Ken Goeddeke
Ken Goeddeke is the Founder of Katalyst Group Educational Consulting in Houston, TX. Katalyst provides technical support to schools, education organizations, and nonprofits across the country in the areas of talent development, communities of practice, strategic planning, coaching, and school quality reviews. Ken started consulting after a 30-year career in public education as a systems leader across district and multiple charter settings.
He started his education career teaching in the Houston Independent School District and quickly transitioned into school leadership. He served as an assistant principal and was recognized by the Association of Hispanic School Administrators as Assistant Principal of the Year. He was quickly promoted to principal and led his campus to a Recognized rating. In 2003, he accepted the position of turnaround principal at a small, single-site charter school in Houston, TX. While in this role, he increased student matriculation to four-year, higher education institutions by over 50%. He was promoted to Chief Academic and Operations Officer where he led all curriculum and instruction programs as well as managed all school leaders during an expansion to multiple sites and campuses. In 2010, he joined a large, high-performing CMO and served on the Executive Leadership Team as the organization grew from 13 schools (~4,500 students) to 35 schools (~16,000 students). While a member of the Executive Leadership Team, he was involved in most all cross-functional decisions and priorities, including the allocation of over $100,000,000 budget. During this time of growth, he was a master talent developer as he launched 8 new schools as a School Leader Manager including the highest-performing school in KIPP Texas. He also served as School Leader Manager for three National Blue Ribbon Schools and has coached, managed, and developed several school leaders to school leader manager positions.
Ken holds a B.S. in Secondary Education from Central Michigan University, and a M.Ed. in Administration and Supervision from the University of Houston. His talent development experiences include being a leadership coach for the Rice Educational Entrepreneur Program at Rice University, as well as serving as leadership coach and community of practice facilitator for the Houston Annenberg Challenge. He served on the National Fisher Fellow Selection Committee for the KIPP Foundation for over ten years. Additionally, he was nominated and selected as an American Leadership Forum Fellow. Outside of his career, Ken has volunteered with the MAIA Impact School in Guatemala, Houston Welcomes Refugees as a Welcome Team Leader, and the Guadalupe Center Food Pantry for Catholic Charities in Houston, TX. He has two children in college and resides in Houston, TX.
Suri Jacknis
Suri Jacknis is an Educational Consultant with special expertise
in Networks as vehicles for transformational change, professional
growth, deepening relationships, and inspiring communal action.
Suri worked as Director of Educator Networks at The Jewish
Education Project where she supervised and prepared network
facilitators and oversaw the creation and flourishing of 35
networks to support educators at all stages of their professional
journey.
These networks developed a positive culture of trust that allowed
for mutual support, experimentation, and the development of new
models and strategies. Participants were grateful to have each
other as partners in innovation and embarked on several
noteworthy communal projects of mutual benefit. The vitality of
these networks provided an important web of connection during
the recent COVID-19 pandemic. At present, these educator
networks continue to provide a forum for dealing with challenging
times as well as for re-envisioning Jewish Education both for the
present and for the future.
Suri also has had several opportunities to work with Jewish
Federations to support staff who facilitate professional and social
service networks as well as to involve other Federation
professionals who can strengthen the impact of these networks.
Among Suri’s areas of knowledge are building new networks,
strengthening existing networks, developing network leadership,
network facilitation skills, naming and exploring multiple layers of
facilitator role, protocols for learning conversations, leveraging a
variety of protocols to develop distributed leadership, supporting
educator networks, alumni networks, Federation professional and
social service networks.
Shoshana Ross
Shoshana Ross is a seasoned evaluation and statistical consultant. She is a master of survey development as well as an experienced data analyst. She has extensive experience in the Jewish non-profit sector, and most recently has worked with several organizations, measuring the impact of their programs. During 2017, she has measured impact for Livnot U’Lehibanot alumni, Wexner graduates, and Chabad on Campus yeshiva graduates. She has run program evaluations and measured success of Hebrew reading at Hebrew Home Page as well as the success of the Makom educational approach. Shoshana has developed, administered, and reported on many research measures to provide thorough data-based understanding of current practices and provided actionable recommendations to a wide range of stake holders in various fields. Shoshana holds an M.A. from NYU in Educational Psychology, Tests and Measures and a B.A. from Barnard College/Columbia University.
Danielle Wilkinson, Executive Assistant
Educated in Graphic Design and Photography, Danielle Wilkinson has expanded her skills into the role of Executive Assistant with 20+ years of experience including freelance in the industry. She has supported multiple clients, both on US-based and international teams. Her experience in layout and logo design, print media, photo editing, and preparing artwork for the web, add extra value to her admin role, allowing her creative thinking to shine through.