Thank you for taking a moment to preview my professional profile. I offer 33 years of combination experience in state, national, and international project management, developing healthy learning environments and affordable learning solutions, and promoting improved student engagement leading to successful retention, completion, and workforce pipeline development.

My experience includes: multimillion-dollar, multi-state project management; large-scale grant oversight; employer engagement via sector partnership development; programmatic and fiscal oversight; risk management; staff training and facilitation in communication; using technology to increase student engagement; NIMS approved crisis management and violence prevention; and teacher efficacy.

Fifteen years as educational consultant working with staff and full school districts across Colorado. Please visit www.strongteams.net.

Twelve years in senior administrative roles overseeing federal project management (DoE and DoL) from PreK-12 to Higher Education.

Four years in coordinator role creating a start-up school within a school.

Thirteen years as a secondary classroom teacher.

I believe in whole child educational approaches and subscribe to 21st Century Learning theories of Rigor, Relevancy, and Relationships with Relationships being a key indicator for student progress potential.

I am proponent and practitioner of looking up and not allowing the "weeds" of the work to disguise the need for shifts in strategy and approach.

My management style promotes continued growth in myself others and systematically supports the learning organization mentality. I believe we are all learners and work best in a large assortment of styles and that the magic happens when a Collective comes together and successfully blends the many talents of a group.

With 33 years of educational experience, I have studied, practice, and clearly understand the teaching-learning cycle. From the role of teacher to district administrator to higher education senior staff, and consultant, I bring a comprehensive view of needs of workforce development boards, employers, students, faculty/staff, families, and communities.

Advisory services sharing more than three decades of expertise in educational project management, the teaching/learning cycle, partnership sustainability, and reducing costs in education through Open Educational Resources (OER) and Affordable Learning $olutions. Several recent examples include:

1. The HBCU AL$ Project funded under Hewlett Foundation and includes dozens of HBCUs across the U.S. (http://www.hbcuals.org/)

2. MERLOT-SkillsCommons projects both offer education and industry no and low-cost training and educational materials, technical assistance, project management, and workforce development solutions. My role as Associate Director for these projects involves shepherding growth and sustainability.
(www.skillscommons.org)
(www.merlot.org)

3. The Behavioral Health/Social Emotional Learning Initiative in Cano City Schools, Colorado
(https://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewSite.htm?id=9162919)

Responsible for connecting, nurturing, and shepherding new and established partnerships to further develop Affordable Learning $olutions, solve Workforce Pipeline Development challenges and maximize opportunities in higher education.

Responsible for the oversight of all Title funded budgeting, new teacher initiation, district-level curricula mapping, annual revision and submission of the Unified Improvement Plan for the CO Department of Education, principals and counselor support, and teacher evaluation for a Colorado k-12 public school district.

CHEO Project is $14.2 million five state eight college initiative funding through U.S. DOL TAACCCT (https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/skills-training-grants/community-colleges) and is in place to create and redesign online and hybrid healthcare programs for community colleges. I regularly work with large groups of very talented people and am directly responsible for contract negotiations, fiscal oversight, progress monitoring, risk management, accountability, reporting, sustainability. The project requires that I work cohesively and productively with funders, contractors, college level teams, and other stakeholders in each of the partner colleges. I report directly to U.S. DOL and the Pueblo Community College President.

This initiative is part of the $2 billion dollars awarded to improve earning potential in low waged earners and spans over a four year period. Every state in the U.S. has received funding to varying degrees and actively participates in large scale convenings, online support systems, and, problem solving learning labs. Consequently, the federal support and national experiences have been plentiful and positive and have added a level of maturity to my own leadership that has served me well.

Safe Schools Healthy Students was funded under SAMHSA and U.S. DoEd. (https://store.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/d7/priv/sma13-4798.pdf)

Packaged Skill Set

Degrees:
BA - English, Minor- Art, magna cum laude
Dual MA - English and Education, summa cum laude
MA - Psychodynamics, summa cum laude

Additionally: Secondary Teaching License and National Critical Conversations Facilitator.

All licenses and certifications are considered current. All certifications are considered national level training positions.

Certifications:
Discovery Communication Model, Larsen
Choice Theory/Reality Therapy, Glasser
Framework of Poverty, Payne
Olweus Bullying Prevention, Olweus
Love and Logic, Fay

My work has been publicly recognized by Assistant Deputy Kevin Jennings of US Department of Education, Transformative Change Initiative of University of Illinois, "Heroes Award" out of Auburn University, and was invited to serve as a panelist for U.S. Depart. of Labor in DC. My work with SkillsCommons under California State University was honored with both the 2019 Best Practices in Technology Education Award as well as ...

I enjoy time with my family, creating art, being in the garden, and playing on the river, in the mountains, or on my bike. I am a Court Appointed Special Advocate, CASA, volunteering to be the child's voice in court for abuse and neglect cases. I am also a CASA board member as well as board member of the William Glasser Institute, Western States Region.

Email: Maria@fieth.consulting

Twitter: @mariafieth

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/preview?locale=en_US&trk=prof-0-sb-preview...

Phone: 719.429.6887

Website: www.strongteams.net

Let's talk about possibilities!
maria@fieth.consulting