Nancy Doda is an internationally renowned speaker, workshop leader and author. Regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts on middle grades education, she has devoted much of her career to improving middle grades education. Nancy began her career as a middle school Language Arts teacher in an exemplary middle school in Florida where she launched her career as an advocate for young adolescents. While teaching, she completed her Masters and Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and Teacher Education at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and began conducting workshops for educators while teaching. During those seminal years, she authored a regular column for the Middle School Journal, entitled, “Teacher to Teacher”, which became an NMSA best-selling monograph. Her service to middle school education has also included 5 years as a member of the NMSA (now AMLE) Board. Today, she serves as a charter member of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform. She has received outstanding educator and service awards from the Virginia Middle School Association, New England League of Middle Schools (NELMS), and Connecticut Association of Secondary Schools. In 2001, she was awarded the National Middle School Association’s most prestigious John H. Lounsbury award. She has authored numerous articles, tapes, and books. Her most recent publication is entitled Transforming ourselves: Transforming schools (NMSA, 2002)
Since then, she has worked as a professional development consultant with middle school educators in all 50 states, Canada, Europe and the Far East.
In recent years, while Nancy continues to address large groups, and offer traditional workshops, she frequently works directly with school staff (eg; teachers and administrators) customizing professional development to address curricula and instructional improvement. The focus of this recent work has been on achieving powerful student learning through superior curriculum design and development, empowering students as a central focus of powerful learning, and coaching teachers in the design and implementation of student-centered instruction.