Education Northwest is pleased to announce that Danette Parsley, a nationally recognized expert on school improvement, will join the organization in October as its new Director of School and District Improvement. In this capacity, she will lead the organization's initiatives to support systemic improvement of schools and districts in the Northwest and throughout the country. Carol Thomas, Education Northwest's Chief Executive Officer, stated, "I'm thrilled to have someone with Danette's talents, skills, commitments, and deep knowledge and experience in systemic school improvement join us." Thomas said she "looked forward to Danette's contributions as a leader in the organization."

Parsley is an expert in many areas of systemic school and district improvement, including data-driven decision making, standards-based curriculum and assessment systems, community and team building for improvement, and afterschool teaching and learning practices. During the past several years she has provided professional development and technical assistance at the local, state, and regional levels. She also developed numerous products and tools to assist schools, districts, and states engage in continuous improvement.

Until recently, Parsley served as Senior Director of System Improvement at Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL). There, she provided leadership for McREL's work in system improvement in school districts and schools. She is one of the lead developers of McREL's Success in Sight approach to school transformation. In her career, she has helped to develop and carry out numerous large-scale projects, including two multiyear, research and development initiatives sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES). As well, she recently served on the expert panel that developed the IES Out-of-School Time Practice Guide. Prior to joining McREL, Parsley served as a classroom teacher and adolescent counselor. She holds a master's degree in Educational Psychology, Research, and Evaluation Methodology from the University of Colorado at Denver and is currently completing a doctorate in organization change at Pepperdine University.