Nancy DeFord's career trajectory looks a bit like a route map for a major airline. ASCD's new President first crossed paths with the Association while working on her master's degree in curriculum and supervision at Trinity University in Texas, where a college professor advised her to join ASCD. DeFord graduated to become an art teacher in San Antonio, Tex., but a need to travel soon sent her abroad to teach in a Department of Defense Dependents School in England. While overseas, DeFord began her doctorate and found ASCD publications “vital” to her studies. DeFord's doctorate in comparative education from the University of Southern California was conferred in Heidelberg, Germany.
DeFord traded the gray skies of England for sunny Virginia Beach, Va., where she put her training to work as a high school principal and director in the Virginia Beach Public Schools. “As a young administrator in Virginia,” DeFord recalls, “VASCD and ASCD gave me many opportunities for leadership and professional development. It was natural to want to be a part of the governance.” DeFord joined the Virginia ASCD board of directors in 1977 and served as the Virginia representative to the ASCD Board of Directors from 1992 to 1994. This was just the beginning of her service to ASCD.
During her tenure in Virginia Beach, DeFord worked in Paris for a year. She maintains that “there are many successful models around the world, and the role of ASCD in promoting communication among educators is one of the Association's attributes that has really impressed me.”
“After that variety of school, district, and international experiences,” DeFord explains, “I decided I wanted to be a superintendent, preferably in a smaller district where I could be more directly involved with schools and students and see more change more quickly.” She soon became superintendent of the Park City School District in Park City, Utah. “When Park City opened, it seemed perfect, and luckily the school board gave me the chance,” says DeFord. She adds that, in each education position she's held, she's seen expanding opportunities to do what she most enjoys—“creating supportive and challenging environments in which students can learn and teachers can teach effectively.”
At the same time, DeFord has expanded her role in ASCD leadership: at-large representative from 1996 to 1998 and 2003 to 2005; Utah representative in 1998, 1999, and 2001; Nominations Committee member in 2000; president of Utah ASCD in 2002; and Review Council member in 2005.
Now a retired superintendent, DeFord is doing more than just carving out the slopes at Park City. (Though we hear she's pretty good at that, too.) She runs the consulting firm, DeFord Ltd., which works primarily with several nonprofit foundations on projects related to education. ASCD's President is closely attuned to the complexities, or what she calls the “balancing act,” of educating the whole child. “Keeping balance—paying appropriate attention to content on state and national assessments but attending also to those skills and experiences that lead to success in life, while meeting the many requirements imposed on schools—is difficult given limitations on time, energy, and other resources.” DeFord adds, “Children are more than their test scores or their transcripts.”
As the United States approaches the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the single most influential legislation affecting the whole child, DeFord looks forward to NCLB's continued focus on learning subgroups, more flexibility in assessments, increased funds for professional development and preschool readiness, and further support for innovative leadership and instruction.
As ASCD's President, you can be sure these concerns, and yours, will top her agenda. You can contact Nancy DeFord by going to the Board of Directors Roster at www.ascd.org/governance.