Board of Directors

Marc Mancinelli
President

Marc Mancinelli founded the SJDLP in August of 2016.  He was inspired to launch the organization by his experience as a new administrator thrust into a data leadership role with no training, background, or experience with the work.  After immersing himself in the work his district sorely needed, Marc experienced the power of data when he was able to show evidence that his district’s actions not only were having almost no positive effect, but were also unintentionally making matters worse for certain groups of students. After that ah-ha moment, Marc developed a “reflex” for incorporating data into nearly every decision.  Marc’s mission in education is to ensure that all educators develop their potential as confident, reflexive, data-driven professionals.

Marc currently serves as the Director of Curriculum for the Lindenwold School District.  He previously served as a teacher of English, supervisor, assistant principal, and state data specialist.

Marc holds a doctorate in education with a concentration in teaching, learning, curriculum, and educational leadership.  His research interests include educational policy implementation, education technology, and how educators in different roles work with data.

Bill Connolly
Board Member

Bill Connolly’s first inkling of the importance of data was on the classroom level—when he saw the discrepancy between considering himself a writing teacher and discovering that he had insufficient evidence of his students’ ability to write. A pivotal memory was when Bill suggested to a leader that teachers needed time and training to be effective data analysts.  Banging his fist on the table, the leader voiced his disagreement, asking, “How HARD is it to analyze data?!”  (Pretty hard, it turns out.)   When he moved into administration, the support and inspiration of Patricia Braxton at Woodstown-Pilesgrove SD led Bill to make data a necessary component of all of his work with teachers and for students.

Bill currently serves as the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for Rancocas Valley Regional High School.  He previously served as a teacher of English, department and district supervisor, co-director of two National Writing Project sites, and state literacy specialist.

Since 2002, he has served as a member of the Editorial Review Board for JAAL.

Bill holds a Master’s degree in English education, as well as supervisor’s and principal’s certificates.  His research interests include writing instruction, assessment and grading, secondary literacy, and data-informed decisions.

Robert Rosenheim
Vice-President

Robert Rosenheim currently serves as the Data and Assessment/ Instructional Supervisor for the Kingsway Regional and South Harrison Township School Districts. He oversees elementary instruction and curriculum, is responsible for state and district testing programs, and coaches district stakeholders in their analysis and interpretation of data in order to improve school and student performance.

 Prior to joining the Kingsway Regional School District, Robert taught at the elementary and middle school levels for public district schools in southern New Jersey, and served as an Elementary Instructional Supervisor and data specialist for a turnaround charter school in Camden, NJ.

 Robert holds a B.A. in English from Rutgers University, a M.S.Ed. in Reading, Writing, and Literacy from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, and an Ed.M. in Educational Leadership, Organization, and Policy from Teachers College, Columbia University. Moreover, he holds certification in the Data Wise Improvement Process from the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University.

Tim Trow
Treasurer

Tim Trow is Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the Gloucester Township Public Schools.  As a former 4th Grade teacher and Elementary and Middle School Principal, he has a long history of seeing standardized test data used to evaluate the success of his classroom and schools.  During these years, he regularly reviewed the data both personally and with staff.  On many occasions, the empty feeling of, “Now what?”, seemed to be the only reasonable response.  Through thoughtful study and work with fellow administrators and teaching staff, he is collaboratively working to build capacity, find and utilize reliable data and make sound instructional decisions at the district, building and classroom level.

Heidi Daunoras
Secretary

Heidi Daunoras has been an educator for 25 years in the Pine Hill School District.  She has taught multiple grade levels and served as a K-12 Academic Supervisor before moving to the district role of Director of Curriculum and Instruction.

Heidi has always been involved as a provider of professional development and technology, first working with the Camden County ETTC as a presenter of workshops on many topics early in her career. She also was one of the first teachers and classrooms in New Jersey to launch videoconferencing technology in the classroom as well as to pilot many other technology initiatives. She currently directs the Southern Region of NJASCD and serves on the NJASCD State Executive Board. Her passion for improving the lives of the children and community she serves leads her to be involved in missions such as that of the SJDSP, whose work supports collecting and analyzing information in order to identify areas of focus in order to make a difference.

Heidi holds a M.S. Ed. from Walden University in Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, and completed her Principal and School Administrator certifications through the New Jersey Excel Leadership Certification Program.

Russell Altersitz
Parliamentarian

Russell Altersitz has been working with data collection, storage and utilization since the early 80’s. In the beginning of his career, his primary focus was in client services where he developed a customer service mindset in working with systems and the users who need those systems to do their jobs. After 6 years working in the hospital data management arena, and 3 years in retail data management, he became a systems consultant for 15 years. Some of his clients included DuPont Merck, Law School Admissions Services (LSAS), and Access Group.

Russell started working in New Jersey public schools in 2005 as a Student Information System (SIS) administrator. He quickly realized that the continuous-process nature of schools required him to improve the consistency of the system’s use and its output. This needed to be done so that his collaborators such as teachers, secretaries, administrators, and parents would be able to complete their regular tasks with little variation in what steps were taken and in the results that were expected.

Shortly after Russell began his time in school SIS administration, the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) began using NJSMART to process school district’s regular submissions of student data. Over the next 6-7 years Russell worked with other districts, user groups, vendors, the NJDOE and the NJSMART team providing input to help improve the consistency and utilization of NJSMART.  In 2012 Russell was asked by NJDOE Assistant Commissioner Bari Erlichson to manage the Office of Education Data, which included responsibility for NJSMART as well as the school performance reports, graduation appeals, acting as the EDFacts coordinator for New Jersey, and occasionally representing the NJDOE at federal conferences.

After 3 years at the NJDOE Russell returned to district work as a Data Analyst. He now works at Logan Township School District in Gloucester County.

Sean McCarron
Communications Chair