NAPDS announces the election of three new officers

Please join us in congratulating these new officers and thanking them for their willingness to serve.

President Elect – Keith Derrick

Keith Derrick is the high school principal for Royal High School (RHS) in the Simi Valley Unified School District. He has been an advocate for all students having equitable access to the most challenging high school academic programs. To that end, RHS is a California Gold Ribbon school and received the California School Boards Association Golden Bell Award for Equity and Access. Keith holds a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and a bachelor’s degree in political science.

RHS has been part of the California Lutheran University PDS network since 2017. As a result of the partnership’s fidelity to the NAPDS Nine Essentials, the network was the recipient of the 2021 NAPDS Exemplary PDS Achievement Award. Keith has also been a presenter at the 2020 and 2021 NAPDS annual conferences.

Currently, Keith serves as Vice-President for the California Association of School-University Partnerships (CASUP) where he oversees the website and social media accounts. CASUP is the first regional affiliate of NAPDS and is an associated organization with California Council on Teacher Education.

Secretary – Melissa Baker

Dr. Melissa Baker is a clinical assistant professor at the University of South Carolina where serves as a professor-in-residence. Melissa’s research interests focus on teacher recruitment, induction, retention, and clinically-centered teacher preparation and PDS partnerships. 

Melissa served as secretary of PDS SERVE, the southeastern regional affiliate of NAPDS, and secretary/treasurer of the AERA PDS Research SIG. She serves as president and co-chair elect of both organizations respectively and is co-editor of an upcoming themed issue of School-University Partnerships – The Response and Responsibility of School-University Partnerships in a Time of Crisis.

Dr. Baker believes in strengthening PDS research and partnerships. To forward this, she works to secure funding and conduct research that emphasizes PDSs. Melissa serves as co-PI of a Teacher Quality Partnership grant which leverages PDS partnerships to impact rural teacher education, recruitment, induction, and retention. She serves as co-PI of a Spencer Foundation grant addressing research renewal within and across Southeastern PDSs. She is currently collaborating with leadership from multiple PDS organizations to submit a grant proposal seeking to advance equity through SUPs. 

At Large Board Member – Keli Garis-York

Keli Garas-York has been involved with the SUNY Buffalo State PDS consortium since 2006. As a faculty member, she collaborated with local schools to form mutually beneficial partnerships and provide clinically rich experiences for undergraduate and graduate literacy students. With school partners, Keli completed mini-grant projects and co-presented at annual SUNY Buffalo State PDS Conferences. In 2018, she attended her first NAPDS conference and became a PDS co-director that summer. She has been part of the NAPDS Conference Committee for three years. In 2020, she was one of the leaders of an International Professional Development Schools (IPDS) trip with teacher partners to Colombia to visit schools and build a partnership for the future. Keli has also co-edited two books about PDS (Doing PDS: Stories and strategies from successful clinically rich practice and The impact of PDS partnerships in challenging times) through Information Age Publishing and published co-authored articles and book chapters related to PDS. She looks forward to continuing her work with PDS using the newly revised NAPDS 9 Essentials as a framework.