INSTRUCTIONAL COACH

Amanda graduated from Bridgewater State University with her B.A. in English and Secondary Education in 2012 and earned her MEd in Reading in 2017. With over a decade of experience in education, she has previously worked as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, and literacy coach. She was raised by immigrant parents from Syria and Sudan respectively and grew up in a bilingual household. Amanda lives in Blackstone with her husband, twin boys, and rescue dog. In her free time, she enjoys spiraling down a true-crime rabbit hole, and planning every detail of a Disney vacation.

INSTRUCTIONAL COACH

Sam began his career in education in 1995 teaching preschool while attending Portland State University, where he obtained his B.S. in Sociology. He then moved to Florida in 2004 and began teaching in the Tampa area with Hillsborough County Public Schools. He held several positions at HCPS. He taught at several elementary schools, was a literacy coach, and a district trainer. During his time in Florida, Sam also graduated from Saint Leo University with his Master’s degree in Educational Leadership. Sam is a published author of several books for young readers and is currently working on his next book. Sam was raised a Navy kid and traveled all over the country throughout elementary and high school. That gave him a sense of wanderlust and since lived all over the country. After several summers training teachers in Central America, he became the Principal at Honors Academy, a PreK–12 school in Honduras. Sam moved to Providence in 2022 and was an Instructional Support Leader for Providence Public Schools.

CONSULTANT

Maureen has almost three decades of experience in public schools, including seven years teaching 5th grade at The Learning Community and nine years as an instructional coach in Providence Public Schools. She served 18 years as an adjunct professor at Brown University's Elementary MAT program and was a founding co-director of the Teacher Leadership Consortium at Brown. Maureen has a Master's in Reading from the University of Rhode Island, with a specialized endorsement in Dyslexia Knowledge and Practice. She enjoyed her role as a Literacy Ambassador to promote dyslexia awareness with the Rhode Island Department of Education in 2019 and recently completed the Associate Level course in Orton-Gillingham. She lives in Providence with her husband Andy. She enjoys reading, working with fiber arts and spending time with her family, including her new grandson.

DEI Consultant & Interim HR Support

Melanie is the CEO of Breaker28, works to build leaders and organizations with H.E.A.R.T.- healthy, equitable, anti-racist, real and trust-centered. Melanie began her career as a Baltimore City public school teacher, where she learned first-hand about the challenges teachers and students faced in the classroom. She then joined DonorsChoose.org and eventually led its teacher marketing operations allowing the organization to scale its teacher-reach nationally. As an emerging leader, she completed an intrapreneurial leadership residency at Excel Academy in Washington, DC allowing her to help to vision the expansion of its school to serve middle school students. Melanie has launched her own firm Breaker28, working at the intersection of HR, organization development, and racial justice, equity, inclusion and belonging work within organizations.