Dr. Frances A. Miller
Co-President
Co-President
I am a musician and possess a love for the arts. As a result, this has influenced my career as an educator. After enjoying several years as a music educator, I continued to promote arts integration and active academics while serving our public schools in the role of as an assistant principal, and then a principal. I also held additional responsibilities such as fine arts supervisor, supervisor of kindergarten, and enrollment coordinator.
I then left the public school system and discovered the joy of teaching adults. I began working on the college level and serving as a professional development provider for a leading digital company as well as several other organizations. I soon realized, I needed to open my own consulting business, Advancing Professional Learning for Educators, LLC. After working for Cabrini College and Penn State University in York, PA and also conducting school improvement consulting throughout the United States for School Improvement Network and Learning Sciences International, I am now working in Pennsylvania! I am a member of a team of consultants conducting Continuous School Improvement work in several schools across the Commonwealth for PDE. It is very exciting!
When I consider who has had the greatest impact on me regarding professional learning, two people come to my mind. Dennis Sparks influenced my thinking the moment I read his research on positive deviants. He had finally placed a label on the second person who has been a role model for me. George Hopkins is the former director of Youth Education in the Arts and the Garfield Cadets, a Drum and Bugle Corps. Although an unlikely person as an influencer in this realm, “Hop” has set the pace in the world of DCI. He knows how to grow programs, impact systems, and raise the ceiling on the status quo. I have seen him develop youth and adults using his knowledge and heartfelt passion until they develop the realization that they should strive for personal excellence without compromise, rather than the score of an outside judge while continually pushing the limits of one's own goals. His process was ingenious, the impact he had on his students was life altering… I only wish I could bottle it!
I then left the public school system and discovered the joy of teaching adults. I began working on the college level and serving as a professional development provider for a leading digital company as well as several other organizations. I soon realized, I needed to open my own consulting business, Advancing Professional Learning for Educators, LLC. After working for Cabrini College and Penn State University in York, PA and also conducting school improvement consulting throughout the United States for School Improvement Network and Learning Sciences International, I am now working in Pennsylvania! I am a member of a team of consultants conducting Continuous School Improvement work in several schools across the Commonwealth for PDE. It is very exciting!
When I consider who has had the greatest impact on me regarding professional learning, two people come to my mind. Dennis Sparks influenced my thinking the moment I read his research on positive deviants. He had finally placed a label on the second person who has been a role model for me. George Hopkins is the former director of Youth Education in the Arts and the Garfield Cadets, a Drum and Bugle Corps. Although an unlikely person as an influencer in this realm, “Hop” has set the pace in the world of DCI. He knows how to grow programs, impact systems, and raise the ceiling on the status quo. I have seen him develop youth and adults using his knowledge and heartfelt passion until they develop the realization that they should strive for personal excellence without compromise, rather than the score of an outside judge while continually pushing the limits of one's own goals. His process was ingenious, the impact he had on his students was life altering… I only wish I could bottle it!