ChairJackie Mania-Singer (2022-2024)National Council for Community and Education PartnershipsJackie_mania@EDPARTNERSHIPS.ORG
Program Chair Linda K. Mayger (2021-2023) The College of New Jersey maygerl@tcnj.edu
Program Chair-Elect Lok-Sze Wong (2021-2023) University of North texas Lok-Sze.Wong@unt.edu
Secretary/Treasurer Margie Sauceda Curwen (2022-2024) Chapman University mcurwen@chapman.edu
Webmaster Nichole Walsh Fresno State nwalsh@mail.fresnostate.edu
Dr. Jackie Mania serves as the Director of Research and Evaluation at NCCEP. Additionally, she serves as an adjunct for three Oklahoma universities in the area of Educational Leadership. Dr. Mania has 20 years of experience in education as a classroom teacher, a principal, a district administrator, the Director of School Turnaround for the State of Oklahoma, and a faculty member at Oklahoma State University. She has published numerous manuscripts and book chapters and has been invited to speak nationally and internationally on her research.
Jackie is a member of the Systems Thinking in Education SIG because she has always felt a sense of community among the members and she enjoys conversations with others in the same field. She is most looking forward to a trip to Poland to see her family this summer. Her hobbies include running, pottery, traveling, and baking.
Dr. Lok-Sze Wong studies system reform policies as attempts to address systemic inequities. Drawing on education, sociocultural, and organization theories and mixed methods, her research unpacks how systems (re)produce inequities and how to humanely reform schools and districts as complex social systems. She focuses on professional learning opportunities that support teachers and administrators as they shift their practices while redesigning the very organizations in which they work. Dr. Wong began her career in education as an elementary school teacher in Los Angeles. Dr. Wong has a Ph.D. in Educational Administration and Policy from the University of Michigan. Dr. Wong enjoys being part of the SIG because the members of this SIG are thoughtful scholars and wonderful human beings who have diverse understandings of systems thinking. We continually push each others' understandings about systems thinking and how to leverage systems thinking to improve children's learning opportunities. She hopes to spend her summer spending a lot of time with her 7-year old daughter this summer when she’s not writing.
Margie Sauceda Curwen, Ph.D. is an associate professor at Chapman University in Orange, California in the Attallah College of Educational Studies and is the Coordinator for the Kathleen Muth Literacy Center. Her research interests are literacy as a social practice, classroom discourse, pedagogical approaches using systems thinking, critical literacy, and systemic sustainability education. When Dr. Sauceda Curwen discovered the Systems Thinking in Education SIG, it was a much welcomed academic home for dialogue and sharing ideas.