Study of the Superintendency and District Governance >> Directors
Directors
Thomas L. Alsbury- Professor, Educational Leadership, Seattle Pacific University
Dr. Alsbury is currently Professor of Educational Administration in the Department of Educational Leadership at Seattle Pacific University in Seattle, WA. Tom was formerly a high school biology and chemistry teacher. He also spent 12 years in school administration, as a K-12 and high school principal in various sized districts in Washington State. As an administrator Dr. Alsbury led several schools to significant and sustained student achievement improvements on multiple measures including state-wide criterion-referenced test results.
Dr. Alsbury’s research focuses on school boards, superintendents, and district reform. He co-chairs two AERA research groups; the Research on the Superintendency and the Organizational Governance SIGs, and was named chair of the 2010 UCEA national conference. As research consultant on the National Multistate Lighthouse Study, he was on the team awarded the 2008 NSBA Shannon Award for research most influencing school boards nationally. Dr. Alsbury also directs the NSF grant-supported Innovative Leadership Academy working with district leaders in high minority, high poverty rural NC districts to build capacity and sustainability for student-directed innovations.
Dr. Alsbury co-directed the only National School Board Research conference in 2007, bringing together the best school board and superintendent researchers spanning nearly 50 years of research. The event and his book, The future of school board governance: Relevance and revelation contributed to his selection as the 2008 UCEA Culbertson Award. Dr. Alsbury’s work has been recognized by association leaders and was an invited general session speaker at the 2008 NSBA National Leadership Institute, the 2010 General Shelton Leadership Symposium, the 2011 LeadershipNC Forum, and at school board and superintendent state conferences in multiple states and countries. He has worked with several state legislatures to develop school board standards. He has over 100 peer-reviewed publications and presentations on board and superintendent research. He serves as editor and chief and on the editorial board of several top academic journals and has been awarded EAQ Outstanding Reviewer of the Year.
Meredith Mountford- Associate Professor, Director for the Center for Educational Leaders. Florida Atlanta University
After eight years as a teacher, one year as a principal, and three years as a superintendent in Wisconsin, Dr. Mountford earned her Ph.D. in educational administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Mountford’s dissertation Motivations for School Board Membership, Conceptions of Power, and Their Affect on Decision-Making won the “Dissertation of the Year” award for the American Education Research Association (AERA) Research on the Superintendency special interest group.
Dr. Mountford also held faculty positions at the University of Missouri-Columbia and was Director of the Ed.D. Program in Educational Leadership. Her research interests focus on school board and superintendent relationships, power, and leadership and also does private consulting for school board-superintendent teams nationally.
Dr. Mountford is currently working on a forthcoming book entitled School Board Members: Beliefs and Attitudes and her most recent publications include Implications for school board-superintendent relationships. (2004) in Educational Administration Quarterly.