Eileen S. Howley recently retired from her position as Executive Director of LEARN, a regional educational service center serving southeastern CT and the shoreline. In this position she continued to advance the vision of high quality public education for all children through innovative practices, collaboration and service to the educational community. Prior to LEARN, she served as Assistant Superintendent for Instruction and Curriculum in the West Hartford Public Schools, Interim Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent in the Farmington Public Schools. She also served as the Bureau Chief of Curriculum at the Connecticut State Department of Education, a teacher and staff development specialist with Area Cooperative Educational Services, a professor at Central CT State University, and as a teacher of English.

Eileen has consulted with districts across the state and the country on best practices in large scale instructional improvement, school and district improvement, curriculum design and development, and teacher and leader development. She has been a long time contributor to the CSDE work in teacher and leader assessment, including the Connecticut Competency Instrument, the Connecticut Common Core of Teaching portfolio guidelines, and the development of personal and professional leadership characteristics for school and district leaders. She earned her doctorate at the University of Hartford and focused her research on expert teacher development. She earned her Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Central Connecticut State University and her Bachelor’s degree from St. Michael’s College, Winooski, Vermont.