Announcing the 2022 Dewey Award Review Board
The Dewey Awards celebrate teachers who change lives every day, in and out of the classroom. Many of us have experienced the powerful impact of a caring teacher—someone who helped us get to where we are today.
With our annual Dewey Awards, we’re inviting stories of teachers as change-makers in memory of Richard Dewey, a teacher close to our hearts at CSC. Educators, students, and parents are welcome to submit a story of their change-making teacher by October 28, 2022, for the chance at a $1,000 grant gifted to the charter school of their choice.
Picking just three winners for the $1,000 charter school grants is no easy task, but our amazing Review Board will read or watch all submissions and select the most inspirational educator stories. We’ve asked them to judge based on what makes their heart pitter-patter. We’re not looking for grammatical perfection, video prowess, or writing expertise—just powerful stories of teachers that inspire.
We are honored to be including the following Review Board participants in this year’s Dewey Awards:
Tandria Callins Ph.D., CCC-SLP, ADHD-RSP, Executive Director & Principal
Language & Literacy Academy for Learning
Combine ambitious, creative, engaging, and strategic, and you have Tandria Callins Ph.D., CCC-SLP, ADHD-RSP. Serving as an Executive Director and Principal at Language & Literacy Academy for Learning, Dr. Callins takes on challenging responsibilities, such as facility expansion and charter replication.
She is a master presenter, professional business coach, and skillful writer. Her impressive operational management background allows her to successfully operate a charter school for students with disabilities and directly oversee rehabilitation services, while providing coaching as a certified Mental Health instructor and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Related Service Provider (ADHD-RSP) coach. She is currently seeking her certification in the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt in Education.
In addition to 6 years in the charter school business, Dr. Callins is also very active in the community and serves on multiple boards. She maintains executive and regional roles within her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, and is a Licensed Funeral Director.
Ask her about how to keep a smile on her face during the ebb and flow of business and life—it’s her secret talent. It’s the thrill seeking, competitive, and spontaneous person Dr. Callins is outside of work. She is supported by her husband, three children, church, family, and friends.
Anna Shults, Founder
ACE Prep Charter School
Anna Shults spent 12 years as an elementary school teacher and was honored as Indiana’s 2007 State Teacher of the year, giving her a sabbatical from the classroom for a year to talk to teachers statewide. During those travels, she saw firsthand the potential impact of a zip code on a child’s destiny—but that a solid foundation in the early grades can help any child soar, no matter where they live.
Schultz went on to help shape elementary reading initiatives at the Indiana Department of Education. She was then sought after by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for a yearlong opportunity to lead the Foundation’s body of work pertaining to empowering and celebrating teacher-leaders. Shults also became a part of Building Excellent Schools, a national non-profit that trains high-capacity individuals to design, found, lead and sustain high performing charter schools in communities where schools have a history of struggling.
In August 2016, Shults launched ACE Preparatory Academy Charter School (an acronym for Academics, Character and Excellence), a K-5 charter school dedicated to the belief that every child deserves a great education, regardless of where they live.
At CSC, we are dedicated to helping schools provide a nourishing environment for their students, and excellent teachers are the heart of that effort.
Tricia Blum, VP of Consulting Services
Charter School Capital
Tricia Blum, formerly an interim turnaround CEO of a charter organization located in Los Angeles, California, is the head of the charter school business department at Charter School Capital. Tricia supports client schools that need strategic business, financial, and operational guidance.
Prior to her tenure as a charter CEO, Tricia worked as an inspiring executive leader of a high-growth charter management organization. During Tricia’s time as a leader at both organizations, she created and instituted operational policies and procedures as well as strategic growth plans including replication and duplication strategies that enabled each organization to successfully scale their education programs.
Prior to joining the charter movement, Tricia practiced transactional law. As a new attorney, Tricia worked in-house at startup and high-growth companies in the mostly in Bay area. Tricia is also an aspiring “Bon Vivant.” In her off-time she enjoys spending time with her boys, designing, eating, traveling, reading and going to the beach. She has settled, for now, in her native California.
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