Profile

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Allison Rodman is the Founder and Chief Learning Officer of The Learning Loop, an educational consulting organization that provides professional learning services to districts, schools, nonprofit organizations, and businesses internationally. This includes work with public, charter, and independent schools, over 20 archdioceses, and over 60 sites across the Americas, Europe, and the Pacific for the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA).

Allison is an ASCD Faculty Member and author of Still Learning: Strengthening Professional and Organizational Capacity (2023) and Personalized Professional Learning: A Job-Embedded Pathway for Elevating Teacher Voice (2019). Her work focuses on adult learners, and she has written for Educational Leadership on professional learning, effective teams, and educator wellness, as well as Education Week's Classroom Q&A and Edutopia.

Allison brings experience as a teacher, instructional coach, school leader, director of teaching and learning, director of professional learning, and board member.

The Learning Loop designs, facilitates, and coaches professional learning that is personalized, purposeful, and paradigm-shifting. Allison is deeply committed to connecting learners together and sharing resources to personalize the learning process at every level of the system.

The goal of her work is to help adult learners:

View learning as an ongoing experience (not an endpoint or one-time workshop)
Strengthen their professional and organizational capacity
Create deliberately developmental organizations.

See Allison's Services page for more information.

Professional Experience

Prior to consulting, Allison held a variety of roles with Mariana Bracetti Academy, a K-12 school in Philadelphia, PA, including Teacher, Instructional Coach, Assistant Principal, Director of Teaching and Learning, and Director of Professional Learning.

Allison played a key role in the school's curriculum development and staff evaluation design. She co-designed and led a personalized professional learning program for all K-12 instructional staff members and acted as the school's Community Building Coordinator. Allison also served on numerous committees, including literacy, student engagement, technology, and staff communication. These various roles provide her with unique perspectives on coaching and teacher leadership in addition to school leadership.

Allison worked with Teach For America and assisted with the opening of their Philadelphia site. As the Director of Special Projects, Allison supported teacher professional learning, oversaw corps member matriculation and certification, and assisted with regional fundraising efforts.

Before working in Philadelphia, Allison was a Social Studies and Alternative Education Teacher at Thomas Jefferson High School in Richmond, Virginia.

Additional Education Work

Allison is deeply committed to her local community and a proud Board of Education Member, Policy and Personnel Chair, and former Vice President for the Haddon Township School District in New Jersey. She serves as the board’s representative on the district’s Vision and Mission and Quality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC) Committees and acted as board delegate to the Camden County Educational Services Commission, Camden County School Boards Association, and New Jersey School Boards Association.

Allison is a Member of Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE), a nonpartisan, nonprofit leadership development organization working to end the injustice of educational inequity by inspiring and supporting a diverse set of leaders with classroom experience to engage civically and politically.

Allison collaborated with Pennsylvania ASCD to develop ASCD's first state affiliate Emerging Leaders Program. The program prepares younger educators from across the state for leadership positions and strengthens PASCD’s voice for influencing policy and practice. Allison was a Member of Pennsylvania ASCD's Whole Child Committee and designed meaningful professional learning experiences for superintendents and principals to ensure all students are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

Allison served as an ASCD Influence Leader, a select cohort of ASCD educator advocates who work with the organization's government relations team to influence education policy at a local, state, and national level.

Allison volunteers as a Girl Scout Service Unit Manager, overseeing 25-30 troops across 12 towns and providing volunteer support and girl programming. She is also a Girl Scout Leader for 20+ middle and high school scouts.

Presentations and Awards

Allison keynotes and facilitates workshops focused on personalized professional learning and educator capacity strengthening.

Allison has presented nationally and internationally for:

ASCD
Learning Forward
Innovative Schools Summit
U.S. Department of Education’s Teach to Lead Alumni Summit
National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP)
National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)
National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS)
National Catholic Education Association (NCEA)
Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA)
Catapult Learning
Education Elements
Sibme

She was also selected as a featured speaker for ASCD’s 2021 Leadership Summit focused on Educator Mental Health and Wellness.

Allison has presented regionally for:

New Jersey ASCD
Pennsylvania ASCD
Virginia ASCD
Washington State ASCD
New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association (NJPSA)
New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA)
Learning Forward Florida
Penn Excellence and Equity Consortia
PLearn Mid-Atlantic
PLearn Southeast
Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools
Philadelphia Charters for Excellence
Girl Scouts of Central and Southern New Jersey
Various Intermediate Units

She has also been a guest lecturer at various graduate schools of education, including the University of Pennsylvania, University of Connecticut, Old Dominion University, and Mt. Holyoke College.

Allison was selected as one of 25 educators internationally to the ASCD Emerging Leaders Class of 2013. The Emerging Leaders program recognizes and prepares young, promising educators to influence education programs, policies, and practice on both the local and national levels.

Allison's work as a Startup Founder was recognized by EdTech Digest, and she was named a 2018 Leadership Finalist. The following year, Allison was named a 2019 Education Trendsetter Finalist. The EdTech Awards celebrate innovators, leaders, and trendsetters in the field of education.

Publications

Allison's book Personalized Professional Learning: A Job-Embedded Pathway for Elevating Teacher Voice was published in May 2019 as the ASCD Premium Member Book and was recognized by Book Authority as one of the Best Professional Development Books of All Time.

Her second book Still Learning: Strengthening Professional and Organizational Capacity was published in November 2013 and ranked as the #1 Amazon New Release in Educational Philosophy.

Allison's work has been featured in:

Educational Leadership
Edutopia
School CEO
Education Week's Classroom Q&A
Global Ed Insights
Education Update
ASCD InService
Scholastic's Down the Hall

See Allison's Publications and Interviews pages for more information.

Education

Allison received a B.A. from the University of Richmond where she majored in Political Science and Secondary Education and an M.S.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania with a concentration in Educational Leadership.

Allison is a certified secondary social studies teacher, K-12 principal, school board member, master board member, and board leader.

Personal Insight

Allison lives in New Jersey with her husband Doug (a teacher of 20+ years) and three children – Cameron, Aislinn, and Lola. She enjoys traveling with her family, and one of her personal goals is to explore all 63 national parks together.

Allison spends her leisure time attending Cameron’s soccer games and Aislinn’s archery competitions, making art creations with Lola, relaxing around the backyard fire with Doug, hosting family and friends for casual gatherings, and digging in the garden.

THE LEARNING LOOP