Staff
Dr. Brian K. Perkins
Director
Brian K. Perkins is the Director of the Urban Education Leadership Program at Columbia University Teachers College Department of Organization and Leadership. In the past two years, Dr. Perkins has reorganized the UELP under a dynamic new conceptual framework. He also directs the Superintendent’s Work Conference (started in 1941) at Teachers College. He is the former Chair and Professor of Education Law and Policy at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Connecticut. As Chair, Dr. Perkins successfully led his department through the licensure of the university’s first doctoral program and full NCATE accreditation. Dr. Perkins is a distinguished Yale alumnus and was named a Timothy Dwight Fellow in 2004. He was a member of the research faculty at the Yale University School of Medicine. He has served as a consultant to school districts throughout the U.S., Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of South Africa. Dr. Perkins is a visiting professor at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. Dr. Perkins is the host of his own Internet radio show, The Perkins Platform, which is a monthly forum on education leadership topics with thousands of listeners. Dr. Perkins was the President of the New Haven (CT) Board of Education where he served for 11 years. He also served for four years on the Board of Directors of the National School Boards Association. Dr. Perkins served two terms as national chair for CUBE: Council of Urban Boards of Education and was the chair for the National Black Caucus of School Board Members. Dr. Perkins was also the national chair of the Leadership for Healthy Communities initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Perkins is the author of several published articles and book chapters and serves as the Principal Investigator and Author of Where We Learn (2006), Where We Teach (2007) and What We Think (2008) – the largest studies on urban school climate in the history of public education. Dr. Perkins is leading a ground-breaking study and improvement initiative of school climate in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His forthcoming manuscript, Improving School Climate from the Inside Out, is under review and is scheduled for release next year. Dr. Perkins travels extensively in sub-Saharan Africa and leads annual delegations of educators to the region. He is leading an effort to provide clothing and funding to the Tholakele Orphanage in the Republic of South Africa where he currently serves as an advisor. He is a life member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated and a member of the Sigma Pi Phi Boulé. Dr. Perkins received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemistry from Grambling State University, a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the Yale University School of Medicine and his Doctor of Education Degree from Columbia University Teachers College. He has a graduate certificate in executive coaching from the Columbia Business School. Dr. Perkins is a registered provider of continuing education for school board members by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and a nationally certified principal mentor by the National Association of Elementary School Principals.
Ashley Redd
Assistant Director
Ashley Redd is a native Mississippian who became passionate about education early in life. Her roots in the South gave her a unique lens through which she began to view education as an incredible tool for social change. This passion was further fueled as she left Mississippi to attend college at the University of Oregon where she earned degrees in Educational Foundations (B.A.) and Curriculum and Teaching (M.Ed.). After graduating from the University of Oregon, Ashley went on to teach in both Eugene, Oregon and New Orleans, Louisiana before pursuing a degree in Educational Leadership (Ed.M.) with SPA NOLA. Upon completion of the SPA program, she quickly gained experience in school leadership as the director of a small independent school in New Orleans. In her position as Assistant Director, Ashley hopes to use her experience and passion for transformative educational leadership to inspire and support other educators in their journey to reimagine what education and schools of the future could be.
Carrigan Smoot
Instructional Technologist and Program Assistant
Carrigan Smoot is the Instructional Technologist for the Summer Principals Academy | New Orleans at Teacher’s College, Columbia University and is based in New Orleans, Louisiana. She has a background in business administration, computer science, and law education. She studied at Loyola University New Orleans for a Bachelor of Business Management and Legal Studies. Prior to her current role, she worked at The Stuart E. Smith Law Clinic of Loyola Law School. There, she worked as a Legal Administrative Assistant specializing in organizational management and computer operations. While working with SPA|NOLA, Carrigan hopes to discover ways in which digital media tools can enhance and enrich education.
Dr. Lannie Milon
Recruitment Specialist
Lannie M. Milon Jr., holds a Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University in Education Leadership and brings with him nearly 2 decades of applicable urban and sub-urban education teaching, building leader, central office/ district leader administration and tier-one university educational leader & policy studies adjunct professor experience. His cutting-edge schools and districts reform work, teacher and leader coaching & development work and district-wide employee performance evaluation work of a 30, 000 employee district are each infused with interdisciplinary research informed by the cognitive sciences, economics, medicine, the humanities, and more. He has serviced in Atlanta, Kansas City, Houston, New Orleans and has extended supportive service in New York, Orlando, Tampa, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Louisville.