Kristen Lewald, Ed.D. has worked in public education for over 30 years now serving in a variety of roles. She works as a Statewide Projects Director for the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) at one of Pennsylvania’s regional service centers, Lancaster-Lebanon IU13. This project leadership includes several areas statewide– the PA Value-Added Assessment System Statewide Team for PDE, Data for PA’s Educator Effectiveness System, PDE’s Research Team and as Project Advisor for school improvement efforts for CSI schools across PA under the leadership of PDE. She works with schools, districts, charter/cyber charter schools, Intermediate Units and the state department of education. Kristen started her career in education as a speech-language pathologist, working with K-12 students. She worked as a regional consultant in Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia for a company providing assistive technology to children and adults with disabilities. Kristen then worked as a consultant at the nationally recognized Pennsylvania Assistive Device Center, now called PaTTAN Harrisburg. This work included professional learning and consultation in a range of areas related to data and evidence-based practices in curriculum, assessment and instruction.
In the late 90’s she worked at Lancaster-Lebanon IU13 in the Instructional Services Department on one of the earliest virtual high school projects in Pennsylvania at that time. Her work at IU13 expanded into coordination of IU13’s Math and Science Consortium and work on standards-based initiatives, including a two county district benchmark assessment consortium. Kristen established IU13’s regional data services program which included the early years of the PVAAS statewide pilot and a range of data quality services for local districts. Her work expanded to the range of statewide leadership opportunities.
Kristen has taught graduate level Assessment courses for Wilkes University, Johns Hopkins University and PA’s Principal Inspired Leadership blended data courses. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s in Speech-Pathology from Bloomsburg University, a Masters in Adult and Organizational Development from Temple University and a doctorate in Education Leadership from Immaculata University.