Former National Distinguished Elementary Principal for Mississippi (2004) who led a school-wide Title I elementary school in Meridian, MS from low performance to the highest designation on the state’s accountability system. Provided oversight for ESEA, School Improvement (1003a and 1003g), Special Populations, and student support programs at the district level for 5 years. Provided oversight for ESEA, School Improvement (1003a and 1003g) and IDEA programs at the state level for approximately 10 years. Served as Deputy State Superintendent of Education in MS for approximately 8 years, with oversight for PK-12 Curriculum and Instruction; Compulsory Attendance; Alternative Education; State initiatives including MTSS, Early Childhood, Literacy, CCR Standards, CTE, Computer Science, Professional Development, Graduation Requirements, and High-Quality Instructional Materials. Project Lead and Co-author: Benton, K., Permenter, P., Richel, M., Sheley, P., Hartman, N., Layland, A. (2022). Supporting Students in Poverty with High Impact Instructional Strategies. Rockville, MD: National Comprehensive Center at Westat. Co-Author: Manian, N., McColskey, W., Benton, K., & Lipshie, N. (2021). Implementing Trauma-Informed Practices in Rural Schools. Rockville, MD: National Comprehensive Center at Westat. Benton, K., Butterfield, K., Manian, N., Molina, M., Richel, M. (2020). Returning to School Toolkit for Principals. Rockville, MD: National Comprehensive Center at Westat.

Dr. Jill Lammert is the Co-Director of the National Comprehensive Center and an Associate Vice President in the Education Studies practice at Westat. She has 20+ years of experience designing, conducting, and evaluating programs to support education policy and reform, plus providing exceptional capacity-building and evaluation expertise. Dr. Lammert also co-leads the Center to Improve Program and Project Performance, which delivers evaluation technical assistance to Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) grantees to help them measure performance and improve outcomes for students with disabilities.

Dr. Ventura Rodriguez joined ERS as a partner in September 2021. Since joining ERS, he has led numerous partnerships with school districts and state education agencies. Recent projects include conducting a resource diagnostic in the Metro Nashville Public Schools to support the alignment of resources to a multi-year strategy, developing an elementary scheduling and staffing guide for the Nebraska Department of Education, supporting Dallas ISD’s Racial Equity Working Group, and partnering with the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to support a cohort of seven high schools to redesign their schedules and staffing plans aligned to priorities for student experiences. Ventura also leads ERS' State Practice Area. In this role, he supports ERS’ work to enable the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of effective and ambitious state-level policies that create critical enabling conditions for school and system leaders to transform how they use resources (people, time, and money) to support schools and students.