Barbara Lawson, M.Ed.
Barbara Lawson is an international consultant, presenting workshops and seminars in learning-focused conversations for mentors, teacher leaders and instructional supervisors. Most recently, Barbara has served as the Instructional Specialist for the Washington Education Association. Her 35 years of educational experience includes teaching in a rural K-8 school, a suburban junior high school and urban high school as well as at the university level.

As a staff development director, she developed a mentoring and coaching program for both beginning and experienced teachers, as well as demonstration sites for instruction and assessment practices for a standards-driven system. As Director of Program Development for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, she guided policy and created programs to support teachers in education reform for Washington State.

Barbara has conducted workshops for para-educators, teachers and administrators in a variety of areas including leadership, decision-making, curriculum, instruction, assessment, classroom management, and partnership conferencing.

Barbara holds a B.A. Ed. from Western Washington University and M. Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Puget Sound.


Peggy Olcott, M.Ed
Peggy Olcott is an international consultant with over 25 years experience in education ranging from elementary and middle school teaching to district level coordination of curriculum and instructional programs. For over eleven years, Peggy provided leadership for professional development initiatives at both the district and state levels including organizing and supervising the new staff support programs in several districts in Washington State. Currently, Peggy presents workshops and seminars on mentoring, facilitating data-driven dialogue, curriculum articulation, thinking skills, and reading and writing strategies across the curriculum.

Peggy holds a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a M.Ed. from City University in curriculum and instruction. She also completed an administrative licensure program at Portland State University.


Karen Rohrs, M.Ed

Karen Rohrs is an international educator and

consultant with teaching and administrative experience

in schools in Australia and Asia.  Her educational background and experience has included teaching, leadership roles and facilitating workshops in mathematics, science, special education, reading and pastoral care.  Her most recent work has focused on enhancing teacher practice through performance appraisal and instructional strategies.  Karen spent 19 years teaching grades 7-12 and R1-12.  For over 14 years Karen has provided leadership for professional development initiatives at the school, district and international levels.

More recently, Karen has been working at the Hong Kong International School first as the Learning Center Curriculum Coordinator and Associate Principal in the Middle School and currently as the Director of Professional Development.

Karen holds a B.Ed from Australian Catholic University, an M.Ed. Administration from the University of Western Sydney, a Graduate Diploma of Special Education from the University of New South Wales and an Advanced Certificate of Adolescent Literacy from University of Colorado.

Lynn Sawyer, M.Ed.
Lynn Sawyer is an international educational consultant, presenting workshops and seminars on learning-focused conversations for mentoring and supervision, facilitating collaborative groups, and data-driven dialogue.

In her 30 years as an educator, Lynn Sawyer has been a high school teacher, curriculum specialist, and professional developer. As an administrator of a regional professional development agency, she trained a staff of professional development providers and conducted workshops and seminars. She led a district wide implementation of a teacher evaluation system focusing on a coaching model to support teacher self-directedness.

Her publications include:

• "Revamping a Teacher Evaluation System," Educational Leadership, Feb 2001
• "Integrating Cognitive Coaching with a Framework for Teaching," a chapter in Cognitive Coaching: Weaving Threads of Learning and Change into the Culture of an Organization, (Christopher-Gordon).