Sallie L. Wilson is a Program Education Consultant for the California Department of Education Professional Development and Curriculum support Division. She works directly with the Commission of Education, schools, colleges, and universities for academic and Advance Placement Program enhancements. She started her career as a classroom teacher, and has served as a principal, school board member and school administrator. She worked several years as an independent consultant for McGraw Hill Publications.Sallie is the former CA Even Start State Coordinator where she planned and established guidelines, developed a process for evaluating the projects, and organized strategies for the administration of each project. She was a National Even Start representative on the Policy Study Associates, a three-year study of literacy issues throughout the nation. She supports the national and state family literacy issues.
She has served on the US Department of Education National Blue Ribbon Review Committee, several special task committees, to include the Equipped for the Future a study sponsored by the National Literacy Association, and a state project funded by the National Science Foundation, Math Matters for the State Department of Education.
Presently she is a board member of the National Even Start Association and National Kindergarten Alliance. She continues to work diligently to support and promote the belief that parents must be empowered with the skills and knowledge needed to become the first teachers of their children.Amy March has thoroughly enjoyed the last eight years spent directing an Even Start Program in the South Bronx, New York City. She has found it very gratifying to serve an immigrant population eager to advance their own reading and writing skills and determined help their children succeed in school. She came to Even Start after several years as a teacher specialist helping to establish and build a quality pre-kindergarten program in New York City's Community School District Seven.
Amy is a graduate of Bank Street College of Education (Masters in Early Childhood Education) and Hunter College (Certificate in Educational Administration) Throughout her career she has been committed to providing developmentally appropriate early childhood education. She has taught teachers to facilitate and inspire childrens learning and she has encouraged parents to explore their own culture and interests and to increase their literacy skills in order to support their childrens education. Amy has worked as a teacher in private nursery schools, as a day care teacher and as a day care director, before coming to the Board of Education.
During her years with Even Start she has been instrumental in developing the Downstate Even Start Coordinators' and Directors' Committee which has provided technical assistance and staff development to Even Start programs in the New York City area. The Committee has also served as a prototype for regional committees of coordinators throughout New York State. During the last three years she has supported the establishment of the New York State Chapter of NESA and continues to actively encourage new state chapters.
Dr. Paul Johnson has worked in the field of literacy for 25 years. He started as a secondary Title I teacher, and has served as a school principal, a school district administrator in charge of literacy assessment and literacy professional development, and has supported the reauthorization of Title I Part A and B (Evenstart) at the state and national levels. He currently coordinates literacy initiatives with migrant, homeless and Title I families and children in five school-wide reform efforts. Paul has been involved with family literacy for over a decade. He has served on the State of Colorado Governor?Js task force for Adult and Family Literacy for three years, the state of Colorado Early Childhood Leadership Team implementing Quality Standards, and has served on the U.S. Department of Education?Js Panel of Experts for Evenstart Evaluation. He also has served as State Coordinator of Evenstart in Colorado and is currently on the Evenstart Committee of Practitioners. Dr. Johnson is honored to be a founding member of the National Evenstart Association.