Our Team
At Pathways to Inclusive Education the beliefs we bring to every interaction are these:
“Each of us is doing the best we can with the skills and knowledge we possess.“
“Everyone we meet is fighting a battle we know nothing about- be kind.“
Kim Bane
Kim Bane is an international education consultant who, along with her colleagues at Pathways to Inclusive Education, works with schools across the globe to design and implement inclusive educational practices that support the needs of all learners. Kim brings experience, dedication and passion to this work, having successfully collaborated with schools both in the United States and across the Middle East, Africa and Asia to transform the learning experience for students, teachers, and school leaders. Pathways to Inclusive Education supports schools in creating and sustaining inclusive cultures by thinking strategically about the journey a school will need to embark on and then helping to design a course of action that will accomplish this goal. Through coaching and consulting, Kim supports school leaders as they strategically navigate this complex organizational change. She guides and provides direct instruction for teachers as they develop their understanding on the critical instructional components and approaches that support inclusive practices such as Universal Design for Learning, the Co-Instructional Cycle (co-teaching), and tiered systems of support (often referred to as MTSS) that address the needs of the whole child.
Using his experience as a social studies teacher, administrator, coach and consultant Jason Hicks collaborates with educators as they aspire to achieve their school’s strategic priorities and evolve professional practice. Over the course of 25 years, he has learned much while working in schools in the United States, India, and the United Arab Emirates; he has also had the good fortune to consult with schools on five continents. Jason pairs his practice with a deep commitment to compassion knowing that each one of us is in a different spot on a unique personal and professional journey. You can often find Jason sitting with a teacher as they are reflecting on a lesson through the lens of Universal Design for Learning, supporting teams as they build their collaborative capacity through the use of Adaptive Schools, or engaged in a coaching conversation with a dedicated educator who is planning a process or reflecting on a recent event.
Jason Hicks
Paula Peters
As a practitioner, teacher, leader and coach, Paula Peters believes that all students deserve high-challenge, high-support rigorous experiences that will prepare them for learning in the 21st century and beyond. Through professional presentations, job embedded coaching and collaboration, she works with teachers and administrators to maximize lesson design and lesson delivery that improves student outcomes while meeting the needs of a wide range of learners. As an international educator, Paula has worked with a varied number of curricula and pedagogies and has extensive experience in integrated, co -taught and special needs classrooms. Best of all, Paula has worked with and on teams from the implementation to refining stages of change in educational settings.
Amber Schmidt is a nationally certified school psychologist and is currently working on obtaining her doctorate in clinical psychology. Her experiences in both U.S. public schools and international schools as a school psychologist and Director of Student Support Services have equipped her to understand, design and implement a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) across all grade levels. Amber is dedicated to all facets of MTSS that include academics, behavior, and social-emotional needs of students. Amber works with administration, teacher leaders, coaches, classroom teachers, student support services team, and any other stakeholders to define what MTSS should look like in a school’s individual setting, as well as creates and executes implementation plans that ensure the fidelity and sustainability of a multi- tiered system of support framework.
Amber Schmidt
Kelly Miller
Kelly Miller is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and Autism Consultant. Her practical and hands-on experience spans two decades, including mental health and school settings. Kelly works to expand teacher’s instructional repertoires to encompass not only academic, but social, emotional, and behavioral systems of support. With a focus of maximizing positive behavior momentum in the classroom, educators will reclaim valuable learning time. Kelly coaches and provides live modeling and support within the classroom. Workshops are rooted in inclusive practices, enabling teachers to develop their own “take away toolkit” full of evidence-based strategies that can be immediately applied in their classroom.
Francine Alberts is an ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) certified Speech Language Pathologist with over 25 years experience working with children, families and teachers. She focuses on building relationships with children in order to support their communication, play, social development and emotional regulation. Francine has spent many years collaborating with diverse teams of professionals to support all students with a focus on students with Autism. Her developmentally-based treatment approach is rooted in principles from evidence-based models including Hanen, Floortime, Early-Start Denver Model, and Social Thinking, among others. She loves being in classrooms and is always excited to problem- solve with general education teachers to find ways to help students be engaged learners as well as to build classroom environments that support communication skills. Her career has included work in public and private schools, autism treatment centers and in families’ homes, both in the United States and abroad.
Francine Alberts
Eric Warneke
As an educator, psychologist, and administrator, Eric Warneke has served a diverse group of students and fellow educators over more than a decade in the public schools. Eric started his career as a School Psychologist in a Middle School serving Army dependents at Fort Carson, followed by the opportunity to hone his mental health and leadership skills at an Elementary School in the Denver metro area. Since that time he has served as an instructional specialist providing consultation and training for educators on topics such as educational intervention, program evaluation and planning, assessment and student evaluation, and behavioral classroom management. Most recently Eric has been both a Special Education Coordinator and Director of Special Education serving PreK-12 students and educators. Areas of specialization include assessment and evaluation, specialized programming, Multi Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) leadership, special education law and process, executive function interventions, and classroom behavior management. Eric is a licensed School Psychologist and School District Administrator.
Becca Stenzel has been an Occupational Therapist since 2012 and spent seven years working as a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist prior to that. Her wide range of experience includes working with people with disabilities in community settings, schools, hospitals, camps, in their homes, and in animal assisted therapy settings. Becca’s passion lies in empowering her clients, families, and teachers by teaching them practical tools and strategies they can use on a daily basis to support continued learning and growth. Becca loves working directly with people with disabilities and with those who support them. She provides consultation, training, and ongoing support to meet her clients where they are and help them work towards independence and inclusion.
Becca Stenzel
Lindsey Anderson
Lindsey Anderson is an experienced teacher, administrator, and coach. With nearly 20 years of working as a special and general educator everywhere from a local rural elementary school in Honduras to urban schools in Washington, DC to international schools in 3 countries, Lindsey has learned what it takes to reach ALL kinds of students – and it’s not necessarily gadgets, games, or the latest pedagogical fad. Instead, it’s about how well you know your students and are able to use design strategies to create flexible, authentic, and rigorous learning experiences that can meet the needs of all learners from the start. Lindsey has been recognized by her own students and national educational associations with awards for her teaching, and educational programs that she helped to develop have been replicated by independent schools and school districts. Her areas of specialization include: Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), learning science, and applied neuroscience in education.
Nancy Wilcox brings over twenty years of international education experience, holding various roles across different curricula, including serving as a Daily 5 reading coach to support reading development. Having experienced the International Baccalaureate firsthand, her passion for the IB PYP shines through her dedication to its diverse elements. Moreover, growing up and receiving education in international systems as a third culture kid (TCK), she empathizes with the needs and challenges of individuals in similar situations. She advocates for Universal Design for Learning (UDL), providing multiple means of representation, engagement, and expression to maximize learning for all. Nancy is also passionate about Visible Thinking and Learning strategies, as well as the development of Approaches to Teaching and Learning (ATL) and Approaches to Thinking (ATT) skills.
Nancy Wilcox
Leslie Gaiser
Leslie Gaiser is a special education teacher and educational consultant. She has her Master’s in Special Education and an Educational Specialist degree in School Administration with an added endorsement of a Special Education Director. She has worked in the field of education over 20 years with all grades and ability levels of students. In her current role she provides consultation with school teams for students with disabilities who are having difficulty accessing educational settings whether it is because of an academic or behavioral need. She is also active in delivery of focused professional development to groups in areas of special education practices, multi-sensory literacy strategies, math strategies, twice exceptional strategies, behavior supports, and executive function strategies. More recently, Leslie has begun to incorporate using technology to deliver instruction in online settings effectively to increase engagement and motivation.
Trish Curtain is an international educational consultant with over 25 years of experience in inclusive education across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Australia. As a Learning Support Specialist and Team Lead, she has worked with a wide range of learner profiles—from students with intensive needs to highly able and twice-exceptional learners. Trish is a strong advocate for integrated systems of support, collaborative multidisciplinary teams, and authentic home-school partnerships that build inclusive mindsets throughout school communities. She has partnered extensively with specialists including EAL educators, counselors, enrichment and gifted education teachers, speech-language therapists, occupational therapists, behavior coaches, and psychologists. With a Master’s in Special Education, a Diploma in Gifted Education, and certification in Dyslexia, Trish brings deep expertise to her work. She is also trained in Cognitive Coaching and Adaptive Schools, which inform her facilitative leadership approach.Trish has contributed to the field through her work with Next Frontier Inclusion, co-authoring two monographs: Serve the Need, Not the Label: Highly Able Learners in International Schools and Why EAL or LS is the Wrong Question?
Trish Curtain
Susan Shapiro
Susan Shapiro brings a wealth of educational experience, expertise and vision to her work. Throughout her career, Susan’s focus has been building the capacity of educators to design inclusive, accessible learning. She has worked as a teacher, inclusive education consultant, educator preparation faculty member, and, most recently, as a Senior Professional Learning Specialist at CAST, the non-profit research and development organization that developed Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Known for her ability to spark meaningful instructional conversations, Susan uses protocols and design practices to help educators shift their thinking from assuming that barriers to learning are characteristics of students, to recognizing how inflexible and/or inaccessible instructional designs may create barriers. Participants in her professional learning experiences about UDL, inclusive technologies, and accessible educational materials, learn how to design instruction that reduces those barriers so that learning is accessible for all. Susan’s approach is marked by a commitment to learning agency for students in classrooms and to the agency of teachers in professional learning experiences.
Pathways to Inclusive Education 