December 7, 2009
State Director - Moira Cullen
Moira Cullen, State Director for DFER-Colorado since August 2008, specializes in advocating for education reform, higher education, non-profit advocacy, and children's policy issues as a lobbying expert in Denver, CO. As a mother of two children in the Denver Public School system, Moira is incredibly active in local and statewide ed-reform projects and policies. Her expertise in helping to pass SB 10-191, a bill to help ensure that there are effective teachers and leaders in every school, marked a significant milestone in the education reform movement in Colorado. The bill is now hailed as a national model for educator effectiveness legislation. Moira also serves on the Board of West Denver Prepatory Charter School, and was named a 2009 Mover & Shaker in the Colorado education community in Education News Colorado.
Some of Moira's other accomplishments include:
-Stabilizing funding for Colorado's community colleges to ensure that they maintain their mission as the gateway to higher education for Colorado's citizens.
-Legislation to provide oversight and accountability of K-12 online programs while ensuring that online education remains a viable option for at-risk students.
-Passage of a bill authorizing community colleges to offer AA and AS degrees with academic designations, adding specificity to the community college degree and better positioning students to transfer to 4-year colleges or enter the workforce.
-Passage of a bill that created seamless pathways to the baccalaureate degree for students who begin their postsecondary education at community colleges by eliminating unnecessary administrative processes and creating at least 10 new degree pathways, thereby easing the transfer process for many non-traditional, low-income, and at-risk students around the state.