Mary-Dean Barringer

Mary-Dean Barringer is the Chief Executive Officer of All Kinds of Minds, a nonprofit organization that translates groundbreaking research from neuroscience and other disciplines on how children learn – and vary in their learning – into a powerful framework that educators can use in their schools.

Throughout her career in education, Mary-Dean has been dedicated to keeping America focused on learning – making schools are the most effective learning environments for all children. She was a founding board member of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and then served as Vice President of Outreach and Mobilization from 1990–2000. Her core responsibilities included working with state policymakers and national organizations to develop financial and other incentives to encourage teachers to seek National Board Certification. By 2000, 38 states and 200 districts had embraced the program that grew in volume from 200 in the first year to 14,000 six years later.

Mary-Dean started her career as teacher of exceptional needs students in Michigan. As a special education teacher for 13 years, Mary-Dean received numerous awards and recognition for her innovation and advocacy, including the 1985 Council for Exceptional Children’s National Teacher of the Year award and induction in 2008 into the Eastern Michigan University College of Education Hall of Fame.

Mary-Dean received a Bachelor’s of Science in special education from Eastern Michigan University and earned a dual-major Master’s of Science in developmental disabilities and early childhood from Wayne State University. She pursued doctoral studies in education policy at Michigan State University until 1994.

Craig Pohlman

Craig Pohlman, Ph.D., is the Director of Mind Matters at Southeast Psych, a learning assessment and consultation program in Charlotte, NC. The mission of Southeast Psych is to put psychology into the hands of as many people as possible to enhance their lives.

Craig began his career teaching science to elementary and middle school students in New York City. He then earned his doctorate in school psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), where he trained at The Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning, University of North Carolina School of Medicine. After an internship in the Dallas Public Schools, he returned to UNC-CH for a fellowship, later earning appointments as Clinical Assistant Professor and as Clinical Scientist. Prior to joining Southeast Psych he was Senior Clinical Scholar at All Kinds of Minds and Senior Neurodevelopmentalist at the Success in Mind clinic in Durham, NC.

A licensed psychologist, Craig has conducted or supervised thousands of assessments of struggling learners and has trained thousands of professionals on assessment techniques. He also has designed systems and tools to help others integrate neurodevelopmental assessment into their work with students. His previous books are Revealing Minds and How Can My Kid Succeed in School?

Michele Robinson

Michele Robinson’s focus at All Kinds of Minds is program development and implementation, providing support services and building the capacity of districts, schools and teachers to understand and provide instruction that meets the learning needs of students, as well as contributing to the development of the Institute’s research base and programs.

Michele began her involvement with All Kinds of Minds while teaching fifth grade, attending the Schools Attuned Program and integrating the principles and concepts of the program into her teaching practice. When she joined the staff of All Kinds of Minds in 1999, she delivered the Schools Attuned Program to educators in North Carolina and across the United States. Michele has led several initiatives for Schools Attuned, including oversight of state programs in North Carolina and Oklahoma, followed by management of the program’s Curriculum Development team.

She earned a Bachelor of Science in elementary education from Appalachian State University and her master’s in education from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.