Team Spotlight: Meet Sarah Rosskamm

You’ve met Jessica, Erica, and Jeremy, and now it’s my turn to share! I founded Hendy Avenue Consulting almost 8 years ago and never imagined the amazing team and clients we have today. I’m excited to share with you a bit about how I started and what drives me in this work. It’s great to meet you!

Why did you choose to work in education? 

When I was in high school and college, I worked at the New York State Sheriff’s Camp, nestled in the Finger Lakes of Western NY. The sheriffs from each county in the state identified children who were high risk and invited them to attend the camp. Through swimming, boating, arts and crafts, and camp songs, these young people who had survived incredibly challenging life circumstances would slowly shed their armour and get to be kids – even if only for a week. I saw the power of this experience and chose to be a Human Services major to open my own camp one day. My junior year of college, however, I learned about Teach For America and decided to explore teaching as another way to create opportunities for kids. As a first grade teacher in San Jose, California, I was able to witness the magic of little ones first learning to read. I loved their giggles and enthusiasm for every new experience. Like my young students, I too am a first generation college kid and was well aware that the odds were already stacked against them. I knew that my students’ educational experiences were going to determine their life outcomes and I wanted to be a part of it. I committed then, 20 years ago, to education and have been pursuing ways to make schools better for kids ever since. 

What’s your favorite part of your job? 

My favorite part of my job is working with and learning from incredibly talented and committed people. The Hendy team is just the best and I’m so proud to call these people my friends and partners in this work. Likewise, our clients are all amazing people who are doing such amazing things for kids. I love getting to work closely with an organization to help them solve their problems. I also love convening people to work together to find innovative solutions. I really do have a great job and feel very lucky for the opportunity to do this work. 

What’s the problem in education you most want to solve? 

I want being an educator to be a valued and celebrated profession. As a young teacher, I witnessed phenomenal veteran teachers without a voice in school decisions not being treated as the professionals they are. It was such a missed opportunity for my school and it’s a missed opportunity for the education field as a whole. I believe that by elevating the profession and leveraging the expertise of educators, we’ll be able to better attract and retain teachers from all walks of life and greatly increase outcomes for children. 

At this particular moment, I’m also painfully aware of the disparity of Covid-era education. The achievement gaps were immense before Covid and are sure to expand given the broad range of school experiences children are having today. We need to quickly work to understand kids’ academic and emotional needs and create plans for targeted remediation. We need to take a holistic/society approach to ensuring that the kids who need the most are getting the most from our systems and our educators. 

What’s a favorite book or quote? 

I’ve always loved the quote from Lee Iococca, “In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest would have to settle for something less”. It’s such a simple idea that is widely held in many other countries, but one we still haven’t internalized in the U.S. Remote learning has given parents new insights into the incredible commitment and creativity of teachers. My hope is that the appreciation people feel for teachers today evolves into culture, policies, and practices that lead to the best of us in the classroom and the rest of us settling for less. 

What do you like to do outside of work? 

Outside of work, I love to spend time with my family and our friends. You can most often find us in Brooklyn playing sports and games, hanging out with friends in Prospect Park, or (pre-Covid) traveling to spend time with our extended family. Our five year old is patiently trying to teach me chess and our three year old performs an animated daily puppet show. Today we are excitedly awaiting a big snowstorm in NYC with sleds and hot cocoa at the ready!

Sarah, Mike, Max (5) and Eli (3) reaching the top of the “mountain” while hiking in Cleveland

Team Spotlight: Meet Jessica Wilson

Dave, James (age 8), Grace (age 6) and I in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore this summer


In this blog series, we’re introducing you to the incredible people who make up the Hendy Avenue Consulting team. To kick us off, we’re excited to introduce you to Jessica Wilson, who joined Hendy in September 2017 and has supported a broad range of clients including the Delaware Department of Education, Breakthrough Public Schools and Independence Mission Schools. Jess is super smart, incredibly witty, a dedicated teammate, and deeply committed to students. She makes our whole team better every day. We hope you enjoy this interview with our wonderful Jessica Wilson.

Why did you choose to work in education?
My career began in the nonprofit sector, serving and supporting nonprofit leaders as they pursued solutions to the problems their organizations existed to solve. I supported nonprofits working to solve all kinds of problems, from hunger to housing to environmental justice. I was (and am) really good at supporting leaders to examine their challenges, generate solutions, and create plans to implement those solutions. However, I often lamented that I didn’t have my own “mission” – I didn’t know the problem that I wanted to put all of my professional energy into solving.  It wasn’t until graduate school when I began an internship in the HR department of Pittsburgh Public Schools that I found a mission that fit my skill and passion. I learned then, and in my subsequent years at TNTP, that my skill in problem-solving and planning could make a huge difference in education, and specifically in the implementation of systems and practices to support the adults who were serving kids. I knew then (and know now) that I am not cut out to be a teacher. I do know, though, that I can make a difference for kids by making sure that the adults who teach them, lead their schools, and make decisions on their behalf have the skills, resources, knowledge and strategies to ensure that kids get the best.

What’s your favorite part of your job? 
I love working with clients to solve problems and make their jobs easier. I firmly believe that leaders in education have some of the hardest jobs in our society, and in the pandemic these jobs have become even harder. I get a lot of joy in meeting leaders where they are in their problem solving, and in supporting them to bring their ideas and solutions to life – whether it be as simple as a well-run meeting or as complex as an entirely new initiative. 

What’s the problem in education you most want to solve? 
I firmly believe that the quality of the adults serving kids in schools is the most important lever we can pull to make sure that all kids (and not just kids whose families have means) get the education they need and deserve to live a choice-filled life. I think ensuring that the best, smartest, most dedicated people are serving schools as teachers and leaders starts with both better support and resources for those who are already in teaching and leading positions, and with elevating the teaching profession so we can attract more of the “best and brightest”. This means we must develop and recognize teachers in the same way and with the same rigor that we do other professionals that we as a society tend to revere, and that we implement changes in systems like job design, development and compensation to make teaching and leading more attractive and sustainable. 

What’s a favorite book or quote? 
A quote I’ve loved since high school: “This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” George Bernard Shaw

What do you like to do outside of work? 
My family and I have grown to love and deeply appreciate the outdoors. We make it a point to get into nature whenever we can for hiking, biking, kayaking, or boating on our beloved Lake Erie. We are avid tent campers, and are daydreaming of buying an RV to visit as many National Parks as we can. I also love to knit, and have found that the meditative nature of knitting brings me a much needed sense of calm in these crazy days. And I express affection through food and enjoy cooking for the people I love.

Webinar - Identifying Best Practices in Remote Instruction.pptx

Resources: Emerging Best Practices in Remote Instruction

In October 2020, Hendy’s Jeremy Abarno and Erica Murphy led a webinar on identifying emerging best practices in remote instruction. This interactive session included teachers and leaders from state departments of education, large and small school districts, charter management organizations and supporting organizations. The session focused on two key strategies for remote instruction – student engagement and differentiation. Through instructional videos and conversation, the presenters emphasized the interrelated nature of these two strategies. Differentiation leads to greater engagement and greater engagement allows for effective differentiation. This cycle is self-reinforcing and leads to better outcomes for students.

A recording of this webinar is available to you now. We’ve also compiled a list of strategies for remote engagement and differentiation. We hope these resources will help you continue to improve your practice of remote instruction. If there are additional engagement or differentiation strategies that have worked well for you, pleases let us know.