learning and Networking project in Arizona; External Facilitator program in Nevada; and school improvement services to schools in Hawaii.
From 2001-2003, Fitterer directed WestEd's school improvement services for the Calexico (CA) Unified School District, and saw the average Academic Performance Index for all of the district's 10 schools increase 124 points. He also supports activities of WestEd's Southwest Comprehensive Center. He previously served as an elementary school principal, staff development teacher trainer, and classroom teacher.
Who Are the Teach for Success Team Leaders?
John Paul Lapid
Research Associate
John Paul Lapid helped develop the Teach for Success Observational Protocol. He provides training and technical assistance with the implementation of state and national standards, assessments, and scientifically valid methods to district administrators, teachers, and paraprofessionals in Arizona, California, and Nevada. He delivers effective ongoing professional development to enhance high-quality teachers, administrators, and district personnel to meet the needs of all students, through best instruction practices in all academic areas, data analysis, product development, and the delivery of programs under the No Child Left Behind Act.
Lapid helps implement the Arizona READS initiative through his work with the Arizona Department of Education Reading First Office, by providing technical assistance and by delivering professional development to more than 5,000 Reading First administrators, instructional coaches, and teachers focusing on standards, assessments, and rigorous instructional strategies that directly affect more than 55,000 students statewide. In addition, he is a school improvement External Facilitator for the Nevada Department of Education.
Prior to joining WestEd in 2000, Lapid was an Adjunct Professor of Education at the University of Guam, where he focused on language and literacy development throughout the Pacific region. As a classroom teacher, he taught multiple grades in California, Guam, and the Marshall Islands.
Kevin Locklear
Senior Research Associate
Kevin Locklear provides technical assistance, professional development, and coaching to support school improvement and reform efforts in Arizona, California, and Nevada. He also provides technical assistance for the Arizona Department of Education’s Reading First Program. In addition, Locklear provides training and technical assistance for the state departments of education in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah for WestEd's Southwest Comprehensive Center.
Locklear's past experience includes lecturing in the Department of Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis, and in the American Indian Studies Program at the University of Arizona. He has served as a site coordinator for various academic programs sponsored by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society and as a curriculum development specialist in the largest Indian Education (Title IV) program in the country — serving approximately 10,000 American Indian students. He also has worked as a counselor, director, staff development/teacher trainer, and classroom teacher.
Sofia Aburto
Assistant Field Director
Sofia Aburto is the Assistant Director of Field Services for the Comprehensive School Assistance Program. At the local level, Aburto facilitates district and schoolwide improvement planning through data and service needs assessments, sharing of research-based school improvement strategies, and comprehensive schoolwide planning in rural and urban schools serving significant numbers of English learners and students from low-income families. She also offers technical support to Arizona district/site administrators and literacy coaches in developing their classroom observation skills and teacher feedback techniques.
As a California state approved School Assistance and Intervention Team lead, Aburto develops, supports, and monitors the implementation of school improvement plans in state-sanctioned elementary, middle, and high schools identified in need of improvement.
Aburto has participated in numerous national and state research and evaluation studies examining the impact of federal funding on services and the academic achievement of low-income and language minority students. In addition, she has helped numerous districts and schools raise overall achievement, narrow the achievement gap between subgroups of students, and exit state-sanction status.
Prior to joining WestEd, Aburto worked closely with federal, state, district, and school staff in implementing school improvement provisions contained in several recent reauthorizations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. She has supported state departments in designing and training regional staff working with state sanctioned schools; gathering survey information on federally funded services; and collecting, preparing, and disseminating information to districts and schools on comprehensive planning inclusive of Title I and English learner students through presentations and written reports.
Sue Harwood
School/District Improvement Facilitator
Teach for Success
Suzanne Harwood provides technical assistance to state departments, districts, and schools in Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Nevada. Her expertise includes rigorous research-based instruction, effective leadership, academic coaching, and data-driven instruction. In addition to her work with Teach for Success, she is the Assistant Director of WestEd's Reading First project.
Previously, Harwood worked as a site administrator of a K-8 school and an instructional program specialist with the curriculum and instruction department of the Peoria Unified School District. She also was a reading specialist and a classroom teacher.
Kevin Locklear
School/District Improvement Facilitator
Kevin Locklear provides technical assistance, professional development, and coaching to support school improvement and reform efforts in Arizona, California, and Nevada. He also provides technical assistance for the Arizona Department of Education’s Reading First Program. In addition, Locklear provides training and technical assistance for the state departments of education in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah for WestEd's Southwest Comprehensive Center.
Locklear's past experience includes lecturing in the Department of Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis, and in the American Indian Studies Program at the University of Arizona. He has served as a site coordinator for various academic programs sponsored by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society and as a curriculum development specialist in the largest Indian Education (Title IV) program in the country — serving approximately 10,000 American Indian students. He also has worked as a counselor, director, staff development/teacher trainer, and classroom teacher.
Keith Young
School/District Improvement Facilitator
Keith Young is a School and District Improvement Facilitator with WestEd's Comprehensive School Assistance Program. He provides technical assistance and leadership coaching to high-needs urban and rural schools and districts in Arizona, California, and Hawaii.
Young brings more than 20 years experience teaching middle and high school, working as a K-12 turn-around principal and district administrator, and training and coaching. He led comprehensive school reform efforts in Colorado, North Carolina, Washington DC, Europe, and Qatar.
His published works regarding overseas school improvement appear in Voices, from the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language, and Kappan. Prior to joining WestEd, Young worked at Achieve 3000, the Supreme Education Council of Qatar, and the U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity.
Kimberly Allen
School/District Improvement Facilitator
Kimberly Allen has served over 20 years in education as a teacher, administrator, and advocate for children. She currently serves as School/District Improvement Facilitator for WestEd's Comprehensive School Assistance Program.
Prior to joining WestEd, Allen was Deputy Associate Superintendent of School Improvement and Intervention for the Arizona Department of Education.
Allen is the recipient of many honors and awards, including the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award (2000). In addition, she was appointed to the Arizona Civil Rights Advisory Board; selected for the Fulbright Administrator Exchange Scholar program; served as a Teaching Tolerance fellow; graduated from Phoenix’s Valley Leadership program; and recently appointed to the National Advisory Board of Rachel’s Challenge, a nonprofit organization).
She received a Bachelor's degree in elementary education and special education from Emporia State University and a Master's degree in educational administration and leadership from Arizona State University.
Angela Bell Julien
School/District Improvement Facilitator
Angela Julien serves as a School and District Improvement Facilitator of Field Services for WestEd's Comprehensive Schools Assistance Program. Julien provides training, professional development, and technical assistance to support reform and improvement efforts of schools in Arizona, California, Colorado and Hawaii. Her work focuses on the research-based and scientific Teach and Coach for Success models. Combined with job-embedded professional development, these models afford educators strategies to improve achievement for all students.
Prior to joining WestEd, Julien spent more than 30 years in teaching and administration positions in urban and rural high schools. She served as Principal of a diverse, urban, comprehensive high school, Project Manager for four Small Learning Community Grantee schools and High School Transformation Facilitator for the district's 10 high schools. She received a bachelor’s degree in education with majors in English and speech/theater, a master’s degree in English, and her administrative certificate, all from Northern Arizona University.
Patricia Dienz
School/District Improvement Facilitator
