SISEP Active State

New Jersey - Team Structure

Executive Sponsors of SISEP Partnership:

Kathleen Ehling, Esq., has worked for the Department of Education for over 16 years.  She is currently the Acting Assistant Commissioner for the Division of Student Services.  In this role, Kathleen oversees the Offices of Special Education, Special Education Policy and Dispute Resolution, Supplemental Educational Programs, Fiscal and Data Services, Student Support Services, and the Marie H. Katzenbach School for the Deaf.  In her previous role as the Director of the Office of Fiscal and Data Services, she oversaw the administration of federal and state grant funds for the Division of Student Services.  Prior to this role, Kathleen served as the Manager of the Bureau of Governance and Fiscal Support, Office of Special Education Policy and Procedure within the New Jersey Department of Education.  In this capacity, she oversaw the implementation of administrative policy for the office, including the development of regulations, model IEPs and the Parental Rights in Special Education booklet.  In addition, Ms. Ehling also oversaw the dispute resolution system, the complaint investigation process, the approval and monitoring of approved private schools for students with disabilities and clinics and agencies, the SEMI program, and the IDEA Part B grant process.  Additional duties included coordinating submission of the State Performance Plan/Annual Performance Report and the State Systemic Improvement Plan to the United States Department of Education.  Prior to assuming the role of Manager, Ms. Ehling worked as a special assistant to the Director of the Office of Special Education Programs, a complaint investigator, and a mediator with the NJOSEP.  Prior to joining the department, Ms. Ehling worked as a fifth-grade teacher in the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District.

Cary Booker is the Assistant Commissioner for the Division of Early Childhood Education at the New Jersey Department of Education. The division includes the Office of Preschool Education and the Office of K-3 Education. The Division also houses the federal Head Start program and the Governor’s Council for Young Children. In this position, Mr. Booker oversees the priorities of Governor Murphy and Acting Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan, Ed.,D.  in supervising the birth through 3^rd-grade education initiatives that include the expansion of New Jersey’s nationally recognized high quality preschool program.

Working collaboratively within the NJDOE and other state agencies, the Division of Early Childhood Education manages the social, emotional, physical, and academic development of New Jersey’s youngest learners.  The division also provides leadership, resources, and professional development to support high-quality teaching and learning within New Jersey’s early childhood ecosystem.

Before joining the NJDOE, Mr. Booker served as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Governor’s office and, during his career, has served in other high-level positions at various institutions. He served as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and director of The Academic Foundations Center/Educational Opportunity Fund Program at Rutgers University, Newark; Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs at LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis, TN; and Vice President of Omni Schools also in Memphis, TN.

Mr. Booker completed his doctoral coursework in social psychology at The University of Texas and earned a Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College in Massachusetts.

Tonya Coston has worked for the Department of Education for over 23 years. She is the Executive Director for the Division of Early Childhood Services. In this role, she oversees the priorities of Governor Murphy and Acting Commissioner Angelica Allen-McMillan, Ed., D. in supervising the birth through 3rd-grade education initiatives that include the expansion of New Jersey's nationally recognized high-quality preschool program. The Division includes the Office of Preschool Education and the Office of K-3 Education. The Division also houses the federal Head Start Collaboration Office and the Governor's Council for Young Children.

Working collaboratively within the NJDOE and other state agencies, the Division of Early Childhood Services manages New Jersey's youngest learners' social, emotional, physical, and academic development. The Division provides leadership, resources, and professional development to support New Jersey's early childhood ecosystem's high-quality teaching and learning.

Jorden Schiff, Ed.D. was originally hired by the New Jersey Department of Education as the Assistant Commissioner for Field Support and Services and now leads the Division of Teaching and Learning Services. He joined the Department after serving as an educator in New Jersey schools for over 30 years. He has experience as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent in seven public school districts and a private school. Dr. Schiff has also held various leadership positions at the county and state levels, including Chairman of the Somerset County School Security Task Force, Chairman of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators’ Legislative Committee, Vice President of the Somerset County Superintendents Roundtable, and President of the Garden State Coalition of Schools. Dr. Schiff has testified in front of various legislative committees on topics affecting the

quality of education for the students in New Jersey. He has also presented many times at state and national conferences to build leadership capacity of school, district, and board personnel. Dr. Schiff has been recognized for his contributions to the field of education, including being awarded the Somerset County Superintendent of the Year 2015-2016, CoSN Volunteer Hall of Fame Inductee, and Golden Apple Award recipient. Dr. Schiff holds multiple degrees from Rutgers University including a Bachelor’s Degree in economics, a Master’s Degree in Elementary and Early Childhood Education, and a Doctoral Degree in Administration and Supervision of Education.

State Transformation Assistant Administrators (STAA):

Dr. Chimaobi Amutah is the Data Visualization Expert for the Office of Comprehensive Support (OCS) within the Division of Field Services of the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE), bringing over 10 years of experience in a variety of education policy, practice, and research settings to the STS role. In policy, he has worked for the NJDOE for over eight years in numerous roles related to data analysis supporting district and school improvement. In practice, Dr. Amutah has delivered hundreds of lessons in math, world history, U.S. history, and other courses to students in grades 6-10 as a classroom teacher and graduate students as an adjunct professor. In research, he has designed, conducted, and published original research focused on educational equity issues, especially regarding parental advocacy and class.

Dr. Amutah holds a bachelor’s degree in African and African American Studies with honors from Harvard University, where he won numerous awards for public service and leadership. Following his time at Harvard, he taught middle school and high school social studies in Mississippi as part of the Mississippi Teacher Corps program, which couples full-time teaching in a high-needs school with a fully-funded master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Mississippi. He also taught mathematics for charter schools within the KIPP network in Arkansas and Pennsylvania before returning to his native New Jersey to begin doctoral coursework in education at Rutgers University. He received his doctor of education degree in Education, Culture, and Society from Rutgers University in 2017, where he was a two-time Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar.

Erice Reid is an Inclusion Specialist for the Office of Special Education, Division of Educational Services at the New Jersey Department of Education. In her role, she participates and leads the development, evaluation, and monitoring of local and state instructional programs for students with disabilities and inclusive practices and recommends program changes. She also provides technical assistance in designing and implementing plans for improving instructional programming for students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms. 

Ms. Reid joined the NJDOE in 2021 after 17 years as an educator. Before joining the Office of Special Education, she served as a Special Education Advisor in the School District of Philadelphia. In this role, she served in an advisory capacity to principals regarding special education compliance, student and parent concerns, and interagency collaboration. Ms. Reid coordinated and served as the point of contact for potential litigation matters, due process hearings, and out-of-district placements. In addition, she provided targeted professional development and training to special education teachers and paraprofessionals. 

SISEP Implementation Specialist:

Sophia Farmer is an Implementation Specialist at NIRN, provides implementation science support to the R7 Comprehensive Center and supports three State Departments of Education through the SISEP Center project. Ms. Farmer has served as a founding member and Director of the Virginia Tiered Systems of Supports Research and Implementation Center (VTSS-RIC).  The VTSS-RIC is a research to practice center within the Commonwealth of Virginia whose charge is to disseminate the most current research in education and support implementation and transformation in the field. In this role she led the state’s development and implementation of an MTSS framework to support evidence-based instruction and interventions efficiently and effectively in ways that were congruent with the research. Within the center, Ms. Farmer created and facilitated state, regional, and district teams charged with critical conversations around equitable access and opportunities for all students.  She created the infrastructure that forged and facilitated relationships within and across state agencies to build networks of shared expertise and understanding. Ms. Farmer was the lead architect of the state’s School Climate and Transformation Grant and State Personnel Development Grant.  She has extensive experience in the application of implementation and improvement sciences as a special educator, district leader, regional technical assistance provider and state leader. As an implementation specialist, her areas of expertise are in curriculum and instructional design, co-teaching and inclusion, behavior, and the alignment and efficiency of educational systems in ways that support and connect diverse stakeholders.

Correy Watkins is an Implementation Specialist at NIRN, he provides implementation science support to two State Departments of Education through the SISEP Center project.  Mr. Watkins has served as a PBIS and MTSS Consultant with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.  In this role he was a member of the state’s development and implementation of an MTSS framework.  Mr. Watkins provided regional support on classroom behavior management along with providing professional development on problem-solving models. Mr. Watkins also served as a State Implementation Specialist.  He has experience in the rollout of new initiatives from a district, regional, and state level. As an implementation specialist, his areas of expertise are implementation and scaling-up of the six critical components that are used to efficiently and effectively roll out new initiatives.  

Dr. Jack serves as an Implementation Specialist for the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She provides support for the use of implementation and improvement sciences methods and tools in the delivery of technical assistance and capacity building support to state, regional, and local education agencies. Dr. Jack has extensive multi-level leadership experience in the field of education. She gained a national perspective while serving as a presenter at numerous national conferences geared toward leadership development and continuous improvement. Dr. Jack’s wide range of experiences has allowed her to leverage networks to advance communities in their development.

The State Management Team (SMT) - The SMT in NJ is a vast, diverse group comprised of representatives from the Division of Field Services, the Division of Student Services, the Division of Early Childhood Education, and the Division of Academics and Performance across the Office of Comprehensive Support, the Office of Student Support Services, the Office of Special Education, the Office of Fiscal and Data Services, the Office of Supplemental Educational Programs, the Office of Standards and the Office of Professional Learning. Representing such a wide range of perspectives from the New Jersey Department of Education, the team has charted a course to align priorities within the department and transform how the department supports districts and schools through evidence-based, targeted interventions with the state’s most vulnerable students. 

The State Implementation Team (SIT) - Like the SMT, the SIT in New Jersey is composed of a range of dedicated personnel from the Division of Early Childhood Services, the Division of Field Support and Services, and the Division of Student Services from the Office of Comprehensive Support, the Office of Special Education, the Office of Student Support Services, and the Office of Supplemental Educational Programs. Additionally, the SIT has engaged outside support through literacy consults and professional researchers to ensure that materials developed as part of the current initiative focused on early literacy are high-quality and evidence-based.