Dropout Prevention: Strategy for At Risk Students to Reduce High School Dropouts

Our Team

Steven Weigler, Chief Executive Officer, General Counsel

Steve gained his experience and interest in the at-risk market as a juvenile prosecutor in Miami, Florida. Through his experiences both inside and outside government, most recently as a Senior Attorney for AT&T Corporation handling both informal and formal advocacy for an entire 14 state territory, he has created a significant number of contacts that gave ScholarCentric leverage in its sales. Steven has experience in law, government relations, management, and finance. He earned his B.A. at the University of Colorado at Boulder and his J.D. at Case Western Reserve University.
Email: s.weigler@scholarcentric.com

V. Scott Solberg, PhD, Chief Academic Officer

V. Scott Solberg, PhD., is currently the Director of Wisconsin Careers, a program within the Center for Education and Work in the University of Wisconsin – Madison School of Education. Dr. Solberg is an active member in the Society for Vocational Psychology, a Section in Division 17 (Society for Counseling Psychology) of the American Psychological Association. He is also a member of the International Association of Applied Psychology and International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance. Dr. Solberg has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Counseling Psychology, Italian Journal of Vocational Psychology (GIPO), Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, and Journal of Career Assessment and has published over 20 empirical and theoretical articles pertaining to youth development and academic success. Dr. Solberg currently serves as the Society for Counseling Psychology's representative to the American Psychological Association's Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education where he is currently chair-elect. He has served in leadership roles with the Milwaukee Partnership Academy and Milwaukee Public Schools Small Schools reform movement.
Email: s.solberg@scholarcentric.com

Carol Ann Waugh, Vice President of Marketing

Carol has more than 25 years experience in the publishing industry with an emphasis on developing, introducing, and marketing new products and services to the K-12 education markets. She has executive management experience with numerous educational publishing companies. Since 1986, she has consulted with over 50 publishing companies nationwide to help them develop and refine their marketing strategies. In 2002, she created the "bible" of the educational publishing industry - The Experts Guide to the K-12 School Market. She is the recipient of the coveted "Pink Jacket" award for her contributions to educational publishing. Carol earned her undergraduate degree from New York University and her MBA degree from Pace University's Lubin School of Business.
Email: cwaugh@scholarcentric.com

Melissa Adle Schlinger, Vice President, National Accounts

Melissa has extensive experience both as an educator and in the educational publishing industry. As Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Houghton Mifflin Learning Technology, she worked directly with federal, state and local education agencies to help them achieve strategic educational objectives and provide critical support for at-risk and special needs populations. She played a key part in the company's significant revenue growth, the development of the company's award-winning literacy solutions and professional development model, and the creation of an effective integrated marketing and communication strategy. In addition to working in the publishing industry, Melissa has extensive experience teaching general and special education students as well as developing curriculum in Fairfax County, VA and Montgomery County, MD. She has also conducted research in Child Development and Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Richmond where she earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree.
Email: m.schlinger@scholarcentric.com

Jennifer Lytle, Vice President, New Product Development

Jennifer Lytle has worked in educational technology since 1995, focusing on content and product development, Web/software production, and team and project management. Lytle held leadership positions at The Grow Network/McGraw-Hill, where she created the first-to-market, personalized study guides based on students' standardized test results; at bigchalk.com, where she directed the development of "virtual field trips" and "Classroom Radio" with National Public Radio; ProQuest, and HomeworkCentral. She also has worked with Scholastic Education, driving development of an instructional software and print program. She serves on the board of directors for the Virtual Explorers, a not-for-profit organization that tracks and participates in wildlife conservation science research projects, and offers standards-based curriculum for middle school teachers and students. Lytle earned her bachelor of arts from Brown University. She lives on Long Beach Island, N.J.
Email: j.lytle@scholarcentric.com

Peggy Morrison-Thurston, Vice President, Professional Development and Coaching

Peggy has over 41 years of educational experience at middle school, high school and district offices. She began in the capacity of teacher, department head, curriculum coordinator, project manager, and assistant principal. For the past 18 years she worked in the Dropout Prevention/Alternative Education, Broward County Public Schools district office. Since 2001, she served as the Director developing and managing programs targeting 38,000 Broward County at-risk youth, Kindergarten through 12th grade. She also oversaw a number of alternative schools that focus on behavior change, teen parenting and struggling learners Additionally she was principal of a community-based, dropout retrieval program that served 1700 youth in 2007-08. She retired from Broward County Public Schools on June 30, 2008.

Peggy is a Florida Licensed Secondary Educator with certification in Vocational Education and Educational Leadership. She earned her Bachelor and Master’s Degrees from Florida State University and her Educational Leadership from Florida Atlantic University. She earned certification in Dropout Prevention, E.S.O.L and in the Department of Juvenile Justice, Quality Assurance Accountability program. She also became certified through the Darden Executive Leadership at the University of Virginia Graduate School of Business Administration.
Email: p.thurston@scholarcentric.com

Jeff Oehm

Jeff Oehm has over 15 years experience in software development, systems implementation and database design focused on K-12 education. For the past six years, he has been consulting primarily with school districts on a variety of technology projects including development and implementation of data warehouses to track student assessment data, implementation of vehicle GPS systems to track school bus locations and creation of business processes to combine technology with business efficiencies. In addition, he performs management audits to analyze business operations and systems within school district support service departments. Mr. Oehm has a BA in Economics from the University of Colorado. Mr. Oehm is responsible for the Company's student data base development and analysis.

Ray Henderson, Educational Consultant

Ray Henderson has been an educator for more than 35 years, starting as a teacher in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. He was a program auditor for the Florida Department of Education, the South Area Coordinator for Exceptional Student Education for Broward County and then served as a principal at Deerfield Beach Middle School, Miramar High School and Dillard High School. Ray was an Adjunct Professor for Nova Southeastern University Master's Cluster and served as a designee at the White House to address school overcrowding. He has devoted his life to helping at-risk kids succeed in life and his new mission is to expand this support of at-risk kids throughout the southeast region of the United States.

Adrienne Schure, Curriculum Developer

Adrienne Schure is a product development executive with 25 years of experience in the field of education. Over the course of her career she has been responsible for the development of award-winning print and media products for K-8 students as well as professional development products and services for teachers and principals. As a consultant, she worked with Scholastic, Inc., Time for Kids, Discovery Channel, and several education magazines. Currently, Ms. Schure is the Senior Director of Product Development for McREL (Mid-Continent Research in Education and Learning) in Denver, CO. She holds a bachelor's degree in French language and literature from Barnard College (1971); a teaching credential in early childhood education from U.C. Berkeley; and a M.Ed. in human development from Harvard University.