Effective School Leadership

Jane L. Ellison is Executive Co-Director of Thinking Collaborative, the home of the Adaptive Schools Seminars and the Cognitive Coaching Seminars®. She is the former Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Coaching. She provides training and consultation in the areas of Cognitive CoachingSM, Adaptive Schools, change and transition, quality professional and organizational development, curriculum development, effective instruction, supervision, and facilitation. Jane has experience as a teacher at the elementary and graduate school levels, as a principal and a director of elementary education. She holds a B.A. in Elementary Education and Social Sciences from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, an M.Ed. in Elementary Supervision from the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, and an Ed.D. in Administration from VPI&SU, Blacksburg, Virginia. She is licensed as a teacher and supervisor in Texas and as an administrator in Colorado and Illinois. Jane’s experiences include teaching graduate classes in South America, attending the Principals’ Institutes at Columbia Teachers’ College and Harvard University, and chairing the Board of Directors of the Principal’s Center at the University of Colorado, Denver. She is also a certified teacher and Principal Perceiver Specialist.

Carolee Hayes is the Director of Business Operations for Thinking Collaborative, the home of the Adaptive Schools Seminars, the Cognitive Coaching Seminars®, and Kaleidoscope Associates. She is the former Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Coaching. She provides international training in:

Cognitive CoachingSM,Adaptive Schools,presentation skills,building collaborative school cultures,organization development, transitions and change, and effective instruction.
She is a co-author of Cognitive Coaching: Weaving the Threads of Learning and Change into the Culture of an Organization and Effective School Leadership: Developing Principals through Cognitive Coaching. She has been a presenter at many national conferences and is an author of a variety of educational journal articles. Carolee was the Director of Professional Development for Douglas County School District Re.1, in Colorado, from 1989 to 1998. She developed and directed the nationally recognized Building Resource Teacher program which places a staff developer in every school to support building level staff development, new teacher induction, implementation of innovation in curriculum, and instruction and assessment. It was one of the first building-based instructional coaching programs in the U.S. Prior to working for Douglas County, Carolee was a staff developer and middle school and high school teacher in Jefferson County, Colorado. She holds a B.A. in family studies from Colorado Women’s College and an M.A. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Denver. She is licensed as a secondary teacher and administrator by the State of Colorado. Carolee has been married for many years to her husband John. They live in Denver and are the parents of a son and daughter and the grandparents of two boys and a girl.