TIDES Team
Janet H. Chrispeels, Ed.D.
Dr. Janet Chrispeels, Director of TIDES, brings over 30 years of experience in working with educational systems and preparing educational leaders to meet the challenges of creating effective schools for all learners. Dr. Chrispeels, served as founding Director for the Education Studies Joint Doctorate in Educational Leadership at University of California, San Diego. She developed and led the California Center for Effective Schools and Center for Educational Leadership at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has served as president of the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI) and authored numerous articles and books on effective schools, shared leadership, district and school reform. As Professor Emeritus, she dedicates her time to TIDES to transforming educational systems.
Nahid Nariman, Ed.D.
Dr. Nahid Nariman is a lifetime educator. She has extensive experience in teaching in many different roles and levels, and an enduring passion for education, research, and evaluation. Nahid has developed, administered, analyzed, and evaluated programs and strategies to determine their effectiveness and to provide recommendations for improvement. At present, she focuses on the development, design and evaluation of STEM implementation in PBL learning environment. She has been a lead researcher and Evaluator on the Santa Maria Bonita School District Migrant Education Needs Assessment Evaluation. Currently, Dr. Nariman along with Dr. Chrispeels, collaborates with the Qualcomm® Thinkabit Lab™ manager to evaluate the program. She is also the researcher on the State of Hawaii Department of Education “Collaborative Research: Examining the Impact of an Industry-aligned, STEM Problem Based Learning Curriculum on Native Hawaiian and Underrepresented Youth Workforce Development."
Jane Torres Clark, Ed.D.
Throughout her educational career, Dr. Jane Torres Clark has dedicated herself to enhancing the achievement of children in inner-city communities in her roles as a teacher, principal, and professional developer of teachers and school leaders. Her work is grounded in the belief that collaboration and teamwork are the most productive pathways to achieving goals. Her efforts paved the way toward academic success in the school communities she led, including state recognition for high performance among English learners in English Language Arts and Mathematics. She has used her experiences and skills to help prepare future generations of teachers as a part-time lecturer at Point Loma Nazarene University.
She has led successful professional development in the following areas:
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High impact instructional strategies for English learners
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Student data analysis through the TIDES Learning Loop
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Culturally responsive Hispanic parent and family engagement
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Leadership development focused on instructional leadership, positive strengths-based leadership and cultural growth mindset
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Client-focused evaluation to enhance program effectiveness
Dr. Clark is knowledgeable of qualitative and quantitative data analysis and is currently collaborating with the TIDES team on an evaluation of the Qualcomm Thinkabit Lab Summer Engineering Camps for 1600 middle and high school students across 56 camps.
Pamela Long, MA
Pam Long is an educator with 30 years of experience in teaching and research at the elementary, high school, and university levels. Her primary interests as a teacher include project-based learning which integrates content area study and the arts, writing pedagogy focused on authentic purposes, and building a responsive and student-centered classroom culture which enhances the motivation to learn.
Pam has extensive qualitative research skills in conducting evaluation and has served in key roles doing data collection and analysis on several projects including:
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UC San Diego team evaluating Striving Readers Initiative sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, which involved a study of literacy interventions being implemented in San Diego City Schools.
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Developed and conducted a descriptive and theory-building research study within a cross-institutional and interdisciplinary project involving students and faculty of UC San Diego, San Diego City College, and a local elementary school who were engaged in a literacy and arts-based curriculum resulting in a permanent art installation for the elementary school campus.
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Co-evaluated with the TIDES team the UC Davis Center for Applied Policy Superintendents Collaborative Network (2019), and the Qualcomm Thinkabit Lab summer engineering camps for middle and high school students (2018 to 2021).
Pam Long’s editing skills have assisted many organizations and Ph.D students in ensuring their writing meets the highest standards.
Margarita Gonzalez Zaske, PhD
Dr. Zaske brings 40 years of experience in education. She was a bilingual teacher, school principal and university professor for 20 years in her native Peru. She was Director of Research and Evaluation and Educational Consultant at the Center for Educational Leadership at the University of California, Santa Barbara, for 10 years, in that role she worked with several school districts in the State of California providing technical assistance to improve student achievement. Dr. Zaske also worked as Director of Consolidated Projects for a California School District for 11 years, successfully managing the Migrant Education Region, State and Federal Categorical Programs, English Learner and Family Engagement Programs. She has conducted numerous research and evaluation projects on Family Engagement, Dual Language Programs, English Learners, and School Leadership, and has documented her work in several articles and books. In 2020, Dr. Zaske joined the TIDES Team as a Research Director.
Who is the TIDES Team?
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Experienced and committed educators with thousands of hours of teaching, leading and working with K-12, nonprofit and higher education institutions.
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Designers of successful state and local innovative programs (e.g. District Visioning Instructional Leadership Team Development, Inquiry Designs for Deep Learning, TIDES Learning Loop for Teacher Teams, CCSS Math Institutes, Parent Leaders United for Student Success).
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Leaders and guides for school and district reform processes that have increased student learning.
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Researchers and evaluators who document program effectiveness to ensure continuous improvement.
How does the TIDES Team operate?
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Meets with school and district leaders using a collaborative inquiry process to review data, listen to needs and goals, and collaboratively develop an action plan that builds on teachers and administrators’ prior knowledge, skills, and successes.
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Uses a strengths-based approach that recognizes teacher and leader expertise and actively engages them in building on strengths to solve current school problems.
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Collaboratively plans and organizes topic focused institutes (e.g. Math Institutes, Inquiry Designs for Deep Learning, Learning Loop) for a specific school, district or for teacher teams from multiple schools and districts).
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Collects pre and post-data to determine success of its initiatives.
How does the TIDES Team support schools and districts?
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Conducts professional development for districts and schools with the goal of increasing knowledge and skills needed to understand and successfully implement the Common Core, Next Generation Science and Social Studies Standards.
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Works within and across systems (grade levels, schools, districts) to engage teachers in active and deep learning needed to empower students to be self-regulated and passionate learners.
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Supports grade level and department teams to engage in close examination of student work to understand student strengths and misconceptions in order to identify next instructional steps.
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Develops parent leaders who understand implications of the Common Core Standards and how to engage in action research to solve school problems.
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Provides in school coaching and support for grade level teams, school leadership teams, and whole staff professional development.
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Supports school leadership teams to lead their school through a question of inquiry and data based decision-making.
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Conducts after school CCSS Math content and strategy sessions for teachers.
TIDES Supporters
Lisa Umekubo, Ed.D.
Lisa Umekubo has worked with a diverse population of students, teachers, parents and administrators, both internationally as well as locally. For the past sixteen years she has served as a classroom teacher, academic coach and district administrator.
Christine Liboon
Christine Liboon, Assistant Evaluator for TIDES, has spent time as a field researcher on the MALDEF project during its data collection and evaluation process for the Parent School Partnership Programs (PSP) in the Greater Los Angeles Area. She supported TIDES consultants in parent leadership workshops and various data collection projects. Christine has taught ESL with a vocational focus for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in San Diego and serves as a program and data coordinator for IRC's VESL Plus Program. She rejoined TIDES in 2018 to assist in the UC Davis CAPS Principal Support Network Evaluation.
Vanessa Karwan, EdD
Vanessa Karwan, Director of Professional Development and educational consultant, is currently working in alternative public education, serving as Principal for Val Verde Academy, an online virtual academy and Principal of Bridges to Adulthood Life Skills Vocational Program for intellectually disabled and autistic young adults. She has been successful as an educational leader at two transformative and turnaround schools. She instituted an online credit recovery program across Val Verde Unified School District to support more than 1000 students to obtain A-G requirements, thereby supporting VVUSD's graduation rate of over 93%, the second highest in Riverside County. Her small school was named Top Small School in Riverside County for FAFSA completion and offers AP courses and NCAA compliance. She has experience with WASC accreditation, receiving many commendations in her mid-cycle review year. Vanessa continues to support schools in professional development in TIDES Learning Loop and Teaching Students to Generate Questions.
