Carolina – Greensboro, where she was a North Carolina Teaching Fellow. She has held senior roles at the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, Learning Forward, Educational Testing Service, and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. She has served as adjunct faculty for several colleges and has helped faithbased groups implement organizational change. She completed leadership and coaching training with the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching, Dale Carnegie Corporation, Institute for Management Studies, Jack McDowell School for Leadership Development, and the Parker Palmer Center for Courage and Renewal. She has served as a director of ministerial training in North Carolina, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. She is the dean of education for the COGIC International Sunday School Department and president of the GirlsGotLIFE Foundation. “I never thought I would become a teacher’s teacher, and I certainly never thought I would train college faculty all over the country — an accomplishment I refer to as teaching the teachers who teach the teachers,” she says. She has a talent for working with diverse audiences and employs her unique ability to merge both empirical and action research with her own practical experiences to improve education for all students. “My wide array of experiences helps make me the consummate storyteller, bringing light and hope to any audience grappling with any educational topic.” Consequently, Dr. O is a trusted, accomplished, proven source to whom others turn for guidance. “I tell every educator, parent, policymaker, pastor, and client this personal quote: ‘When we think together, we think better, and that is how we achieve what we, alone, thought we could not do.’ Collaboration is the key to accomplishing anything you envision. Whatev-
er your ‘it’ is, accomplishing it together is so much better than trying to do it all on your own.” Her new book, “WHY SCHOOLS FUMBLE: Applying the End Zone Mindset to School Improvement,” explains why America keeps ‘fumbling’ in education. “It explains how you -- principals, parents, teachers, policymakers, and pastors -- can help change the game and get more students into the academic end zone. It’s the ‘right now’ message for school improvement with post-pandemic strategies for radically changing how we ‘do school’ in this country,” she says. She shares words of wisdom with others who dream of achieving their goals. She advises people to put their vision to paper: “Write it down! You really do need to write the vision so you and whoever else can see it, read it, speak into existence, and run with it.” She also says it’s important to surround oneself with positive, encouraging people: “Stop running with people who are not going where you’re going and not committed to helping you get there. And, she says, lift others whenever you can. “What you make happen for someone else, God will make happen for you,” she says. “You will never go wrong while consistently trying to do what’s right. Do what you’re supposed to do, the way God created you to do it, without apology. Block out all voices that don’t align with what you know God told you. He told me to write and teach, and look at me now.” She is enjoying the solid success of having attained financial security doing what she loves. “Everybody said teaching would never be a lucrative career, but as DrCathyO, the “Eduproblem Solver” and CEO of Educational Effectiveness Group, I make money, and I make a difference.”
‘COLLABORATION IS THE KEY TO ACCOMPLISHING ANYTHING YOU ENVISION..”