Andrea Lawful-Trainer 2011 Pennsylvania Faculty Member Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Jane Palmer is a community organizer in Reading and a graduate of the 2010 CPL Fellowship whose work is shaped by a passion for inclusion and a gift for connecting the dots. She recently initiated an Education Summit, the first gathering of all major education stakeholders in Reading to identify shared objectives and opportunities for collaboration. She was the coordinator and primary author of Rebuilding Reading, a mayoral commission to address poverty in the Commonwealth’s poorest city, and the coordinator of the 2010 Pennsylvania Progressive Summit. With a background in marketing and communications, Jane currently serves as Communications Director for the Berks County Democratic Party. She has worked extensively with national, state and local political campaigns, and was campaign manager for 2009 CPL Fellow Charles Corbit’s run for Berks County Prothonotary.

Andrea Lawful-Trainer is an extraordinary Educational Consultant who has made broad impact on closing academic achievement gaps across the Delaware Valley.  Her most notable results include providing leadership empowerment for students, leadership development for parents and professional development for teacher/guidance advisors for a suburban Philadelphia school district that reduced its reading achievement gap from 33 to eight percentage points in 6 months.  Her proven model places her in partnership with school districts to effectively meet the specific needs of their constituents.  Mrs. Trainer conducts tailored workshops and delivers motivational speeches in a way that engages and empowers.  Demand for services of the organization she founded in 2003, Children And Parental Enrichment Services (C.A.P.E.S) has sky rocketed due to the success of her work.

Andrea’s active involvement as a Student Advocate led to a successful run for the Abington School Board in 2007 where she currently serves as one of nine members of the board of Directors. She is the past President of Abington School District’s Parent Council and has served on several community organizations including; the Abington Community Taskforce, Citizens and Police together, Abington Human Relations Advisory Council, Local Tax Study Commission, State Parent Advisory Council, The Governor’s Institute for Parental Involvement and a Policy writing committee in Harrisburg . She is a current Board member of the Abington YMCA and Center For Progressive Leaders 2009 Alumni.  She is also working with Dr. Bob Jarvis from the Delaware Valley Minority Student Achievement Consortium on the creation of a Parent Taskforce. Andrea was asked to do a presentation of her work at Harvard University in recent months and has since been chosen by a Film group to do a documentary of her work with the CALM Society which will be used in schools across the Nation. Most recently, Mrs. Trainer received an award from the Pennsylvania Human rights Commission for Outstanding contribution to Human relations and Human rights in the area of Education. She has since been made a member of the Montgomery County Chapter of the Commission.  In September 2010, Mrs. Trainer was named as an Advocate for the National School Board association.

Mrs. Trainer has an undergraduate degree in Communications and a Post Graduate Degree in Education.

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