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?
Sue Harwood
Assistant Director of Field Services
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.
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.