KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Alexandria Harvey
Senior Program Associate, Special Education Policy and Practice
Deputy Director, Data Center for Addressing Significant Disproportionality
As a Senior Program Associate with WestEd’s Special Education Policy and Practice team, Alexandria Harvey uses her expertise to improve equitable outcomes for students with disabilities. Her work centers around the intersection of race, culture, and disability, providing technical assistance and professional development that focuses on improving outcomes for students who lie at the intersections of multiple identities.
Harvey is the Deputy Director of the Data Center for Addressing Significant Disproportionality where she facilitates the development and implementation of the Center’s strategic direction and supports the WestEd team to provide technical assistance based on established priorities. Additionally, Alexandria leads diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts with the National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI) to ensure DEI is not a one-off initiative but incorporated throughout much of the technical assistance within the center. She also serves as a TA facilitator for multiple states and provides her content expertise in evidence-based practices and research-informed practice collaboratives within NCSI.
Prior to joining WestEd, Alexandria was a varying exceptionalities teacher in Gainesville, FL. During her graduate studies, she was a graduate assistant for the CEEDAR Center, providing technical assistance to states by building the capacity of state personnel preparation systems to prepare teachers and leaders to implement evidence-based practices within multi-tiered systems of support.
Alexandria holds a PhD in special education from the University of Florida where she focused on culturally relevant education. Her dissertation was on the self-efficacy of preservice teachers and their ability to enact culturally responsive classroom management practices.
Kurt Hatch
A former teacher, instructional coach, award-winning principal, and Associate Director of the Association of Washington School Principals, Dr. Kurt Hatch is the Faculty Director and Professor of the Educational Administration program at the University of Washington (UW).
Dr. Hatch also serves as core faculty and consulting subject matter expert with the UW School Mental Health Research Assessment and Training (SMART) center focused on the nationwide implementation of the Interconnected Systems Framework (ISF). Dr. Hatch provides training and coaching on implementation science and is a principal investigator of the Helping Educational Leaders Mobilize evidence (HELM) research project.
Based in Olympia, WA with his wife and two daughters, Dr. Hatch has taught and led in local, state-wide, and international settings. His work includes policy analysis, advocacy and facilitating professional learning on:
• Systems Leadership
• Equity, Bias and Race
• Multi-Tiered System of Supports
Kimberly St. Martin, Ph.D
Director of Michigan’s Multi-Tiered System of Support (MiMTSS) Technical Assistance Center
Dr. St. Martin is the director of Michigan’s MTSS Technical Assistance Center and co-director of the state’s federally funded State Personnel Development Grant (SPDG). She is also a co-principal investigator of the Institute of Education Science (IES) grant, ReACT Initial Efficacy: Testing the Effects of a Promising Intervention to Achieve Equity in School Discipline. Previously, Dr. St. Martin was a co-principal investigator of an IES grant evaluating a state-level initiative to implement supplemental academic and behavioral interventions in an MTSS framework and a co-director of a federally funded adolescent literacy model demonstration grant. She has been a panel member for the IES Practice Guide, Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4–9. Dr. St. Martin also collaborated with the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Effective Implementation Cohort. Dr. St. Martin is the primary author of the Reading Tiered Fidelity Inventory (R-TFI) and co-author of implementation capacity assessments for districts and Regional Educational Agencies to guide their supporting infrastructures for an MTSS framework. She has more than 23 years of experience in the field of education.
Chris Reykdal
Washington State Superintendent
First elected in 2017, he is known for pushing against the status quo to meet the evolving needs of our students and our economy, Chris has spearheaded some of the most transformational changes Washington’s K–12 public education system has seen in decades. As a former teacher, soccer coach, school board director, state legislator, and executive for our state’s community and technical college system, Chris has a unique perspective of the K–12 system and how our state supports learners from preschool through postsecondary learning. Under Chris’ leadership, the work of OSPI is centered on equity, transparency, accountability, customer service, and on keeping students at the forefront of all decision-making.
Chris graduated summa cum laude from Washington State University (Go Cougs!) with a bachelor’s degree and a teaching certificate, and he earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. Chris is a lifelong learner who enjoys solving complex problems with data and research. In his free time, you can find Chris hiking, cheering on Washington’s sports teams, listening to 80s music (the greatest decade for pop music!), or seeing a movie with his family. Chris and his wife, Kim, live in historic Tumwater with their two children, Carter and Kennedy.