FAU PPI (Principal Preparation Initiative)
About Our Faculty
Dr. Daniel Reyes-Guerra is currently an Assistant Professor in the School Leaders Program at the Department of Educational Leadership (EDL) at Florida Atlantic University. Teaching courses ranging from School Improvement on the doctoral level to Educational Governance and the Principal Internship on the Masters level, Dr. Reyes-Guerra is currently conducting research and writing about innovative district-university partnerships and internships, strategic leadership actions and thinking, and the promotion of social justice in public schools.
Since graduating from Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences in 1983, Daniel Reyes-Guerra has engaged in a range of professional experiences from owning and operating a furniture factory to overseeing the operations of a Central American coffee farm. However, what he qualifies as his most important and meaningful work has been as an educator. He taught grades 6-12 for six years in the American School of Guatemala and the American School of El Salvador, earned his M.Ed. from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, spent two years as an assistant principal, and then seven years as a secondary school principal at the American School of Asuncion in Asuncion, Paraguay. As a part of its “Grow Your Own” program, Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) College of Education hired Reyes-Guerra as the “Principal-in-Residence,” during which time he taught as a full-time member of the Educational Leadership (EDL) faculty while he earned his Ph.D.
Reyes-Guerra currently coordinates the School Leaders masters-level internship courses and programs across all the different school districts that the EDL serves. He represents the EDL as its liaison to both Broward and Miami-Dade school districts, coordinating programs and implementing new initiatives in both districts.
Dr. Jackson started his educational career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone, West Africa. He was in the pilot group of teachers to be National Board Certified. Dr. Jackson has been a school based administrator in Broward County for the past 13 years. He is proud to have received his doctorate degree from Florida Atlantic University.
Russell Clement, PhD is a Research Specialist in the Student Assessment and Research Department of Broward County Public Schools. He received his PhD in experimental psychology from Brown University in 1995. He has extensive experience in public education research having conducted numerous research studies, surveys, and evaluations during his more than 10 years with Broward Schools and four years as a consultant for other school districts across the nation.
Dr. Valerie Wanza has been a member of the Educational Leadership Adjunct Faculty since 2010. Currently, she is in her 21st year with the Broward County Public Schools and serves as a School Performance and Accountability Director. In this capacity, which she has fulfilled for 6 years, she provides direct supervision and support to 20 principals.
Throughout her tenure with the district, Dr. Wanza has been a classroom teacher, central office resource teacher, an assistant principal, a central office administrator and a principal and was named the 2006 State of Florida Middle School Principal of the Year..
About Our Mentors
PROPEL addresses the critical need for school-based administrators who will achieve success in the Broward County Public School system’s turnaround schools. The purpose of PROPEL is to best prepare exceptional leaders to meet these Broward County Public School System needs by engaging outstanding teachers in the practice of their learned knowledge, skills, and dispositions under the supervision and evaluation of an effective principal. PROPEL takes a profound and distributive approach to school leadership and builds system-wide capacity within the district. Therefore, the role of the mentor principal is integral to the development of the PROPEL interns who will then demonstrate, through evaluation systems tied to student achievement, the ability to focus in on the instructional leadership of high-need schools before being selected to run those schools.
Mentoring can be a powerful growth experience for both the mentor and the intern. It is a process of engagement. No one can mentor without connection. In fact, mentoring is most successful when it is done collaboratively. Commitment by and engagement of mentoring partners are key elements to establishing, maintaining, and experiencing successful mentoring relations; for a successful mentoring process is a reflective practice that takes preparation, dedication, and time. Mentoring focuses on developing mutually understood and shared learner-centered relationships, balancing the mentor’s roles of offering support to that of facilitating the structured activities that are at the heart of this program.
In PROPEL, the mentors facilitate the development of the intern’s professional identity and vision. The mentors guide the intern through the continuum of observing, participating, and leading. This process follows a developmental sequence that varies in length from one stage to another. In PROPEL, the mentor principal is a seated school leader committed to oversee the on-site experience for their intern, including modeling, reflection, critique, and assessment. The mentor principal is a seasoned veteran in the field who will help prepare the intern for the transition from teacher leader to a turnaround administrator.