PREP-KC creates partnerships with school districts serving significant percentages of low-income students. A PREP-KC partnership connects a district’s leaders to technical assistance from PREP-KC staff, and to national and local 
experts who can assist in building a district’s capacity to improve student outcomes.

PREP-KC maintains a small staff in order to deploy the largest portion of its resources to build capacity with district partners.

Susan Wally - President & CEO (bio)
Dr. Kathleen Boyle Dalen -Vice President (bio)
Beth McCarthy - Program Associate (bio)

Susan Wally

Susan Wally is the President and CEO of PREP-KC (Partnership for Regional Educational Preparation), an organization founded in 2005 to develop, leverage, and deploy resources to support the improvement of public education in Kansas City. She advises educational improvement initiatives locally and nationally.
A former high school teacher, principal, and strategic advisor for school and district improvement, she joined the Kauffman Foundation in 1990 as manager of Project Choice, an urban high school dropout prevention and scholarship program that was conceived by Ewing Kauffman and operated by the Foundation. She served for more than 10 years as Vice President for Education at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation where she led a grant portfolio focused on the development and achievement of school-aged children.
While at The Kauffman Foundation she developed strategic partnerships with Kansas City’s urban school districts, including First Things First in the Kansas City, Kansas School District, and Achievement First in five Kansas City, Missouri high schools. Additionally, Wally collaborated with The Danforth Foundation in 1997 to launch the Missouri Superintendents Forum; with the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Education to launch the Kauffman/UMKC Principals Institute in 1999; and in 2000, with The Kansas Health Foundation to launch The Kansas Superintendents Forum. She has served on and chaired the board of directors for Grantmakers for Education, a national membership organization. She has also served as Special Consultant for Education to The Civic Council of Greater Kansas City.
Currently Wally serves on the Kansas Commission for Educational Leadership, which is charged with the development of new policy recommendations for preparing stronger educational leaders. Formerly she served on the (Missouri) Governor’s Math, Engineering, Technology, and Science Task Force. She also served on the Steering Committee at the University of Missouri - Kansas City which developed the Institute for Urban Education to focus on the development of well-prepared urban teachers.
Wally holds Bachelor, Masters and Specialist degrees in education, curriculum and instruction, and education policy and administration.
Additionally, Wally is active in Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey, Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Kansas City through their RBI (Revive Baseball in the Inner City) project, and serves on the Board of Directors of Wayside Waifs, Kansas City’s largest Humane Society and Animal Shelter. 

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Dr. Kathleen Boyle Dalen

Dr. Boyle Dalen provides strategic support and consultation to the implementation of Achievement First, the Kansas City, Missouri School District's (KCMSD) secondary school reform initiative. Additionally, her responsibilities include supporting First Things First implementation in the Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools (KCKPS) and overseeing new KCKPS and KCMSD collaboration. Boyle Dalen works closely with leadership of both of Kansas City’s urban school districts to create quality work-based learning opportunities for the students in each of the career-themed Small Learning Communities (SLCs) and, as a part of that work, to facilitate the creation of relevant and high quality connections to local post-secondary institutions.
Prior to this work, Boyle Dalen served as vice-president for education at The Learning Exchange, a local education non-profit, and has experience working with the Abbott Districts in New Jersey on school reform issues. In this role she coordinated policy initiatives with the Governor’s office, the New Jersey Departments of Health and Senior Services, Education, and Law and Public Safety, as well as other state officials.
Boyle Dalen earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from American University in Washington, D.C. She also holds master’s degrees from Columbia University in New York and Rutgers University in New Jersey, as well as a doctorate in Psychology from the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Currently she is taking the lead on behalf of PREP-KC in the partnership to launch Southwest Early College Campus, a new rigorous 6-12th grade school in the KCMSD. Boyle Dalen is an Educational Policy Fellow of the Institute for Educational Leadership, serves as an advisor to the emPower Plant of the Heartland Regional Community Foundation and serves on the Board of the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education.
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Beth McCarthy

Beth McCarthy brings a wealth of urban school experience to her work with PREP-KC. As a field trainer with the Vera Institute of Justice- Project Affirm, Beth helped deans, school aides and safety officers to decrease violence levels in New York City's 10 worst schools. Her work in the Los Angeles Unified School District helped build community support for the district's plan to build 85 schools in 5 years. Beth has a B.A. in Social Work from Kansas State University.
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