Dr. Avis Glaze

Avis completed two Master of Education programs - one in educational administration, a second in guidance and counselling, and a Doctorate in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto. She also has training in Alternative Dispute Resolution, Advanced Facilitation,

and the Assessment of Emotional Intelligence. She has taught at all levels of the education system, in rural and urban areas, in public and Catholic schools, and at the elementary, secondary, community college and university levels. Avis has been a superintendent of schools in several school districts, an Associate Director of Education with the York Region District School Board and Director of Education of the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board. At the university level, Avis has been an Adjunct Professor in counsellor and teacher education in faculties of education in Ontario. She also served as an Education Officer with the Ontario Ministry of Education and as Research Coordinator with the Ontario Women’s Directorate of the Ministry of Labour.

In 1994, Avis served as a Commissioner on the Ontario Royal Commission on Learning and had the opportunity to influence the direction of education in Ontario through the recommendations of the Commission. She has extensive experience in international education and was chosen by the Canadian government to assist with educational reform in South Africa. She represented Canada at the UNESCO conference on Inclusive Education in Riga, Latvia. As well, she knows schools across the globe firsthand, having worked with educators in Australia, The Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Canada, The Cayman Islands, Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Trinidad and Tobago, The United States of America and Wales.

Within her community, she served as Chairperson of the Harry R. Gairey Scholarship Fund, helping outstanding black students to attend university. She has established the Avis Glaze Scholarships with the Markham African Caribbean Association for university or college education and supported a scholarship for studies in education at the University of Ottawa. Avis has received honorary doctorates from several Canadian universities and has won more than thirty awards for outstanding contribution to education, including Educator of the Year, The Distinguished Educator Award, the 2001 YWCA Women of Distinction Award, the Harry Jerome Award, the Sandford D. McDonnell Lifetime Achievement Award for Character Education offered by the Character Education Partnership in the United States, and The Order of Ontario, among others.

After serving as Ontario’s first CEO of The Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, Avis was later appointed as Ontario’s Education Commissioner and Senior Adviser to the Minister of Education. Her consulting company, Edu-quest International Inc., offers a wide range of services internationally. She continues to motivate and inspire educators through speaking engagements and consults with school districts, nonprofit organizations and businesses to maximize talent and achieve results. She also served as Adviser to the Minister of Education in New Zealand on national standards and continues to be the inveterate learner that she is, taking courses at every possible opportunity.

She received designation as a Visible Learning Certified Trainer, in John Hattie’s work, offered through Corwin Press in Thousand Oaks, California. Dr. Glaze is a consummate capacity builder. She is skilled at motivating and inspiring teachers, principals, system leaders, policy makers politicians, parents and business leaders to realize their potential in improving their schools. She co-authored Breaking Barriers: Excellence and Equity for All (Glaze, Mattingley and Levin) on the high impact strategies to improve education systems in general, and schools in particular. Another book, High School Graduation: K-12 Strategies that Work, (Glaze, Mattingley and Andrews), identifies the researchinformed strategies to improve graduation rates for all students regardless of socio-economic or other social or demographic factors.

Reaching the Heart of Leadership: Lessons Learned, Insights Gained, Actions Taken (Corwin Impact Leadership Series), which has been translated into Norwegian, seeks to reignite leadership passion, determination and sense of agency, and offers keen insights on how to refine leadership effectiveness and embed one’s leadership legacy. Avis’ international contributions were, once again, recognized when she received the Robert Owen Award, the first of its kind offered in Scotland. She was also invited to Norway by Queen Sonya to address the issue of how schools can build better societies. Most recently, she was appointed as one of the International Education Advisers to help overhaul the Scottish education system, focussing on the government priorities of closing the attainment gap, achieving equity and justice, and system reform.