Adjunct Program Faculty

“Equity motivates my thinking, my practice, my ethics, and my hope for education.  I believe we can create schools where gender, race, perceived ability, motivation, intellect, religion, sexual identity, and class only enhance equitable opportunities in our schools.  While this requires leaders, faculty members, parents and communities to engage in difficult professional dialogue, the result would be an educational experience for all children that is fair and inclusive.  The growing importance of education equity is based on the premise that now, more than ever, an individual’s level of education is directly correlated to the quality of life he or she will live in the future.¹ An equitable education provides the foundation for a fair and successful society.”

[1] “Ten Steps to Equity in Education” (PDF). Oecd.org. Retrieved 4 April 2016.

Biography

Nan Parsons, EdD, is the former director of UVEI’s School Leadership Programs, currently serving as an adjunct faculty member. Nan is the Assistant Principal at the Bernice A. Ray School in Hanover, NH, and the former principal of both Canaan Elementary School and Lebanon High School. Nan has been appointed to several state and national education committees including the National Center for Innovation in Education Think Tank, the NH State Consortium on Educator Effectiveness Committee, the NH DOE’s Ensuring Equitable Access to Excellent Educators Taskforce, the NH State Principal Evaluation Task Force, the NH Behavior Equity Group, the Vermont Professional Education Committee, along with serving as Vice Chair and Secretary of the Grantham School Board. She is also the past president of the NH Association of School Principals, where she continues to serve as an active board member who led the Program Evaluation and co-leads the Legislative Committee. Nan earned her doctorate and CAGS from Plymouth State University, and a Master of Education from Antioch New England Graduate School. She has New Hampshire educator endorsements in a wide range of areas, including: Superintendent, Principal, Special Education, Early Childhood Education, and K-8 Elementary Teacher.

Research and Practice Interests

Nan’s research interest is in the area of dispositions of leadership.

Presentations and Collaborations

  • Pembroke School District- SMART Goals: What do they mean for student and teacher learning?; Norms of Collaboration: It’s just the way we do business at PHS; Putting SLOs into Practice: More than just compliance
  • Piermont School and Woodsville School District– The Ethics of Student Confidentiality
  • NHASP Annual Conference- Moving Toward Change: Collaboration, Collegial Effort and Coaching; The Ethical Principal: How do you decide?; Communicating with Stakeholders; Extended Learning Opportunities: A threat or asset to public education?; You Can’t Fire Your Way to Finland
  • NHASP- Training and Supporting New Hampshire’s Mentors
  • Edward E. Fenn School- What Might the Multi Age Experience Look Like at EEFS?
  • New England Secondary School Consortium- Changing High School as You Know it: Creating Student Voice; Lebanon High School: A school on the move; So You Think You Want to be a Principal
  • NHSAA Annual Conference: What Superintendents Need to Know About Competency Based Education
  • UNH- Competency Based Education: Overview and action steps; Inclusive Classrooms: Improving equity and outcomes for all students; The Legal Alphabet Soup: FERPA, FAPE, and Confidentiality

Publications

  • February 2018: Beyond Knowledge and Skills: Addressing the Dispositions of Principals in New Hampshire Institutions of Higher Education Principal Preparation Programs
  • August 2018: How Schools Improve: A Conceptual Framework

Blog Posts

  • May 2017: Learning from the Finland Experience
  • February 2018: From Both Sides of the Table
  • June 2018: Lessons from the Co-teaching Trenches
  • September 2018: A First Year Principal and Assistant Principal’s First Days on the Job
  • December 2018: From Manager to Leader
  • February 2019: It’s a Matter of Disposition