Ashley Bencan

Ashley Bencan is a highly energetic leader who values collaboration and impacting organizational change. She is a connector that believes in the power of people. Ashley has worked in education for over 17 years as a teacher, leader, policy maker, coach and advocate. She developed her education acumen, leadership and systems thinking through professional experiences at the New Jersey Department of Education, the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, the School District of Philadelphia and multiple educational non-profits. As a Teach For America educator, she deeply understood the power of a network within her school  and across her district. She wrote and received $40,000 in grants and was awarded a commendation for the Ruth Hayre Wright Teacher of the Year award. It has been through each experience, that she realized her privilege to be connected to so many education professionals and now wants to expand that opportunity to everyone in education.

Dr. Chelsea Collins

Chelsea Collins is a nationally-recognized educator, teacher coach, district advisor, and presenter. In 2016, she represented 125,000 NJ educators as the 2016 New Jersey State Teacher of the Year, where she served as an ambassador of education across the state, country and world and studied world-renowned education systems in Finland and China alongside top-notch U.S. educators. Chelsea has led statewide education work both independently and for the Department of Education. As a teacher, Chelsea helped lead her school out of “focus status” through data-driven, standard-aligned best practices, resulting in students scoring 25 percent higher than the state average in ELA at grade and school levels. When she later worked for the NJ Department of Education, she designed and led the NJ Teacher Leader Network, an initiative that received national accolades.

Dr. Anthony Fitzpatrick

Anthony Fitzpatrick Ed.D. is an accomplished education leader, professor, and author with more than 25 years of experience in K–12 leadership, state policy, and higher education. Currently, [Name] serves as Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction at Delsea Regional and Elk Township School Districts, where they oversee instruction, professional learning, and organizational leadership for 2,000 students. In this role, [Name] has expanded preschool access districtwide, implemented MTSS, secured more than $3 million in competitive grants, and designed innovative teacher development and evaluation systems.

Alongside district leadership, he serves as an Associate Professor and Dissertation Chair at the University of Phoenix, teaching doctoral courses in educational leadership, curriculum, and organizational change. Their prior experience includes serving as a principal, supervisor of instruction, and statewide leader at the New Jersey Department of Education, where they directed InnovateNJ, launched Future Ready NJ, and supported educator effectiveness policy across 600 districts.

A frequent presenter and published author, Dr. Fitzpatrick has written extensively on MTSS, teacher effectiveness, and innovation, while maintaining a strong commitment to equity and inclusion in education.

Jody Spiro, Ed.D.

Jody Spiro, Ed.D. is a nationally recognized leader in education systems change, leadership development, and higher education. She is the Founder and CEO of the Change Leadership Collaborative, which brings together national education leaders to advance transformative practices, and a strategic advisor to Learning Forward, where she developed the Leadership Team Institute and has authored a series of widely read articles on team leadership. She also serves as a senior consultant to the National SAM Innovation Project, designing resources to help principals navigate leadership in polarized environments.

For 20 years, Dr. Spiro was Director of Education Leadership at The Wallace Foundation, overseeing more than $600 million in initiatives across 174 districts in 34 states. Independent research found these efforts significantly improved student achievement in reading and math. Earlier, she held senior leadership roles at the Education Development Center, Soros Foundations, Long Island University, and the New York City Department of Education.

She has authored four books on leading change and teaches graduate leadership and policy courses at Vanderbilt University and Florida Atlantic University.

Dawn De Lorenzo, Ed.S

 Dawn is a seasoned educator, certified Structured Literacy teacher, and special education advocate with over two decades of experience supporting diverse learners. She is the founder of Lighthouse Literacy Solutions, LLC, where she provides evidence-based literacy instruction, executive functioning coaching, and special education advocacy. Dawn currently serves as a Writing Specialist at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Regional Center for Learning Disabilities and was a 2023–2024 JerseyCAN Teacher Leader Policy Fellow, advocating for statewide literacy reform. Her work is rooted in a deep commitment to educational equity and empowering students, families, and educators through clear, compassionate, and research-driven support.

Kristina Z. Phelan

Kristian has 25 years of K-3 teaching experience in diverse New Jersey and New York districts.  She has given over 50 workshops and presentations about literacy at local, state, and national conferences. In 2018, she was Monmouth County Teacher of the Year and a State Teacher of the Year finalist. She graduated from Colgate University and has teaching degrees from Teachers College/Columbia University and Rutgers University. As a 2022-2023 JerseyCAN Teacher Leader Policy Fellow she worked with Senator Vin Gopal’s legislative team to craft legislation to improve reading instruction in New Jersey. In 2024-2025, she served on the New Jersey Department of Education’s Working Group on Student Literacy, established as part of the legislation, to provide recommendations and guidelines on universal literacy screening and high-quality literacy instructional materials.