About Us
We are a dynamic team of educators with a passion for preparing education leaders to deliver breakthrough results that enable schools — and their students — to thrive.
Combined Years Experience
Leaders Trained
Students Reached
Our Team
Valarie McElhinney
Co-Founder
Valarie McElhinney, has worked in education for 20 years. Her experience includes teaching, coaching, and district level focus K-12. Valarie is talented in building productive adult groups and planning compelling professional development. Not only is Valarie experienced at building dynamic groups, she knows how to effectively coach adults. Valarie is an expert at building Professional Learning Communities and talented at growing teacher-leaders. She is approachable, knowledgeable, and authentic. In addition to this, Valarie has vast experience facilitating and building systems for MTSS including: SPED, ELL, GT, and other educator teams. She instills confidence and inspires possibility. Valarie holds a Masters in Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Regis University and a principal license from CU Denver. During her career, Valarie was a PEBC National Lab Classroom teacher and received numerous leadership awards in her previous school district.
Cody Lancaster
Co-Founder
Cody Lancaster, has worked in education for 16 years. His expertise includes: data driven instruction, a deep understanding of the continuous improvement cycle, and best practices in math. These talents translate into the ability to systematically gather educational data and present it to adults in a meaningful way. Not only is Cody a data master, he is an expert at building relationships with adults that creates an environment that promotes a growth mindset. Cody is extremely passionate about helping educators reach their individual, classroom, school, and district level goals. His enthusiasm is contagious. Cody has received many leadership awards through his career, facilitated curriculum development, including developing and creating district wide common assessments in mathematics. In addition to this, Cody has been part of many district level leadership teams as a teacher and as an instructional coach. Cody is also featured in Diane Sweeney’s Student Centered Coaching video as well after participating and offering his classroom as a lab classroom.
Make the future bright