Faculty
The Danforth Educational Leadership Program features topflight UW faculty along with credentialed instructors who work in the field.
Ann O’Doherty – Director
Ann O'Doherty is the director of the Danforth Educational Leadership Program and a senior lecturer in the UW College of Education. Before assuming this role, she served as a clinical assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin. There she directed the Collaborative Urban Leadership Project, which prepares effective secondary school leaders for schools in the Dallas, Houston, Harlandale and Austin areas. She also codeveloped the racial awareness curriculum module for the Preparing Leaders to Support Diverse Learners program of the University Council for Educational Administration. Prior to her work in higher education, O'Doherty spent 18 years contributing to public schools at the pre-K–12 level, including 12 years as a school administrator. Her research interests include program evaluation, coaching, leadership development and district-level influence on school success. She regularly contributes to research and scholarship efforts and currently serves as a member of the editorial board for Educational Administration Quarterly. She holds a doctorate in education from the University of Texas at Austin.
Jennifer Indo – Program Manager and Instructor
With over a decade of experience in student affairs, social justice education, student mentoring and program management, Jennifer Indo is a strong believer in the power of community leadership. She regularly challenges the misconceptions of siloed, top-down leadership and encourages her students to understand their leadership from a community and anti-racist perspective. Prior to her work at the University of Washington, Jennifer served as a developer of common core curriculum and director of educational field trips and camps for students in grades K–12 as a University liaison at the University of Utah. She chaired and convened a council of outreach programs, offices, schools and nonprofits that provided support to multiple school districts in Utah for five years. She also served as the program manager to the senior vice president of the Health Sciences at the University of Utah, where she focused on increasing the hiring and retention of students, staff and faculty of color throughout the Health Sciences while promoting racial awareness and the importance of cultural understanding when treating patients. Jennifer earned her master’s in education, leadership and policy from the University of Utah and currently co-teaches the anti-racist leadership module.
Manal Al-ansi
Manal Al-ansi, MAT, Esq. joined Seattle Public Schools as the director of the Department of Racial Equity Advancement in 2019. During the pandemic, Manal has taken on a dual role that includes serving as the Director of the Integrated Curriculum Department to help ensure Black Education and the Ethnic Studies Program has a stronger infrastructure for support and advocacy. Born in Ethiopia and raised in Seattle, Manal has worked and strategized for anti-racist systems change and Black liberation movements from positions within her community and within government institutions for over a decade. Manal teaches the Law & Identity module as a part of the Committing to Ethical Leadership learning strand for Danforth.
Catherine Brown
Catherine Brown began teaching in New York City Public Schools in 1993 and has worked throughout her career in innovative school settings serving historically marginalized students and families in the Bronx and Queens in New York and central and south Seattle. She taught and led at Cleveland High School in Seattle Public Schools from 2004 to 2022, where profound changes in the last 10 years have increased enrollment from 500-600 students to nearly 900 students, while graduation rates have soared from near 50% to last year’s 92%. In 2017, Cleveland sent the highest percentage of African-American students to directly enroll in college of any high school in south King County. Brown’s scholarly interests include: how leaders facilitate transformation in schools while maintaining their continuous improvement, supporting curriculum design that draws out student motivation and builds on students’ funds of knowledge, engagement of student and family voice to directly impact instruction, and sustaining school climates that can effectively address conflict, particularly identity-based microaggressions. Catherine is the co-instructor of Effective Communication & Productive Conflict, along with Dedy Fauntleroy.
Kelly Camak
Kelly Camak has been an educator since 2006. She began her career teaching in Southern California and has helped schools and systems reimagine teaching and learning as both a teacher and a school administrator. Kelly is currently a learning design manager at Getting Smart. She earned her program administrator certification from the Danforth program in 2016 and received her Ed.D. from the UW Leadership for Learning program in 2021. Kelly is a Deeper Learning Equity Fellow, driven by the relentless belief in the possibility of social justice within education systems. She focuses her education leadership on reimagining structures for teaching and learning in order to empower all students for the future. Her current work is centered on leadership development, capacity building, shifting schools for 21st century learning needs and inspiring new and veteran leaders. Primarily motivated by work that keeps equity at its core, Kelly is always working to better liberate and empower learners. She is currently teaching the Shaping Culture & Leading Change learning strand for Danforth.
Adra Davy
Adra Davy is the new director of Just Education and Adaptive Technology, responsible for providing vision and leadership to ensure all learners, particularly those furthest from educational justice, have a sense of belonging and success within their school community. Adra most recently served as the director of special education for the North Region. She has worked in the Northshore School District since 1998 as a teacher in many capacities and in administration. She was previously assistant director of elementary special education in the North Region. Besides Northshore, she has also worked in the Edmonds, Lynden and Granite Falls school districts. Adra earned her bachelor's in education at Western Washington University, a master's in education at the University of Portland, and her program administrator certification from the Danforth program. Adra teaches the Leading for Inclusion module for the Building Instructional Capacity learning strand.
Dedy Fauntleroy
Dedy Fauntleroy is principal of Northgate Elementary in the Seattle Public Schools. She previously served in leadership positions at John Stanford International School and Loyal Heights Elementary. Before becoming a building leader, Fauntleroy served as teacher leader in roles that included an English language learner instructional coach, consultant for the Council of Great City Schools and collaborator with the Center for Teacher Quality. She has also worked as a classroom teacher in grades 2–8. Fauntleroy earned her master’s in education from the University of La Verne and a principal certificate from the Danforth program. She is the co-instructor of Effective Communication & Productive Conflict, along with Catherine Brown.
dgfauntleroy@seattleschools.org
David Knight
David Knight is an assistant professor of education finance and policy at the University of Washington College of Education. He has recently come from the University of Texas, El Paso where he was the director of the Center for Education Research and Policy Studies (CERPS) and assistant professor in the Educational Leadership and Foundations Department. His research focuses on economics of education and school finance. Specific areas of research include equity in educational resource allocation, educator labor markets, and the use of cost-effectiveness analysis. David earned his doctorate in urban education policy from the University of Southern California in 2016.
Dana Nickson
Dana Nickson, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of education equity and justice in leadership, policy and politics. Dana studies the intersections of racial demographic change, politics of place (e.g. suburbanization, school choice policies, histories of Black placemaking), and educational agency in U.S. metropolitan regions. Her research specifically centers Black families and students’ diverse knowledge systems and educational experiences to offer possibilities for justice-centered collaborations and practices within and across school systems. Dana is also the 2021 recipient of the American Education Research Association's Division L Education Policy and Politics Outstanding Dissertation Award. Dana teaches courses on the Politics of Education, Family-School-Community Relationships, and U.S. Metropolitan education landscapes, among others in the College of Education. She is also the instructor for the Danforth module, Equitable Collaborations.
Jennifer Rose
Jen Rose has been an educator for more than two decades. She is currently the Director of Teaching and Learning in the Lake Washington School District. Previously, she served as principal at the International School in Bellevue, principal at Medina Elementary, and as an assistant principal at Sammamish High School. She is deeply interested in developing, supporting, and empowering leadership capacity and instructional strengths in all stakeholders in public education. Rose has served in additional leadership roles in the region, including multiple roles for the Association of Washington State Principals, as an Instructional Criteria Framework Specialist for the Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession, and as a consultant for professional learning for multiple school districts through work with OSPI. Rose earned her doctorate from the UW Leadership for Learning program in 2012. In 2014, she received the UCEA Excellence in Educational Leadership Award. Rose received her administrative credentials from the Danforth program in 2003 and has stayed engaged in the program since that time.
David Wellington
David Wellington is the new regional assistant superintendent for the East Region, Elementary Program, Bear Creek Campus, and now oversees student services. David previously provided direct supervision of the West Region and also oversaw elementary initiatives, including the expansion of 5th grade instrumental music. He has also served as an elementary, middle and high school principal. For the past three years, he has worked closely with administrators and teachers to develop more effective practices, policies, programs and procedures to better meet the needs of his district’s 23,000 students. David joined the Danforth teaching team in 2015 with more than 25 years of experience working in public education. He currently teaches the Moral and Political Dimensions module as a part of the Committing to Ethical Leadership learning strand.