Your Experts
Jeremy H. Ortloff, Ph.D, PMP
Dr. Jeremy H. Ortloff is an expert in educational research, training and program development and evaluation for language minority communities. He has developed evaluations for out-of-school time and Title III grants for programs specializing in working with English Language Learners since 2005. He is able to bring his years of classroom experience to bear in developing professional inquiry experiences and making evaluation relevant for truly improving teaching and learning. With special insight on teaching and learning in diverse populations, Dr. Ortloff has also collaborated with international partners seeking to expand and improve their English language programs. In collaboration with the Tactile Group, a design firm in Philadelphia, Dr. J. Ortloff has been lead trainer on the U.S. Department of Education contract to create a new data collection system for the 21st Century CCLC (out-of-school time) program. He has developed a national train-the trainer curriculum for using the new cloud based tool as well as created the training protocols used for virtual training nationally.
Debora Hinderliter Ortloff, Ph.D.
Dr. Debora Hinderliter Ortloff is co-founder and senior researcher at Juniper Education Consulting. She is widely published in educational research methodology and education policy, with deep expertise in assessment, accreditation and using data to improve learning. Dr. Ortloff is passionate about working through educational problems with the insight of both an educational researcher and educator. In addition to her consulting work, Dr. Ortloff is Chief Planning Officer at Finger Lakes Community College. She is sought after as speaker and trainer on topics ranging from assessment of student learning and strategic planning to shared governance. Prior to joining FLCC Dr. D. Ortloff was a professor of educational research and multicultural education at the University of Houston Clear Lake. From 2007-2009 she was Associate Director for Research at the Center for Urban and Multicultural Education in Indianapolis. She holds a Ph.D. in Education Policy and dual master's degrees in Educational Psychology and Comparative Education from Indiana University Bloomington.
Jacob E. Amidon
An educator with experience teaching both secondary and post-secondary mathmatics, Jacob Amidon brings 20 years of experience to his work in assessment, accreditation and curricular reform. Since 2013, Jacob E. Amidon is Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at Finger Lakes Community College. He oversees online learning, concurrent enrollment, curriculum and assessment processes and other academic reform endeavors. He has been at Finger Lakes since 2002 on faculty in the mathematics department, earning the rank of Full Professor and served as Department Chair for six years. He has served in a variety of other roles in shared governance, chairing Academic Senate, serving as Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning and in various positions in the faculty union as well as taking on leadership roles in New York State Mathematics Association of Two-year Colleges. Mr. Amidon holds a B.S. in Mathematics from SUNY Geneseo and an M.A. in Mathematics from Binghamton University. In addition, to serving as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Education, he has worked with a number of institutions on issues of higher education reform and leadership. He has given a wide-range of conference and invited presentations on curriculum and assessment reform.
Vanessa Dodo Seriki, Ph.D.
Vanessa Dodo Seriki is a senior consultant with Juniper Education Consulting. She earned a doctorate from the Ohio State University in 2011, and has over 15 years of teaching experience at both the secondary and post-secondary level. She brings particular expertise in science education and urban education, with a deep understanding of looking at learning from a holistic perspective. From 2013 through 2018, Dr. Dodo Seriki is also an Assistant Professor of Science & Urban Education and Co-Director of the Center for Innovation in Urban Education at Loyola University Maryland. In addition she is actively involved in the community through the use of her education and research expertise to aid in the governance of a private Islamic School in Baltimore County and a public charter school in Balitmore City. She is currently an associate professor at Morgan State College in Baltimore.
Michelle L. Peters, Ed.D
Since 1999, Dr. Michelle L. Peters has been using her knowledge of educational research and statistics to help improve education at both the K-12 and higher education levels. She brings deep expertise in measuring the impact of education, teaching and learning, having served as a methodological expert on a wide variety of studies of learning including in STEM, informal education, early childhood and higher education. Dr. Peters has also written and/or provided statistical support for numerous technical reports for the American Chemical Society, Council of Chief State School Officers, Department of Education, The Harris Foundation, Hogg Foundation, Collaborative for Children, Chemical & Engineering News, and the Texas Education Agency, along with being a reviewer/presenter for international and national research conferences and a reviewer for various academic journals. She holds a M.S. degree in Nuclear Engineering from The Missouri University of Science and Technology, a secondary mathematics teaching certification from Drury University, and a doctorate degree from The George Washington University. In addition to her consulting work, Dr. Peters is currently Associate Professor of Educational Research and Applied Statistics at the University of Houston-Clear Lake’s College of Education.
Winona Burt Vesey, Ph.D.
Dr. Vesey graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a PhD in Educational Psychology, Quantitative Methods with a focus in psychometrics in 2004. Since earning her PhD, she has worked with the American Institutes for Research as a Research Scientist, University of Houston-Clear Lake as an Associate Professor and is currently a psychometrician at Elsevier Science. Dr. Vesey’s experience as an evaluator began with her role at the American Institutes for Research where she led the evaluation of several large programs, including the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation’s high school initiative and Carnegie Corporation’s high school reform program. With McWhirter Elementary School in Houston, Vesey managed the development and refinement of tools to help measure student biculturalism and student retention of material. She has expertise in the implementation issues of teacher evaluation programs as well as performance labels used in standard setting. Dr. Vesey is passionate about the field of education and helping educators solve the problems encountered in classrooms across the United States. Dr. Vesey’s quantitative, assessment, and evaluation expertise lend themselves well to program evaluation and assessment development for K – 12, high school, and beyond.
