Directors

Dr. Russell Skiba the Director of the Equity Project at the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University. He can be contacted at skiba @ indiana.edu.

Dr. Reece Peterson is an associate professor of Special Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and affiliated with the Center for Children Families and the Law at the University of Nebraska.

Project Coordinator

Indiana Site: Shana Ritter

Nebraska Staff: Courtney Miller

Project Staff

Indiana Staff: Dr. Ada Simmons, Dr. Edward St. John

Site-Based Coordinator

Indiana Site: Cindy Skoog

Minority Disproportionality Project Staff

Renae Feggins, Sarah Gallini, Karega Rausch, Lori Poloni-Staudinger

Review Panel

Dr. George Sugai, Dr. Michael Nelson, Kevin Dwyer, Trina Osher

For further information on the project staff, please refer to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Site.

Dr. Russ Skiba (Project Co-Director)

Indiana Education Policy Center
Suite 174, Smith Center for Research in Education
Indiana University
2805 E. 10th St.
Bloomington, IN 47408-2698
812-855-5549
fax: 812-855-0420
email: skiba@indiana.edu

Russell Skiba, Ph.D. is Professor in Counseling and Educational Psychology at Indiana University. He has worked with schools across the country in the areas of the management of disruptive behavior, school discipline, and school violence. He has directed numerous federal and state research grants, and has published extensively in the areas of school violence, zero tolerance, and equity in education. Skiba is currently Director of the Equity Project, a consortium of research projects offering evidence-based information to educators and policymakers on equity in special education and school discipline. He was a member and the lead author of the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on Zero Tolerance. His work has been cited in numerous national media sources, including USA Today, Time Magazine,the Wall Street Journal, and Nightline, and he has testified before the United States Civil Rights Commission and both Houses of Congress on issues of school discipline and school violence. He was awarded the Push for Excellence Award by the Rainbow Coalition/Operation PUSH for his work on African American disproportionality in school suspension.

Dr. Ada B. Simmons (Project Coordinator)

Dr. Simmons, Associate Director of the Indiana Education Policy Center, coordinates the Indiana University-based portion of the project as well as other operations of the Policy Center. Ada assists the project team in the development of materials to guide schools in creating and implementing plans for safe and civil schools, drawing on her educational and research background in higher education and student affairs.

Shana Ritter (Project Coordinator)

Shana has a wide array of experience in educational settings including classroom teaching, school reform, curriculum development, teacher education and parent involvement. She has worked with urban and rural schools in the areas of innovative programming, school wide planning, inclusivity and diversity. Shana currently teaches courses in Diversity at IUB in addition to co-hosting a public affairs radio show.

Dr. Edward St. John (Systems Change Consultant)

Dr. St. John, Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Indiana University, will act as systems change consultant to the project. St. John has been involved with the Accelerated School Project since 1990. He helped initiate state Centers for Accelerated Schools in Ohio and Louisiana and served as founding President of the Accelerated Schools Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association. He recently co-authored Families in Schools: A Chorus of Voices in Restructuring and co-edited Accelerated Schools in Action: Lessons From the Field (Corwin, 1996). St. John will consult with project staff at regular intervals on the extent to which project activities appear to be representing best practice in school restructuring and systems change.

Cindi Skoog (Indiana Site-Based Coordinator)

Cindi Skoog is the site-based coordinator for the SRS school sites. She is currently the school social worker and Child Services Coordinator for the Forest Hills Special Education Cooperative. Ms. Skoog received her Masters Degree in Social Work from Project Documents Indiana University in 1990. In addition to her extensive direct work with children and families, she trains teachers and school staff in working with families. Her primary area of interest is in developing strength-based and family-focused services for children with disabilities, and she was one of the co-founders of the Monroe County Wraparound Team.

Last updated: January 23, 2003
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