Dr. Chris Clayton
I serve as an Assistant Director of Education Services for the Pennsylvania State Education Association and am responsible for providing support to over 180,000 educator members on issues involving assessment, teacher certification, student achievement, pedagogical best practices, and research in teaching and learning. I earned my Ph.D. in Language and Literacy Education and Ed. S. in Education Leadership, Administration, & Policy at The University of Georgia along with a Master's Degree in Curriculum & Instruction from Regis University in Denver, CO. I am a National Board Certified Teacher who, prior to starting with PSEA, served as a high school English and I.B. Theory of Knowledge teacher and coach for over ten years in Southern California and Washington state before becoming a district administrator and Director of Curriculum & Instruction in a large metro-Atlanta school district with 138 schools and over 100,000 students. I moved to Hershey to begin my role with PSEA in 2014 and happily reside there with my wife, two daughters (20 & 25), son (12), and granddaughter (7).
The biggest influence in my life as a lifelong, passionate learner as a professional stems back to my time as a High School I.B. Theory of Knowledge and ELA teacher at Sumner High School in Sumner, WA. While there, I had the prodigious good fortune of being a faculty member on a staff which had a full time Professional Development Specialist named Loren Willson. Mr. Willson had a huge influence on me, as he pushed me to think deeply and reflectively about my own craft and practice of teaching. He immersed our personalized PD sessions in the literature and research of the best pedagogical practices while also honing and staying true to the intuition and innate knowledge of what I knew was best for my students. Loren Willson was truly an amazing resource and teacher of teachers, and he had a profound effect on me and the students in my class.
The biggest influence in my life as a lifelong, passionate learner as a professional stems back to my time as a High School I.B. Theory of Knowledge and ELA teacher at Sumner High School in Sumner, WA. While there, I had the prodigious good fortune of being a faculty member on a staff which had a full time Professional Development Specialist named Loren Willson. Mr. Willson had a huge influence on me, as he pushed me to think deeply and reflectively about my own craft and practice of teaching. He immersed our personalized PD sessions in the literature and research of the best pedagogical practices while also honing and staying true to the intuition and innate knowledge of what I knew was best for my students. Loren Willson was truly an amazing resource and teacher of teachers, and he had a profound effect on me and the students in my class.