Alicia Woolf is Director of Special Education for Urban Teachers. She works with urban educators to ensure students have equitable access to education and their community. She joined Urban Teachers as a clinical faculty member in 2015 after spending several years in a variety of public school and non-profit leadership roles. In 2014, she was chosen for the Center for Innovation and Leadership in Special Education Fellowship at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, studying how to apply neuroscience research to urban classrooms and developing guidelines for best practices in behavior management, special education, and teacher education. She is a passionate advocate for inclusion, and her attention to behavior manifestations is focused on reducing disproportionality in punitive systems.
She holds a Master of Education from the University of Maryland, and is certified in school administration, secondary mathematics, elementary education, and special education. She is currently working toward Board Certification in Behavior Analysis in the Johns Hopkins School of Education Applied Behavior Analysis program.
Education
• Johns Hopkins University School of Education, Applied Behavior Analysis (Board Certification expected 2018), 2016-present
• Towson University, College of Education, Administrator I Certification, 2015
• University of Maryland, College of Education, Master of Education in Special Education with an emphasis on secondary mathematics instruction of students with Learning Disabilities, 2011
• University of Maryland, College of Education, Bachelor of Science in Special Education, 2010
Academic positions
• Director of Special Education, Urban Teachers, Baltimore, MD, 2018-present
• Lead Clinical Faculty, Urban Teachers, Baltimore, MD, 2017
• Clinical Faculty, Urban Teachers, Baltimore, MD, 2015-2017
• Assistant Program Director, Camp Attaway, Columbia, MD, 2012-2014
• Special Education Leadership Fellow, Center for Innovation and Leadership in Special Education, 2014-2015
• Emotional Disabilities Program Teacher, Westbrook Elementary School, Montgomery County Public Schools, 2013-2014
• Special Education Teacher, Northwest High School, Montgomery County Public Schools, 2011-2013
Awards
• 2017 President-Elect, Phi Delta Kappa International, Johns Hopkins University Chapter
• 2009-2011 Kappa Delta Pi Education Honor Society, University of Maryland College Park Chapter
• 2008-2011 National Society of Collegiate Scholars
• 2006-2008 University of Maryland Public Leadership Scholar
Teaching experience
• Lecturer, Johns Hopkins University School of Education, 2016-2018
ED. 811.611 Special Education and Inclusion: Promises and Challenges
ED. 811.612 Introduction to Assessment and Tiered Instruction
ED. 811.615 Formal Assessment and Designing Individualized Education Programs
ED. 811.616 Understanding and Managing Behavior
ED. 811.617 Specialized Instructional Techniques
• Clinical Faculty, Urban Teachers, Baltimore, MD, 2015-2017
ERSPD5200 Special Education and Inclusion: Promises and Challenges
ERSPD6200 Understanding and Managing Behavior
ERSPD6210 Introduction to Assessment and Tiered Instruction
ERSPD6212 Formal Assessment and Designing Individualized Education Programs
ERSPD6214 Specialized Instructional Techniques
• Co-instructor, Towson University, Towson, MD, 2014
SPED 301 Introduction to Special Education
Research, Publications, Presentations
• Van Stone, M., Woolf, A. & Smith, C.L. (2015). Children with Disabilities: Getting School Systems to Identify and Address Emotional Disabilities through the Child Find Mandate. Poster presented at the Association of University Centers on Disabilities Conference, Washington, D.C.
• Woolf, A. (2015). The Middle School Brain: Connecting Neuroscience to Classroom Practice. Symposium presented at Loch Raven Technical Academy Professional Development lecture, Baltimore, MD.
• Woolf, A. (2015). The Middle School Brain: Using Neuroscience to Build Teacher-Student Relationships. Symposium presented at Loch Raven Technical Academy Faculty Meeting, Baltimore, MD.
• Woolf, A. (2015). Schoolwide Positive Behavior Supports: Using Neuroscience and the Behavioral Sciences to Inform School Environment Decisions. Symposium presented at Loch Raven Technical Academy Positive Behavior and Intervention Support Meeting, Towson, MD. February 2015.