Executive Directors
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BETH BAKER
(734) 552-6803
beth@wayprogram.netBeth Baker currently serves as the Co-founder and Executive Director of W-A-Y Widening Advancements for Youth. She provides leadership in the development of strategic partnerships and education opportunities leading to a high school diploma, for young people with risk factors in their lives. Baker presents internationally and with the W-A-Y team is currently developing a high school for underserved youth in Mexico. She served as an Education/ School Reform Consultant for Wayne County RESA, providing leadership and technical assistance for 34 school districts and 350,000 students. She developed and implemented professional learning communities and grant opportunities for Models of Proficiencies and Standards Focused Project Based Learning and Assessment. Baker provided leadership and assistance in the development of Westwood Cyber School. She also served as a leader in the development of the New Tech High School Network in Michigan. Baker develops structures, strategies, and skills to effect organizational efforts resulting in healthy learning communities for young people and adults.
GLEN TAYLOR
(734) 846-6446
glen@wayprogram.netGlen Taylor is the Executive Director of W-A-Y Program. Mr. Taylor co-founded Widening Advancements for Youth, a not for profit organization to assist other districts in replicating the W-A-Y (Widening Advancement for Youth) Program. The program has been very successful in the re-engagement of at-risk teens back into the learning process. Throughout his career, Mr. Taylor has also served as Executive Director of Innovation/State and Federal Programs as well as, a principal, athletic director and teacher. Mr. Taylor has been recognized nationally for his leadership in servicing at-risk teens in Michigan. He is a member of the Consensus for Change Think Tank, comprised of legislative, educational and business leaders from around the state. He regularly presents at regional and national conferences. He hosts various professional groups comprised of teachers, administrators and regional consultants about new educational innovations. Mr. Taylor has actively served as member of the State Executive Board Committee for the Michigan Association of State and Federal Program Specialists since 2004. He has also chaired the District Vision Committee responsible for district strategic planning.
Board of Directors
CHERYL LEMKE
(310) 614-0877
cheryl@wayprogram.netCheryl Lemke is President and CEO of the Metiri Group. She brings over 30 years of experience in K-12 education. In the public sector work she was a cabinet member at a state education agency, a technology director at the state and district levels, and a teacher in both an urban and a rural school district. In the non-profit sector, she served as the Executive Director of the Milken Exchange on Educational Technology where she facilitated partnerships involving groups such as the National Governors' Association. Her background includes administration of programs for students at-risk at the state level, including Environmental Education, Indian Education, Title II programs, partnerships between Chicago-area museums and Illinois schools, and Learning Technology programs. In Illinois, as an Associate Superintendent for the Illinois State Board of Education she managed a 50-million annual budget and worked with a 30-member state group to conceptualize and then oversaw the design and implementation of a $40 million state infrastructure backbone that connected 4000 schools (Illinois K-20 Network). Lemke directed two statewide professional development programs that provided hundreds of thousands of hours of services in educational technology through the regional education agencies in IL and WA. In WA, she co-authored a multi-million dollar Star Schools program and chaired the board of the 5-state Distance Learning program that brought virtual learning and videoconferencing to students in 5 states for over 15 years. She has led numerous statewide and national groups in data collection and facilitation of stakeholder input to inform state and national policies and practices. Examples include reports for the State Education Technology Directors Association, the Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Washington Departments of Education, and Alberta Education (Canada), all grounded in systematic data collection, stakeholder forums, and advisory committees informing the process. Since 2006 Metiri has served as a partner in the Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic, conducting, reviewing, and reporting educational research and overseeing Task 2.0 RCT research. Ms. Lemke provides consulting services, evaluation and research services, writing, and public speaking (most recently in August 2008 in Singapore for the Ministry of Education).
JAMES BOSCO
(269) 387-4616
james@wayprogram.netJames Bosco is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Educational Studies at Western Michigan University (WMU) in Kalamazoo, Michigan Currently he is the Principal Investigator for the MacArthur Foundation/CoSN Project, "Schools and Participatory Culture: Overcoming Organizational and Policy Barriers." His work at Western Michigan University involved a series of outreach activities with schools and he was responsible for creating one of the first U.S. online graduate training programs for school district technology directors. He played a major role in connecting schools in Michigan to the Internet and directed one of the state hubs in Michigan which was established to connect schools to the Internet in the early 90s. He was the co-director of a school reform project in a local high school sponsored by the Kellogg Foundation. Bosco served on Senator Carl Levin's technology working group that resulted in a series of school ICT initiatives in Michigan. He established and chaired the collaborative group of national educational organizations which created the Technology Standards for School Administrators which were adopted by the International Society for Technology in Education as NETS*A. He chaired the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) and is the current co-chair of the CoSN International Committee which is responsible for establishing communication and cooperation between ICT leaders in the U.S. with their counterparts throughout the world. The focus of his work remains on information and communications technology as a basis for educational reform.
STEVE RICH
(734) 552-6803
steve@wayprogram.netSteve Rich is an attorney who has advocated for alternative education as Product Manager for futurist Ray Kurzweil's reading technology, as statewide coordinator of online legal learning and self help, as representative for special needs students and most recently as counsel and Board of Directors member for W-A-Y Widening Advancements for Youth. Outside of his current W-A-Y involvements, as Of Counsel to the Ann Arbor, Michigan firm of Dawid & Gatti PLLC and a member of the Factotem Constellation, Steve advises and represents technology entrepreneurs, small business owners, artists and musicians in Michigan and Massachusetts.
Directors
Regional Executive
BETHANY RAYL
(810) 210-1932
bethany.rayl@wayprogram.netDirector of Technology
DOUGLAS MOTT
(313) 405-9544
doug@wayprogram.netDirector of Curriculum and Instruction
JOCELYN FARKAS
(313) 288-8715
jocelyn@wayprogram.netDirector of Quality Assurance
MADELINE BLACK
(313) 444-3407
madeline@wayprogram.netDirector of Marketing and Communications
KENDRA MONTANTE
Office: (313) 444-9292 cell: (248) 635-6656
kendra.montante@wayprogram.netDirector of Strategic Initiatives
SCOTT BRYAN
(586) 330-0929
scott.bryan@wayprogram.net