5 Claymont Ct.
Springfield Illinois 62704
217-691-6162
mary.mcdonald@cecillinois.org
Mary McDonald has worked for CEC since 2005 in supporting comprehensive school improvement and restructuring efforts in several Illinois and Ohio districts.
She also has been instrumental in developing and implementing a curriculum for comprehensive union leadership to assist union leaders in retooling their locals to more successfully address the needs of their members in teaching and learning.
Ms. McDonald has more than 30 years of service in public education. She taught middle and high school students and served as a school improvement coach for Springfield Public Schools, where she developed expertise in helping middle and high school leadership teams and their faculty to develop a collaborative culture to analyze and use data for continuous improvement. Ms. McDonald was president of the Springfield Education Association-IEA/NEA , the Ball-Chatham Education Association and a member of the Illinois Education Association Board of Directors. She has also served on the Illinois Governor’s Task Force on Re-enrollment of Dropouts.
Ms. McDonald continues to coach and support school and district leadership teams in their efforts to create and maintain professional learning communities that support a focus on learning, collaboration and accountability for results.
She is active in teacher union reform efforts as the co-chair of the Great Lakes Teacher Union Reform Network (TURN), along with Louise Sundin of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, and works closely with the national Teacher Union Reform Network, where she serves as the editor of the TURNews and Great Lakes TURN newsletters. Ms McDonald provides coaching and support to union leaders and their members as they work to address the challenges they face in addressing educational reform efforts.
Ms. McDonald also is an active member of the Illinois Education Research Council, the NEA Teacher Quality Advisory Group, and the NEA Foundation planning team for the National Institute for Local Innovation in Teaching and Learning.
Ms. McDonald earned a Bachelors of Science degree in Family and Consumer Sciences from Eastern Illinois University in 1978. She completed a Masters of Science degree in Prevention Program Management, with a focus on community health organizing, from the University of Illinois in Springfield in 1992.