Staff
Dr. Brian K. Perkins
Director
Dr. Brian K. Perkins is the Director of the Summer Principals Academy Master’s Degree Program offered by Teachers College Columbia University in New Orleans and New York City. He was previously the director of the doctoral program in Urban Education Leadership 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 accreditation and licensure of the university’s first doctoral program and was the university’s youngest full, tenured professor in its 112-year history. Dr. Perkins is a distinguished Yale alumnus and was named a Timothy Dwight Fellow in 2004. During his studies at Yale School of Medicine, Dr. Perkins was named Wilbur G.H. Downs International Health Fellow. He was a member of a research unit at the Yale University School of Medicine at the Child Study Center. Dr. Perkins was an instructor in the Yale University Department of
Chemistry and was awarded the distinguished teaching award for instruction in Inorganic Chemistry Problems. Dr. Perkins also served as the Director of Education Programs within the Yale University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics.
He has served as a consultant to corporations, non-profits, NGOs, schools and universities throughout the U.S., Brazil, Israel, Indonesia, Thailand, the People’s Republic of China, India, Venezuela, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the Republic of South Africa. Dr. Perkins has previously served as a visiting professor at the University of Pretoria in South Africa for more than a decade. Dr. Perkins is the host of his own radio show, The Perkins Platform, which is a monthly online 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 has served as an executive leadership consultant to Escola SESC en Ensino Médio in Rio de Janeiro and provided consulting services to the Municipal Secretariat of Education in Rio de Janeiro. He also served as a leadership development consultant to Escola Eleva, an innovative for-profit school in Rio.
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 led a groundbreaking study and improvement initiative of school climate in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His instrument, the American School Climate Inventory, has been developed into an iPad, iPhone and Android device application and boasts worldwide distribution. He is the developer of Privilege Beads, a copy-written diversity exercise, for use with students and adults in a variety of settings.
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 nationally certified principal mentor by the National Association of Elementary School Principals. He is certified administrator of the Neethling Brain Inventory, the Intercultural Development Inventory, the Leadership Practices Inventory, the DiSC profile and a Gallup-certified Strengths-based Leadership Coach.
Carrigan Smoot
Program Associate
Carrigan Smoot is the Program Associate and Instructional Technologist for the Summer Principals Academy at Teachers 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, Carrigan hopes to discover ways in which digital media tools can enhance and enrich education.