Nancy DeFord
Position: Superintendent (retired), Park City, Utah; vice president, DeFord Ltd., Va.
Education: B.A. and M.Ed., Trinity University; Ed.D., University of Southern California.
Career History and Highlights: Elementary/secondary art, social studies, and gifted resource teacher (9 years); director/coordinator of art education, curriculum, assessment, educational planning, gifted programs, and magnet schools (12 years); high school principal (6 years); superintendent (7 years). Adjunct professor, College of William and Mary, Old Dominion University, University of Virginia, George Washington University. Department of Defense award for teaching excellence; Excellence in Education Award, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Administrator of the Year, International Thespian Society; Urban Schools Fellow, College of William and Mary; "Nancy" award for teacher innovation, Park City. Articles published in Educational Leadership and the NASSP Journal, among others. Consultant, facilitator, and workshop presenter on art education, gifted education, planning, and interest-based/principled decision making. Leadership and volunteer roles with several nonprofit organizations.
ASCD and Affiliate Participation: ASCD member, 28 years; Virginia and Utah affiliate member, 28 years. Member, Review Council (2005), Board of Directors/Leadership Council (2003–05), former Board of Directors, Nominations Committee. Member, Affiliate Excellence Awards workgroup; attendee, Affiliate Leadership Conferences and regional conferences; Utah ASCD past president, board of directors; Virginia ASCD parliamentarian, board of directors; chair, Tidewater Region conference; presenter, ASCD, Virginia ASCD, Utah ASCD conferences.
What Is Your Vision for ASCD? ASCD's vision is to be the world's premier education organization. I welcome the opportunity to help the organization expand its critical leadership role and continue its pioneering work to help each child succeed. As an ASCD leader, I believe we must ensure that exemplary programs and services in teaching, learning, and leadership are extended and that bridges are built among educators, noneducators, and policymakers worldwide.
I believe in involvement, effective communication, and collaborative relationships. As ASCD works to become more responsive to a larger education community worldwide, I would like to contribute my leadership, supported by a diverse background of related experiences both in the United States and abroad, toward the full achievement of this initiative. Further, I believe that organizations should model responsiveness and transparency, and I want to ensure that this continues to be a reality in ASCD's work and scope of services.
ASCD can help ensure that all learners receive a quality education and that all who are entrusted to teach young people and provide support and leadership services in education have access to the best practices, resources, and research available. Education has power for youth throughout the world, and I am committed to making a difference.
Kenneth R. Di Pietro
Position: Superintendent of schools, Coventry, R.I.
Education: B.A. and M.Ed., Rhode Island College; Ph.D. studies, University of Connecticut.
Career History and Highlights: Middle and high school teacher of mathematics and applied technology (11 years); district director of technology (3 years); Rhode Island Department of Education director of technology and director of systemic reform for science and mathematics (5 years); assistant superintendent (10 years); current superintendent (3 years); consultant and presenter on differentiated learning; adjunct professor of education at Providence College; 1985 Rhode Island Distinguished Teacher Award. Author of articles in Microcomputers in Education Conference(Computer Science Press), Closing the Gap (a journal of the annual Closing the Gap Conference on Disabilities), and Rhode Island ASCD Journal, The Leading Edge. Member of the executive board of Rhode Island School Superintendents' Association, vice chairman of the West Bay Educational Collaborative.
ASCD and Affiliate Participation: ASCD member, 14 years; affiliate member, 16 years. Member of the former ASCD Board of Directors, chairman of Constituent Relations Committee, Nominations Committee member, Affiliate Excellence Award committee member, presenter at ASCD annual conference and Affiliate Leadership Conference. Past president of Rhode Island ASCD (1999–2002), chairman of influence and programming, editor of the Rhode Island ASCD journal, director of Rhode Island ASCD research project Facing the Challenge—A Study of High-Performing/High-Poverty Schools.
What Is Your Vision for ASCD? ASCD seeks to move from successful to significant by measuring the impact of its services, researching successful practices for dissemination and replication, personalizing its mission from success for "all learners" to success for "each learner," and committing resources and creating networks of individuals and strategic partners to promote collective energy for reform. I envision that over the next few years, ASCD will strengthen its membership, diversity, and influence on education worldwide by validating its impact, promoting proven practices, and eliminating myths and barriers that serve as excuses to responsibility. My experience in systemic reform can help ASCD achieve this goal.
ASCD contributed to my professional growth through its support of research into successful practices and an affiliate study of high-performing, high-poverty schools. ASCD's mission comes alive through such efforts, which dispel the myth that poverty must be a predictor of performance and place responsibility on educational systems for better understanding of and response to the needs of each learner, in part, by unleashing the power of diverse learning strategies. If honored to be president-elect, I will use the leadership and passion that ASCD developed in me to help ASCD achieve its visionary move from treasured resource to significant impact on education.