VACTE/ ATE Virginia Fall 2015
Presenters Biography
Deborah Eldridge is currently the President/CEO of LCV, Inc. a higher education
consulting company specializing in teacher preparation and accreditation. Her
current clients include Educator Preparation Providers in Texas, Indiana, New
York, Saudi Arabia, and Kentucky. She works extensively as a consultant with the
Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) providing webinars
and workshops on a variety of topics related to accreditation and CAEP’s standards
and processes.
As the Senior Vice President of the National Council for the Accreditation of
Teacher Education (NCATE) and the Council for the Accreditation of Educator
Preparation (CAEP) from 2010 to 2013, Dr. Eldridge contributed to the development of international
accreditation through CAEP, drafted the preliminary policies and procedures of CAEP during the merger
of NCATE with the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC), guided the development of the
transformation initiative pathway to accreditation, and provided overall administration for all
accreditation operations in the United States and abroad.
Prior to working with NCATE/CAEP, Dr. Eldridge was deeply engaged in teacher preparation as a
professor of literacy education, department chair of Curriculum and Instruction at Hunter College and
Montclair State University, an Associate Dean responsible for accreditation at Hunter College, and then
Dean of Education at Lehman College of the City University of New York. She was the primary author of
two Teacher Quality Partnership grants/awards from the United Stated Department of Education: one for
Lehman College and one for the American Museum of Natural History. Dr. Eldridge is a nationally
recognized presenter on accreditation and is the author of numerous books and articles on teacher
preparation and accreditation. Presently she is co-editing a book (under contract) on International
Accreditation due for release in spring 2016.
Dr. Therese (Terry) A. Dozier is the Director of the Center for Teacher Leadership
(CTL) at Virginia
Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Education where she also serves as
National
Teacher-in-Residence and Associate Professor in the School of Education. The
Center for Teacher Leadership works with accomplished teachers to

 promote the concept of teachers as leaders of change;
 develop more effective teacher leaders through high quality professional
development; and
share the knowledge, experience, and insight of teachers with policymakers and others.
Dozier also chairs the Metropolitan Educational Training Alliance (META), a partnership
between VCU and the four local school districts in the metro-Richmond area, to enhance teaching quality
by identifying needs, opportunities, and resources for strategic professional development with the goal of
improving student learning by improving the preparation, effectiveness, and retention of high-quality
teachers. As part of META's work, Dozier conducts its National Board Certification Candidate Support
Program. She served as principal investigator for the Richmond Teacher Residency (RTR) Program, a
VACTE/ ATE Virginia Fall 2015
Presenters Biography
$5.8 million federally-funded effort to design and pilot an intensive, school-based teacher preparation
program for Richmond Public Schools (RPS) that integrates the research and theory behind effective
urban teaching with a year-long residency under the mentorship of an exemplary classroom teacher. In
October 2014, the USDOE provided an additional five-year, $7.5 million grant to expand RTR to recruit,
prepare, and support 120 new special education and math, science, social studies, and English secondary
teachers for RPS.
Prior to joining VCU, Dozier served as Senior Advisor on Teaching to former U.S. Secretary of
Education Richard W. Riley. In this capacity, she served as the Clinton Administration’s top policy
advisor on all teaching issues. Dozier also led the Department’s teaching initiative with primary
responsibility for the development and implementation of a strategic plan to improve teacher recruitment,
preparation, and ongoing professional development, including overall leadership in research, evaluation,
and data collection on teacher quality.
While teaching world history at Irmo High School in Columbia, South Carolina, Dozier was named the
1985 National Teacher of the Year and has nineteen years of classroom teaching experience in settings as
diverse as inner-city Miami, suburban South Carolina, and the Singapore American School.
Dozier earned an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of South Carolina and an
M.Ed. and a B.A. in social studies education from the University of Florida.
Elizabeth Edwards is a renewed National Board Certified Teacher (Exceptional
Needs Specialist) and a Director of Outreach and Engagement for the National
Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Prior to joining the National Board
staff, she served as a Race to the Top professional development consultant for
the NC Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI). In this role, Elizabeth
provided support to various school districts across North Carolina, primarily
focused upon the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, NC
Essential Standards, NC Educator Evaluation System, teacher and principal
leadership and much more. Previously, she served as the National Board
Certification Program Coordinator at NCDPI where she oversaw the
implementation of the state application and funding program and facilitated
candidate support programs across the state.
Additionally, she was an elementary special educator for over 20 years where she served as a mentor and
facilitator of district and state National Board candidate support, an adjunct instructor for East Carolina
University, a local and district president for the North Carolina Association of Educators
(NCAE) and the founder of the NCAE NBCT Caucus-network.
Edwards obtained a Bachelor’s of Science in Special Education and a Master’s degree in
Low-incidence, Special Education from East Carolina University. She is currently
pursuing a doctorate in Leadership with a concentration in Curriculum and Instruction at
the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
Lisa Hedrick is a former secondary education teacher. She taught for 8 years at Nitro
High School in Nitro, West Virginia, and is a licensed teacher of social studies and
VACTE/ ATE Virginia Fall 2015
Presenters Biography
health. Prior to joining the Praxis Program in May 2014, she was the Executive Director for the Office of
Professional Preparation at the WV Department of Education. Prior to that role, she was a teacher quality
coordinator and worked with the 20 schools of education in West Virginia on matter related to
accreditation. She was able to successfully assist all of the schools of education in a reapproval process
required by the WV Board of Education which required a realignment of coursework and clinical
experiences to the WV Professional Teaching Standards. The EPPs in West Virginia were the first to
incorporate and evaluate students using these standards which later became the foundation of the new
WV Educator Evaluation System.
Joe graduated from the Naval Academy in June 1971. Upon graduation, he served
24 years as a Surface Warfare Officer in various sea and shore assignments of
increasing responsibility. He retired as a Commander in July, 1995.
Upon his retirement, he taught English and civics in a diverse, low-income
school in the Hampton Roads area for 10 years. Because of this experience and
his leadership positions in the navy, he was hired as Director, Virginia Troops to
Teachers, whose mission is to recruit veterans to teach in high-need schools. He
has been the director for nearly 10 years.