My name is Marde Dawson and I live in Houston, TX, a city I never thought I would live in. My husband, Jim, and I are both Colorado natives and, even though we've been here nine years, we still find the Texas heat and humidity a force to be reckoned with. We much prefer hiking, skiing & biking to Texan's favorite pass-time--eating out (although Texas BBQ is awesome!). We have three grown children, Micah, Adam & Heidi. Micah has 2 boys and is now engaged to Becky, who has three girls, so I will soon be Grandma to five! Adam lives in Indiana and Heidi is going to Croatia this month to live with a missionary family and home school their three children.
Some of my extra activities include directing the AWANA Cubbies program for 3 & 4 year-olds on Wednesday evenings at my church. Besides being with family, I try to spend time exercising, reading, & learning Croatian. I love languages and wish that I had considered becoming a linguist years ago or at least thought of becoming a French teacher. Instead I ended up in Elementary Education with minors in Art & French and became a home school mom. Once my daughter got into college, I began working full time, first as a teacher with Texas Virtual Academy, and now as an Instructional Client Representative for Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri. I work closely with my CSM to determine what needs those clients have that involve instructional support. In addition to my ICR duties I have a couple of operational duties, preparing the monthly K8 billing reports prior to their going to finance and working with the timecard approval team which handles over 400 weekly IST contractor timecards. I love being part of this great team of people in the IST department where support, encouragement and collaboration abound creating many opportunities for personal and professional growth.
Lori Hill (light red region)
My name is Lori Hill and I am the ICR for Florida. I live in Tampa with my husband of 18 years and our two children. My son is 13, in the 7th grade, and our daughter is 10 in the 5th grade. He also have our wonderful dog Sadie, that we adopted from the rescue about 3 years ago. I love cheering on my children at the events, shopping, going to the beach, and teaching a Sunday School class of 6th grade girls every Sunday. I have a bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Florida and a Master’s degree from FAMU. I taught for 9 nine years in a brick and mortar school, before coming to K12 as a virtual teacher.
Here in Florida, each district is required to offer a virtual option to every student in grades K-12. I work very closely with many districts here in Florida to ensure that we have a good working relationship between each district and our instruction team. I also work with several private schools here in Tampa. Florida has clients that use both the K12 and Bb platforms. My goal for Florida is to have outstanding relationships with all clients and the instruction team. Please feel free to contact me with and needs or questions that you have about a particular client.
Jerri Jackson (red region)
I have a wonderful and blessed family. I have been married for 8 years and have two children. My husband co-owns a small family cabinetry business. My daughter, Tristan, is 4 and the life of any party. Brayden is 2 and is a bit more reserved, but the sweetest little boy! I live in Deland, FL. It is a quaint little town nestled between Disney and Daytona Beach. So, I bet you can guess what is our favorite thing to do!
My educational career started in Central Florida teaching high school math. I spent 6 years in the classroom before transitioning to the county school board in the professional development department. My favorite professional development courses to teach were Differentiated Math Instruction and Multiple Intelligences. I also had the opportunity to work with many task forces and committees for the county, including the RTI technical assistance committee, the curriculum and pacing, and the technology team. I came to K12 as a full time math teacher in August 2010.
I am excited to be the Instructional Manager and the Instructional Client Representative for GA, AL, LA, TN, KY, AR, & MS. The territory is large in area, but a bit smaller in enrollments. We already have some new clients coming aboard, so I look forward to watching the region grow. I am excited to bet to know and work with my teachers.
Wendy Price (light orange region)
Hi there! It’s great to be a part of the instructional services team. I graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington with a Bachelors in Biology & emphasis in Physiology. I have been teaching for a total of 12 years both in brick & mortar and online. I have been with K12 for 4 years now working as a science instructor and currently as an instructional client representative for the Colorado & Nebraska portion of the south central region. I am fortunate enough to live in the same hometown region of Texas, where I grew up. I’m married and have one daughter, a very special niece, and 3 large dogs. I’m a lover of nature and animals. I love to work in my garden and especially love to can pickles and other homemade treats. I enjoy spending time with my family and friends and especially enjoy watching my daughter and niece grow up! As a a member of the ICR team, I hope to connect our teachers to the students and develop trusting relationships. My focus, now that we are regionalized is to reach out to every client and not only get to know them but showcase how fantastic our teachers are and the wonderful things they do to help their kiddos. I hope that our current schools will continue to choose IST to support their learning needs because they can count on us to provide their students a quality education.