About Us

Kathy Dewsbury-White

CEO, Michigan Assessment Consortium

Kathy Dewsbury-White is a resource wrangler who is able to identify and combine people, organizations, and material resources to make things happen.
She is the designated border crosser – needing to understand the aspirations and opportunities, and protocols that originate from national organizations (National Endowment for the Arts), government (USDOE, State Education Agencies), and private companies (Data Recognition Corporation) to make shared agreements about specific projects/programs/initiatives happen.

Kathy is also an organization developer who develops non-profit corporations and then organizes project teams within public sector and private sector organizations to initiate, conduct and evaluate work.

Kathy provides the MAEIA project management team with the will and capacity to deliver a solution to a big vision. The big vision includes resources and tools developed and then used to improve quantity and quality of arts education programming in K-12 public schools in Michigan.

“The arts feed our souls; they are an essential component of a 21st century public education.”
Kathy Dewsbury-White (2011- )

Heather Vaughan-Southard

Director, MI Creative Potential

Heather has a gift for connecting people, ideas, and contexts inside a functional arts education. She is skilled at taking complex ideas and making them digestible, without losing the sophistication. She crafts practical professional development that is tailored to the needs of the people in front of her. Heather has an understanding of pedagogy and project-based learning strategies for students, educators, and community partners and is highly skilled in community building.
Heather has covered the spectrum in professional experiences within the field of dance from teaching at the university/college level to all grades K-12. She has been a K-12 artist in residence, an arts-in-healthcare facilitator, a performer, choreographer, program consultant and writer.

Heather has represented Dance as the Team Lead with the MAEIA Blueprint, contributed to the Assessment Specifications document, contributed to the writing and review of the MAEIA Model assessments. Now, her goal is to inform arts educators how they may access and implement the assessment tools to make their lives easier and to elevate their instruction.

Seth Godin says, “Be personal. Be relevant. Be specific.” This is the strength of a quality arts education and the drive behind the creation of the MAEIA tools.
Heather Vaughan-Southard (2012- )

Amy Lynne Pobanz

Director of Regional Arts Education Networks, MI Creative Potential

Amy Lynne Pobanz is an arts education consultant and a former K-12 visual arts teacher.

Linda Wacyk

Communications Director, Michigan Assessment Consortium

Career Highlights:

LKW Communications, Owner/Consultant, 2001-present; Michigan Association of School Administrators, Director of Communications, 2005-2015; Center for Educational Networking, Communications Specialist, 2001-2005; Partnership for Learning, Editor for publications and web; President, LKW Communications, LLC.

Educational Journey:

Graduate of Western Michigan University (B.A. Communications, with focus on education and community concerns). Graduate of the Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP). Ongoing continuing education in communications, education policy, and non-profit management.

Assessment Connections:

Michigan’s vision for creating equitable access to high-quality learning can only be achieved by ensuring that all students learn within a comprehensive system that balances assessment for learning and of learning. In addition, tenure reform initiatives compel school leaders to look for new solutions to measuring student and staff growth. Linda collaborates with state and local leaders on developing assessment literacy among educators and other stakeholders and communicating about assessment policy and best practices. She has served on evaluation and assessment work-groups since 2009 in the effort to shape and communicate education policy and practices regarding assessment, educator evaluation, and data metrics and analysis.  She serves as a communications consultant for clients that include the Michigan Department of Education, the Michigan Assessment Consortium, and the High Impact Leadership project."

Kathy Humphrey

Project Management, Michigan Assessment Consortium

Kathy Humphrey is an educational consultant with expertise in survey design and analysis, focus groups, facilitation, project management, and writing. Over the past few years, her primary clients have been the Michigan Assessment Consortium (MAEIA Project) and the Michigan Department of Education (MDE).

Kathy was previously employed at Ingham Intermediate School District for 23 years. In that role she designed and managed evaluation projects for various educational initiatives. When Kathy retired from that role, she started her own consulting business. Having collaborated with Kathy Dewsbury-White (MAEIA Project Director) at Ingham ISD, she was delighted to join the MAEIA project. Her first task was to gather feedback about the tools and resources MAEIA was developing. She then continued on the project as the Assessment Field Test Coordinator.

Kathy’s contributions include project management and coordination for various components of MAEIA, technical services such as survey development, and assisting with writing and editing communications. She feels her most important contribution to MAEIA is being a life-long learner, willing to roll up her sleeves and dig in to learn whatever it takes to support the project.

“MAEIA is an exciting initiative focused on advancing arts programming and student assessment in Michigan. I’m proud to be a part of this wonderful group of educators and this worthy cause.”
Kathy Humphrey (2013- )

Karrie LaFave

Office Operations Director, Michigan Assessment Consortium

Karrie LaFave is the Executive Administrator for the Michigan Assessment Consortium.

Karrie has a background in education with a bachelors degree from Eastern Michigan University in K-8 Special Education, with a focus on Emotional Impairments. Most of her career has been spent supporting  classroom and building teams that work with students with disabilities, specifically Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Karrie's contributions to the MAC include support to project teams as well as MAC Executive Director and Director of Business Operations. She enjoys learning about the multiple initiatives of the MAC, and continuing to enhance her knowledge about assessment practices.