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The Devil in the Details
System Change in Action
with Mary Jean Gallagher and Michael Fullan

This session will focus on whether the pandemic is/will increase the likelihood that system transformation can be leveraged and developed in 2021. The focus initially will be placed on local level (school and community). Included will be strengthening success through connections with other schools and regions, linking upward to the system as a whole.

Mary Jean Gallagher

Mary Jean Gallagher is an educator and leader with a passion for education improvement and a focus on excellence and equity.

Ms. Gallagher is the former chief student achievement officer and assistant deputy minister of the Ontario Ministry of Education, where she worked from 2008 to late 2015. In that role she led Ontario’s 5,000 schools in raising literacy and numeracy results by 18% and graduation results by 18.5%. Prior to the ministry, she served as director (Superintendent) of education of Canada’s southernmost school district, the Greater Essex County District School Board, and its predecessor, since 1995. Formerly a teacher of mathematics and computer science, she has also been chair of the Council of Ontario Directors of Education, CEO of the Ontario Education Improvement Commission, a secondary school principal and a school superintendent of staffing and development.

Ms. Gallagher now leads her own company, M.J. Gallagher and Associates, and is the senior lead for system improvement with Michael Fullan and Associates. She is currently named education advisor to the Department of Education for the state of Victoria, Australia and has provided presentations, advice and mentoring to school district leaders, ministries and departments of education in more than 26 countries on six continents. Dr. Gallagher has authored a number of publications on system reform in education. In recognition of her innovative leadership in education, she has received numerous professional awards, including an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Windsor in 2008, and Outstanding Educator of the Year Awards from the Ontario Phi Delta Kappan Association in 2013 and from the Ontario Principal’s Council in 2015. Most recently she was named Canada’s Outstanding Education Leader 2016 by The Learning Partnership of Canada. She also serves on the Professional Advisory Board of the Gerald H. Read Center for International and Intercultural Education at Kent State University.

Michael Fullan

Michael Fullan, OC is the former Dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and Professor Emeritus of the University of Toronto. He is co-leader of the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning global initiative (npdl.global). Recognized as a worldwide authority on educational reform, he advises policymakers and local leaders in helping to achieve the moral purpose of all children learning. Michael Fullan received the Order of Canada in December 2012. He holds honorary doctorates from several universities around the world.

Fullan is a prolific, award-winning author whose books have been published in many languages. His book Leading in a Culture of Change received the 2002 Book of the Year Award by Learning Forward, Breakthrough (with Peter Hill and Carmel Crévola) won the 2006 Book of the Year Award from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), and Turnaround Leadership in Higher Education (with Geoff Scott) won the Bellwether Book Award in 2009. Change Wars (with Andy Hargreaves) was named the 2009 Book of the Year by Learning Forward, and Professional Capital (with Andy Hargreaves) won the AACTE 2013 Book of the Year, and the Grawemeyer Award in Education in 2015. Michael Fullan's latest books are:

Nuance: Why Some Leaders Succeed and Others Fail
Surreal Change: The Real Life of Transforming Public Education (autobiography)
Deep Learning: Engage the World Change the World (with Joanne Quinn and Joanne McEachen)
Coherence: Putting the Right Drivers in Action (with Joanne Quinn)
The Principal: Three Keys for Maximizing Impact.