Who We Are

Martha Willis, Principal

Teacher, trainer, artist and musician. Martha has taught and trained individuals and groups from pre-kindergarten to adults, in preschools, elementary and secondary schools, and in colleges, churches and community settings, through classes and workshops as well as entertainment events. Among the first wave of teachers at the beginning of Head Start, she was a trainer in western North Carolina for LINC (Learning Institute of North Carolina). She performed as a story teller/actor, craftsman and musician in West Virginia and throughout Appalachia from Pennsylvania to Tennessee, in a movement to connect people of the region with aspects of their own neglected cultural heritage.

As a VISTA volunteer she worked with other community members and Cabin Creek Quilts Cooperative to focus attention on economic development and cultural history of Malden, WV. Together they initiated a project of historic interpretation, resulting in the restoration of buildings related to Booker T. Washington who spent his formative years in Malden following the civil war. Involving youth and local historians and culture enthusiasts she produced relevant media and media events.

She worked for Curtis & Associates, Inc., as an employment communications consultant to welfare recipients transitioning into the workforce in and around Indianapolis, Indiana. She was a puppeteer/educator and evaluator with Kids on the Block of Middle Tennessee, presenting messages advocating the worth of every individual and teaching prevention and alternatives to abuse, violence, and discrimination to thousands of area school children annually. With other staff members she developed program materials, logic models and spearheaded evaluation strategies and instruments, maintained and evaluated data and generated reports answering multiple grant requirements. She is currently teaching music classes and private lessons at Born Again Christian Academy, a private early childhood center and developing elementary school.

"My interest is in purposeful, engaging and relevant teaching and learning. I believe in teaching and learning that occurs naturally, is developmentally appropriate, and with colleagues committed to personal growth. I believe that learning proceeds best when grounded in one's estimation of their personal strengths, challenges, hopes and possibilities. For example, a child learns to read or play an instrument because they are aware of others who do so and because they see such skills as somehow relevant in their own world. They continue because they and those around them find the activities leading to skill to be engaging, somehow profitable, and can sense their movement along some continuum of competence. They find a place in the wider world as their skills proceed toward excellence."

A committed student, herself, Martha holds a BS in Music Education and completed Preschool Teacher Training with the Opportunity Corporation of Madison and Buncombe Counties in Ashville, North Carolina, as well as continuing education with the Learning Institute of North Carolina. She has studied communications, social science and culture in a variety of colleges and universities. She has studied music – instrumental, vocal and pedagogical – both privately and in a variety of institutions, most recently completing certification training in the elemental teaching method of Levels I and II of Karl Orff and Foundational training in the pedagogy of Zoltan Kodaly.

Jack Willis, Principal

Analyst, evaluator, reporter. John A. (Jack) Willis has over 25 years of experience in research, evaluation and analysis, most of it in the fields of education and prevention. He has worked at the local, state, and national levels with assessment and evaluation; state and district program planning; providing technical assistance on Title I and other federal programs; research and data management; and information systems and reporting technologies

Located in Nashville, Tennessee, he currently provides contract services to the state mental health department as a member of a state epidemiology workgroup for prevention, to Community Anti-Drug Coalitions Across Tennessee (CADCAT) for data management, to the University of South Carolina for research under a National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) grant, and to Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) for evaluation consulting in several departments. Jack came to Nashville in 1998 as senior evaluation consultant when MNPS expanded its research and evaluation department. Among his accomplishments were leading a qualitative study of effective schools and developing a battery of annual opinion surveys of students, parents, teachers, non-teaching employees.

Prior to coming to Nashville, Jack Willis was senior analyst with PRC Education and Evaluation Services in Indianapolis, Indiana. Under federal and state contracts, he worked with state and local education agencies on the East Coast and in the Midwest. "I consider highlights of my work there was negotiating settlements that resolved conflicts between the Office of Indian Education Programs (OIEP) of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Compensatory Education Programs of the US Department of Education, and between Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Also I was on a team that pioneered uses of knowledge management tools and procedures in several education organizations. We developed digital 'knowledgebases' for the state education departments of Nebraska and Missouri and for the Center for Effective Schools at Phi Delta Kappa."

In the 80s Jack worked for the West Virginia Department of Education and for Kanawha County Schools, in Charleston, WV, a large LEA in the state. Prior to work in education, Jack was director of publications of a national youth organization headquarters in New York City, a journalist for a daily newspaper in Asheville, NC, and a college public information officer.

In addition to articles in research journals, he has had published interviews with Robert F. Kennedy; the late newspapermen, Ralph McGill of the Atlanta Constitution and Jonathan Daniels of the Raleigh News and Observer; and author, Reynolds Price; and theologian George A. Buttrick. He has bachelor's degree from East Carolina University and master's degree from West Virginia University

Other Associates

We have other associates in the fields of documentation, teaching, evaluation, management training, business development and experiential learning.