Bios
Chrys Marcus Limardo, Project Director, has over a decade of experience working in education policy, evaluation, and research. She has worked on several education reform initiatives managing project implementation,collecting data, analyzing effectiveness, and providing consulting in the areas of adult education, college and career readiness, teacher quality, and professional development. Ms. Limardo has a background in qualitative data collection and analysis, to include focus group facilitation,
conducting interviews, and creating coding systems to mine data collected. She has authored several technical research and evaluation reports for clients, has assisted them in the dissemination of research findings, and provided consulting on translating research findings into practice. Her areas of research include teacher preparation and quality, teacher performance-based compensation, and adult education systems. Her experience in the classroom, working with teachers in training, and consulting district leadership gives her a well-rounded knowledge base of the education arena and its stakeholders. Ms. Limardo currently plays a leadership role in two large adult education projects through OVAE: as a Project Director for the English Language Learner University and Project Director for the Policy to Performance Initiative.
Judy Alamprese, Director of Technical Assistance, is a Principal Associate at Abt Associates Inc. Ms. Alamprese has directed research, evaluation, policy, technical assistance, and demonstration projects in adult education and workforce development for over 30 years. Her experience in ABE/ESL transition to postsecondary education, training, and employment includes research on state policies and practices in transition, the provision of assistance in the development of state transition systems, and the direction of national demonstration projects on the creation and evaluation of local-level transition practices. Ms. Alamprese is directing a study of state policies in ABE accountability, transition to postsecondary education, and interagency coordination in a project funded by the by the National Institute for Literacy. Under support from Oregon’s Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development, she is developing the Adult Basic Skills Pathways to Postsecondary Education, Training, and Work Initiative (OPABS), a systemic approach to enhancing ABE services and coordination between ABE and postsecondary workforce development programs. Ms. Alamprese directed the OVAE-funded Adult Education Coordination and Planning (AECAP) project, in which state and local partners in adult education and workforce development tested transition practices and policies. She assisted the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s grantees in developing transition-to-employment services for low-skilled adults. Ms. Alamprese also has worked with expert and peer coaching models. She adapted a peer coaching model from the private sector for use in California’s ESL Teacher Training Institute, and provided technical assistance to the expert coaches and project grantees that participated in the OVAE-funded ABE Career Connections project.
Ms. Alamprese has served on two committees on adult literacy for the National Academies’ Board on Testing and Assessment and on numerous advisory boards for adult education research. Her recent publications include a book chapter on developing learners’ reading skills in adult basic education programs. Ms. Alamprese was a member of the U.S. Delegation to the 6th International Conference on Adult Education, CONFINTEA VI in 2009. She completed her course requirements for the Ph.D. and received her M.A. in sociology from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and her B.A. in sociology from Emmanuel College.
Dr. Gary Eyre, Coach, brings deep rooted expertise to the Policy to Performance project in both education and state and federal education policy arena. Dr. Eyre has played leading roles in the public education sector (both K-12 and adult education), in General Educational Development (GED) testing, in continuing education management and administration, and in postsecondary public policy development and state statute (law) creation for community college districts. He was a member of the curriculum policy committee for the University of Phoenix and developed public policy for testing in the Arizona Department of Corrections. Dr. Eyre was also Deputy Associate State Superintendent for Adult Education, Family Literacy, Adult Homelessness and GED Services for Arizona; State Director of Adult Education for both Arizona and Colorado, and Executive Director for the American Association for Adult & Continuing Education and the National Advisory Council for Adult Education. Dr. Eyre has also been a member of the National GED Advisory Committee for almost a decade.
Rebecca (“Becky”) Dyer, Coach, is the Director of the Maine Family Literacy Initiative (MEFLI), a program of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. MEFLI supports the development and expansion of family literacy programs across Maine in settings where parents and children read and learn together.
Becky worked in the field of adult education for over twenty-five years in New York and Maine. She served as State Director of Adult Education at the Maine Department of Education from 2002-2008 where she administered the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act and NCLB Title IB Even Start. As State Director she was also responsible for the development and implementation of the Maine College Transition Initiative and the Work Ready™ program. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Science from the State University of New York at Potsdam and her Master’s Degree in Adult Education from the University of Southern Maine.
Jim Harrison, Coach, served as an adult education Unit Coordinator for the Connecticut Department of Education from 1986 – 2003. While there, Mr. Harrison developed expertise in policy development, program design, program improvement initiatives, forming interagency partnerships, fiscal management, assessment, and data management. Mr. Harrison works with the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment Systems (CASAS) as a Senior Research Associate where his duties have included coordinating a national content standards development project and serving as the project director for the National External Diploma Program. A national CASAS Trainer, he conducts trainings throughout the U.S. and Southeast Asia in administering, scoring, and interpreting assessment results to inform instruction and program improvement. He coordinated the development of the Curriculum and Training Leadership Institute in Singapore.
Additionally, Mr. Harrison has been a consultant to Abt Associates for two projects: Leadership for Program Effectiveness and Adult Education Delivery System Strategic Planning and Service Provision Demonstration Project. The former project entailed conducting state level interviews regarding learner assessment policies and accountability issues. The latter project involved the provision of technical assistance to states to strengthen interagency coordination efforts for expansion of services to an underserved adult population.
Roberta Pawloski, Coach, has been associated with adult education and employment and training issues since 1979. She initially joined the Connecticut Department of Education and managed grants to school districts, private occupational schools, and community and faith based organizations under both the Job Training and Partnership Act (JTPA) and the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). In 1982, she moved to the Bureau of Adult Education where she managed the state and federal adult education grants to local school districts, community colleges, and community based organizations; developed proposals targeted to program improvement; implemented the formal evaluation process for the funded adult education programs; provided technical assistance to districts; developed the legislative proposals for adult education; and prepared state and federal reports. In 1989, she became the Bureau Chief of the Bureau of Adult Education and under her leadership the Bureau completed the implementation of the Connecticut Competency System (CCS), a competency-based approach to adult education through instruction and assessment in either a life skills or employability skills approach. This led to coordinated efforts among state agencies to utilize a single assessment system for adults throughout the state. In addition, the Bureau developed, implemented, and refined the database management system for reporting on the progress of clients, developed and implemented strategic school profiles for adult education programs, and shared the information with interagency partners to help in the decision making process to determine client progress for additional education and employment training opportunities. In 1998, Ms. Pawloski assumed responsibility for Vocational Education and managed the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education grant and Connecticut’s School to Career grant and implemented the new state plan under Title II of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) working with interagency partners to establish the roles and responsibilities of Adult Education as a One Stop Partner and successfully negotiated Memoranda of Understanding with each of the Worforce Investment Boards in the state.
Since retiring from the Department in 2003, Ms. Pawloski has worked as a consultant to the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS) conducting a feasibility study to determine the costs and activities involved in revising the National External Diploma Program (EDP). She has served as a consultant to the Maryland Department of Education’s Superintendent’s Panel on Excellence to Adult Education, providing strategies for expanding state funding for Adult Education. She provided assistance and recommendations to the newly appointed adult education director in Rhode Island Department of Education through a review of total program operations. She has worked with Abt Associates on their Leadership for Program Effectiveness project and the Adult Education State Delivery System Strategic Planning and Service Provision Demonstration Program. Both of these projects involved in depth interviews with state directors concerning policies regarding learner assessment and interagency cooperation and working with them to expand delivery of coordinated adult education and workforce development services at the local level.