E. Alana James

Current

Facilitator of the Network at The Future(s) of Education Project
Director at ReinventingLife.org
Professor of Participatory Action Research at Colorado Technical University

Contract Mentor for Doctoral Students in Education and Business at Various Universities
Mentor for Doctoral Candidates in Education and Business at Various Universities

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Past

Associate Chair of Ed.D. in K12 Leadership at Jones International University
Director of Education Services at Center for Research Strategies, LLC
Regional Site Coordinator of CASASTART Program at CASA: Center for Substance Abuse Prevention at Columbia

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Education

Teachers College of Columbia University

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6 people have recommended E. Alana

Connections

122 connections

Industry

E-Learning

E. Alana James’s Summary

My current passion is the future of education. My goal is to promote participatory teams developing internationally to develop new designs for education- moving us past the industrial model that hampers us today.

My life and work weave together three components:
1) a desire to help people, groups and organizations reinvent their lives and context
2) experience with online education and distributed transformational educational practices
3) experience working with nonprofits and doctoral students as they wrestle with complex adaptive problems using participatory action research (PAR)

My work and educational backgrounds encompass educational leadership, professional development, non profit or NGO management, organizational development and participatory research.

E. Alana James’s Specialties:

I specialize in the use of web based distributed content and social media to the betterment of projects that reinvent some aspect of life.

E. Alana James’s Experience

Facilitator of the Network

The Future(s) of Education Project

(Education Management industry)

July 2008 — Present (1 year 5 months)

The networked participatory design of this project is one I have employed on another longitudinal study. We have gathered a small team of higher education professionals whose current and previous work focused on some aspect of improving education and moving it into being appropriate for our children and the world they will inherit (as opposed to the industrial world on which our current world systems are based).

We are looking for educators in diverse international locations who will host a participatory local team to discuss these issues and design what might be appropriate in their setting. Work begins early in 2009.
Director

ReinventingLife.org

(Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Professional Training & Coaching industry)

April 2008 — Present (1 year 8 months)

As Director of ReinventingLife.org I actively seek and develop programs that enable others to reinvent some aspect of the world, their work or their personal life. A group of independent associates and myself: a) run retreats for individuals, b) coach doctoral students, c) use PAR and distributed content to improve the distribution of NGO's and nonprofits, and d) work on projects geared towards fairtrade or development in underserved populations.
Professor of Participatory Action Research

Colorado Technical University

(E-Learning industry)

2008 — Present (1 year )
Contract Mentor for Doctoral Students in Education and Business

Various Universities

(E-Learning industry)

January 2008 — Present (1 year 11 months)

As an independent academic I contract with a number of for profit Universities to mentor their doctoral students in Education Leadership and Business Management to their successful completion of their dissertations. This is ongoing work and is conducted through asynchronous and synchronous online discussions.
Mentor for Doctoral Candidates in Education and Business

Various Universities

(E-Learning industry)

February 2005 — Present (4 years 10 months)

A growing requirement for independent academics in online and blended learning environments is the ability to successfully mentor doctoral candidates to successful completion in three years. I do this for both students in education and business, following a model of the use of participatory learning to get the job done.
Associate Chair of Ed.D. in K12 Leadership

Jones International University

(Educational Institution; 51-200 employees; E-Learning industry)

February 2006 — December 2007 (1 year 11 months)

While I maintain my contract as professor and content manager I stepped down from being Associate Chair of the Doctoral Program in December 2007 in order to pursue the work involved in ReinventingLife.org
Director of Education Services

Center for Research Strategies, LLC

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Research industry)

January 2004 — October 2006 (2 years 10 months)

I was responsible for oversight of a number of research projects centering on "at risk" youth populations. Ongoing during this time was the 5 year longitudinal study on ways to improve education for students experiencing homelessness. This work later became my book:

James (2008) Participatory Action Research For Educational Leadership: Data Driven Decision Making for Schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publishing
Regional Site Coordinator of CASASTART Program

CASA: Center for Substance Abuse Prevention at Columbia

(Research industry)

January 2000 — December 2003 (4 years )

I managed, trained and worked on funding development for a high touch substance abuse program for at risk teens.

E. Alana James’s Education

Teachers College of Columbia University

Ed.D. , Educational Leadership, Organizational Development, Managing Complex Systems using Online Technology , 2002 — 2005

My doctoral dissertation included the beginning of a five year longitudinal study in which I facilitated community teams (community member, teacher and school principal) to use participatory action research to study and improve education for students experiencing homelessness and high levels of mobility. These fantastic teams of people effectively slowed down the revolving doors in their schools as they addressed access to services, welcoming school cultures, and flexible instructional strategies. Participants used web based technology from their 140 individual, 56 local and 12 state contexts.

Additional Information

E. Alana James’s Interests:

The Future(s) of Education project is working to change the design of education around the world ReinventingLife.org works with educators, organizations, and individuals to reinvent their world, work or life contexts.