Eileen Kugler

Are the demographics of your school changing?
Does your community worry that diversity will lead to lowered achievement?
Do you find it tougher every day to get parents involved?

Eileen Kugler can help you face these challenges and build a strong cohesive school community -- empowering students of every background to achieve. Eileen brings unique credentials: the savvy professional skills of an award-winning communications expert coupled with more than a decade of experience as a parent volunteer in one of the nation’s most diverse schools. A national champion for diverse schools, Eileen earned the title of “2004 Virginia Education Advocate of the Year” from the American Association of University Women.

Eileen empowers educators and parents with proactive and effective strategies through:

Impassioned keynotes
Engaging hands-on workshops
Comprehensive consulting

Eileen's book, Debunking the Middle Class Myth: Why Diverse Schools are Good for All Kids (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), is changing hearts and minds around the country. It earned two national Book of the Year awards – from The National Association for Multicultural Education and from Delta Kappa Gamma International, the women educators’ honor society active in 14 countries.

Eileen’s communication credentials have been honed over three decades as a as a journalist, information director for a federal agency, executive of several non-profits, and founder of her own consulting firm. She gained first-hand knowledge of the challenges and rewards of diverse schools as a parent leader in a school near Washington, D.C. facing rapid demographic change. In this large high school with students from more than 90 countries and wide-ranging economic status, Eileen worked collaboratively with faculty and administrators, developing an innovative strategy that reached out to young parents, real estate agents, civic associations, and community service organizations and the media.

Today, Eileen works with school districts and parents around the country to duplicate this success. Eileen shares her message at national and state conferences, as well as at local schools. Her articles have appeared in respected sources ranging from USA Today and the Washington Post, to publications from the National PTA, the National School Boards Association, the National School Public Relations Association, and the Family Involvement Network of Educators.

Areas of Expertise:

* No one else brings Eileen’s credentials -- a skilled communicator who worked side by side with the faculty and administration of one of the nation’s most diverse schools.

* Eileen illuminates the unique strengths of diverse schools with an affirming message that keeps communities together!

* Eileen reveals realistic, proven strategies to empower students from every background to achieve – drawn from her own experience as well that of hundreds of educators and parents she has worked with around the country.

Building Positive School Climate in a Diverse School: Empowering every student to achieve

Connecting With Hard-to-Reach Parents: Increasing student success through parent involvement

“Participants in our week-long conference ranked Ms.Kugler’s presentation and its impact on them at the top of the evaluation scale.” Dr. Bernadette Musetti, Co-Director, Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education, Georgia

“Your message was on target -- you said clearly what we needed to hear, in a way that we could hear it, and you planted the seed for expanded conversations and learning.” Pete Hathaway, Principal, North Middle School, Sioux City, Iowa

“Many thanks for doing the presentations workshop. As you have already seen, the evaluations were rave reviews. Clearly, we must plan more ."

Kitty Porterfield, Director of Communications, Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia

“Thank you for your passion, your commitment to kids, to schools, to partnerships, to community participation, and most important, to diversity … Everyone walked away from the meeting refreshed and challenged.”

“You have a message that needs to be heard by all… Your experience, outlook, and presentation of the positive components that diversity gives a school is very good news to all. I hope to have you back.” Diane Brody, President, Fairfax County Council of PTA’s