Welcome to Hendy Avenue
At Hendy Avenue Consulting, we believe investing in great teachers and leaders has the potential to dramatically change the landscape of education in our country and the lives of millions of children.
Since 2013, we have partnered with school system leaders to create equitable opportunities for traditionally underserved students and positive environments for the adults who support them. Our work includes designing and implementing academic strategies, talent strategies, and leadership development initiatives, each customized to the unique needs of our partners.
Why the Name? In this work we talk a lot about the needs of adults. We talk about politics and data. We talk about communication and operations. But at the end of the day, this is about kids. This is about making sure every child has a great education. Hendy Avenue is the elementary school Sarah attended and reminds her of being a child. This name helps to make sure we’re always focusing on the impact for students.
Our Team
We are a team of dedicated, experienced education professionals who have committed our lives to improving educational outcomes for children for the past 15-25 years. We are former teachers, school leaders, district leaders in talent and academics, and current school board members. We are smart, funny, caring, and enthusiastic partners that you’ll enjoy working with.
Hendy Avenue Consulting is a certified Women Business Enterprise with consultants in Brooklyn, NY, Cleveland, OH, Portland, OR, and Washington, DC. We partner with districts, states, and charter management organizations nationwide - and welcome an opportunity to help you meet your goals.
Hendy Consultants
Erica Murphy
Consultant
Erica Murphy
Consultant
5 years with Hendy!
Erica joined Hendy Avenue because she believes that effective teacher, school leader, and systems-level leader development are essential to supporting and growing our nation’s students. As a Hendy consultant, Erica has supported several partners in the creation and successful implementation of teacher observation rubrics that focus both on teacher pedagogy and student outcomes. These rubrics and their associated trainings have provided partner organizations with the tools needed to effectively coach and develop teachers toward a common bar of excellence in teaching. This work led to the publishing of the Hendy Instructional Excellence Rubric.
Erica has also supported networks in creating comprehensive teacher compensation systems that reward excellence in teaching with additional compensation and other tangible rewards. Finally, Erica is responsible for planning and leading our Chief Academic Officer (CAO) Cohort, which brings academic leaders together to learn alongside trusted colleagues in similar roles. Through the cohort, cohort members sharpen their vision, build their skills, exchange resources, problem solve, build relationships, and feel more fulfilled in their roles.
Before joining Hendy, Erica served as the Chief Curriculum and Instruction Officer at Ascend Public Charter Schools. In that role, Erica managed the design and implementation of Ascend’s unique liberal arts curriculum and supervised the professional development of all instructional leaders, principals and principal managers. Prior to assuming this role, Erica served as school director of Brownsville Ascend Lower School for five years. During that time, her school’s proficiency rates increased 30 percentage points in English language arts and 34 percentage points in mathematics. In school year 2016-17, Erica’s school achieved the second-highest score improvement among New York City charter schools. Erica joined the Ascend network as a second-grade teacher, team leader, and instructional coach at Brooklyn Ascend Lower School where she consistently posted the highest math results in the network. Before joining Ascend, she was a research associate at the New York City Department of Education’s Research and Policy Support Group, and she spent several years as an elementary school teacher in a NYC Department of Education school in the South Bronx.
Erica holds a master’s of public administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs; a master’s in elementary education from Lehman College; and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and Spanish from Washington University in Saint Louis. Erica lives with her husband and three daughters in Brooklyn, NY.
Jeremy Abarno
Consultant
Jeremy Abarno
Consultant
6 years with Hendy!
Jeremy joined Hendy Avenue Consulting to contribute to the work the team does to grow the leaders and teachers who are responsible for providing the conditions for students to thrive. Jeremy supports Hendy Avenue’s work by providing coaching and professional development for school and network leaders, curriculum design, implementation and instructional consulting, as well as advisement on comprehensive talent strategy. As a Hendy team member, Jeremy has supported several school systems for multiple years including the Chicago Public Schools, Hebrew Public Schools, and NYS Successful Practices Network.
Jeremy started as a teacher in East Harlem in 2000 and has dedicated his career to the children of New York City. He served as the Principal at PAVE Academy public charter school. Prior to joining DREAM, Jeremy was the Managing Director of Mathematics and later Talent at Ascend Public Charter Schools in Brooklyn, a network of nine schools serving more than 4,000 students in central Brooklyn. Before joining Hendy Avenue, Jeremy was the Chief Talent Officer of DREAM in East Harlem. In this role, Jeremy led the development of DREAM’s overall talent strategy including recruitment, professional development, workforce planning and human resources for DREAM’s schools, afterschool and community programs.
Jeremy holds a Master’s in Special Education from City College and a School Building Leader license from Baruch. He is a graduate of New York University in elementary education. Jeremy lives in Brooklyn with his wife and three children.
Jessica Wilson
Consultant
Jessica Wilson
Consultant
7 years with Hendy!
Jessica joined Hendy Avenue in September 2017 because she has a passion for improving outcomes for children through supporting the adults who serve them. During her tenure at Hendy, Jessica has led several projects focused on talent strategy, including the Independence Mission Schools, a network of schools in Philadelphia, as they aimed to implement a more rigorous instructional framework, and to design teacher leadership positions to support that framework; the Delaware Department of Education as they aimed to revise their state-wide teacher evaluation framework and implement across the state; and Breakthrough Public Schools, a charter school network in Cleveland, as the network worked to redesign their total rewards strategy. Jessica’s work has also focused on the intersection of talent and academics, specifically in her long-term work with Urban Community School in Cleveland on priorities related to academic strategy, talent, and school design. Jessica also supports leaders in education systems to grow their leadership skill and effectiveness through individual coaching. Jessica serves as the lead facilitator of Hendy's District Educator Effectiveness Leader Cohort.
Prior to joining Hendy, Jessica served as the Executive Director of Talent Impact at the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD). In this capacity, she managed the implementation of evaluation and performance management systems for all CMSD employees, including teachers, school leaders, administrators, and support staff. Jessica also managed the district’s licensure and certification work, ensuring that all educators were properly licensed, and supporting educators to attain and maintain licensure appropriate for their role in schools. Prior to joining CMSD, Jessica was a Project Director at TNTP. During her tenure at TNTP, Jessica led district diagnostics in Florida examining the district's success in implementing new college and career-ready standards, managed the creation and implementation of the teacher evaluation system in Newark, New Jersey, and led teacher career ladder staffing in Pittsburgh Public Schools. Jessica also managed the creation of the TNTP Core rubric, TNTP’s teacher observation and development rubric aligned to the Common Core State Standards.
Jessica holds a bachelor’s degree from Saint Louis University and a Master of Science in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University. She lives outside of Cleveland with her husband and two children where she serves as an elected member of her community’s public schools’ Board of Education.
Jessicawilson@hendyavenue.com
Rachel Modica-Russell
Consultant
Rachel Modica-Russell
Consultant
Rachel chose to join Hendy not only because she fervently believes in the team’s potential to impact the education sector through their research-based and thoughtful work in talent strategy, strategic planning, leadership development, and programmatic support; she herself has experienced the quality of partnership and depth of expertise present on the Hendy team as a past Chief Talent Officer (CTO) cohort member. Since joining Hendy in 2023, Rachel has had the opportunity to partner with District Office leaders of Chicago Public Schools as they refine and develop training around their central office staff performance evaluation system and suite of resources; support the talent team at Hebrew Public Charter School, offering targeted 1 on 1 coaching and advising services to C-suite level leaders, and providing broader team support through leaves; support the internal recruitment processes for Hendy’s Chief Academic Officer (CAO) learning cohort; and co-facilitate AI Talent Leader learning cohorts in partnership with AI for Equity.
Prior to joining Hendy, Rachel spent five years as the Managing Director of Talent for Explore Schools, a network of eight public charter schools across Brooklyn serving students in K-8th grade. In her role, Rachel shepherded work across all talent functions at Explore Schools, and worked in lockstep with school and network-based leadership on recruitment, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging work, staff retention, and people development efforts for their 300+ community members. As Managing Director of Talent at Explore Schools, Rachel spearheaded initiatives and programming such as a staff mentorship program, revising the organization’s approach to compensation, and building a career advancement policy anchored in equitable and transparent talent practices.
Before working for Explore Schools, Rachel worked at Uncommon Schools, first as a teacher, and later an Senior Associate Director of Recruitment where she led recruitment for both their Brooklyn and Troy-based regions. Returning to Explore Schools in 2018 was a full-circle moment for Rachel, as Explore is the very organization she began her career in education as a Teach for America Corps member. Rachel received her master’s degree in early childhood education from Teacher U - Hunter College and holds undergraduate degrees in Spanish and Family and Human Services from the University of Oregon. After 14 years in Brooklyn, NY, Rachel and her wife and two children made the move back to Oregon to be closer to family. So far, so good :).
2 years with Hendy!
Sarah Rosskamm
Founder
Sarah Rosskamm
Founder
12 years with Hendy!
Sarah founded Hendy Avenue Consulting with a deep commitment to ensuring all students have excellent educators supporting them to reach their full potential. With nearly 20 years of experience in public education, Sarah believes developing and celebrating excellent educators is the foundation for great schools.
From her very first consulting project supporting the Delaware Department of Education to talent-focused projects across the country, Sarah brings her strengths in change management, communications and stakeholder engagement to all of her partners. Sarah is immensely proud of the team she’s built and is grateful for the wonderful partners we’ve been able to help meet their goals. At Hendy, Sarah sets the strategic direction for the organization and hires the very best consultants in the field. Sarah has led consulting projects with KIPP Austin, KIPP Houston, DREAM, Delaware Department of Education, Rodel Foundation, Hartford Public Schools, and more. She also acts as a thought-partner on all projects led by the Hendy team.
Before starting Hendy Avenue Consulting, Sarah was the Senior Director of Talent Development for Achievement First, a network of more than 30 achievement-gap closing charter schools in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. In this role, Sarah was responsible for the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) funded AF Teacher Career Pathway designed to develop, recognize, and reward excellent teachers. The AF Teacher Career Pathway was one of the first of its kind and became a national model. Sarah joined Achievement First in 2008 as a Broad Resident in Urban Education. Prior to joining the residency, she was the founding executive director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Policy Center and research coordinator for the Pennsylvania Governor’s Commission on Training America’s Teachers. Sarah’s interest in education policy developed as a teacher in traditionally underserved communities and she pursued this interest as a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs. Her classroom experience includes teaching fifth grade during the founding year of the KIPP San Francisco Bay Academy and teaching first grade as a Teach For America Corps Member.
Sarah holds a MPM from Carnegie Mellon University and a BA in Human Services from George Washington University. Sarah lives in Washington DC with her husband and their two children.
Being a Part of the Hendy Team
Hendy Avenue exists not only to do excellent work serving school systems, but also to create a model work environment where education leaders can thrive and make a difference. On our team, we emphasize both impact and sustainability. We strive to lead meaningful work that makes an impact, that we're excited about, and that makes us stronger and smarter. We also promote joy and flexibility in our work to sustain ourselves and meet the needs of our families.
Hendy team members:
- Work on meaningful, long-term projects where they make a difference and have deep client relationships
- Work when, where, and how they like
- Are part of a talented team of consultants who learns and grows together through shared problem solving and weekly team meetings
- Focus on their direct work with school system leaders because they do not need to solicit work, write contracts, invoice clients, et.
- Truly care for each other and our families
- Are encouraged to bring their whole selves to the team
- Work with values-aligned school system leaders
- Are well compensated, participate in revenue sharing, and have flexible time off
"Being a part of the Hendy team has allowed me to grow in my leadership, knowledge, and skill while also maintaining balance in my broader life. I get to walk alongside leaders in school systems in support of their work, while bringing my own experiences to bear. I get to do it as a part of a team of other consultants with complimentary skills and perspectives that make me better every day.”
–Jessica Wilson,
7 Years at Hendy
Hendy Subcontractors
In addition to our core team, Hendy partners with exceptional individual consultants as needed for specific expertise or additional capacity. Our recent subcontractors include:
- Rochelle Van Dijk (Leadership Development)
- Jonathan McIntosh (CAO Cohort)
- Emily Banks (Math Assessment Development)
- Riley Bauling (School Leader Coaching)
- Rachel Modica-Russell (CTO Coaching)
- Grant Newman (Strategic Planning)
- Colleen Manning Linthicum (ELA Curriculum Implementation PD)
"Collaborating with Hendy Avenue Consulting has been a rewarding journey. Their approach marries detail-oriented planning and precise implementation with a nuanced, creative, and strategic vision that is nothing short of exceptional. The Hendy team fosters trusting relationships and consistently delivers highly effective solutions to their clients, establishing themselves as indispensable partners."
-Rochelle Van Dijk
"I truly enjoyed my time working with the Hendy Avenue Consulting Team. The project I worked on with the Hendy team was one of the highlights of my year. The team was truly focused on creating the very best support and materials that were aligned to the needs of the clients. From the start of my work to the end, I always felt like a valued member of the team and was supported to strong work. I would hands down recommend working for Hendy to anyone who is looking for subcontracting work AND to any school/ school leader looking for a supportive team to help them lead change in their school."
-Colleen Manning Linthicum
Work With Us
If you are interested in working with Hendy as a subcontractor for a specific project, please complete our subcontractor survey to share a bit about your experience, interest, and availability.