About Amy

Amy Sevell-Nelson has been leading and facilitating educational and organizational initiatives since 1985. Though based in Manchester, CT, her guidance has supported school districts throughout Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Vermont, and Massachusetts, helping educators, administrators, and families realize clarity of purpose, and move towards sustainably improved educational outcomes.

Amy began her career in early childhood education as an early intervention specialist, for which she was awarded the honor of Teacher of the Year. In addition, Amy fulfilled the role of Educational Consultant on a multi-disciplinary Birth to Five Mental Health team within a Community Child Guidance Clinic.

Amy has been providing training, embedded professional development and coaching – first within one of CT’s six Regional Education Service Centers, and then, in her current position, as an independent educational and organizational consultant.

Amy understands the educational challenges from a variety of perspectives: school-based staff, administrator, and the family. She works towards consensus in aligning, oftentimes disparate, agendas.

Current professional goals are two-fold and related: first, as a process facilitator, coach and consultant to support professional communities in developing organizational capacities to improve outcomes; second, to support the continuous growth and development of adults who work with children and their families.

Areas of expertise include:

• Strategic planning, organizational development and community engagement
• Facilitation, coaching & mentoring to support deep reflection and clarity of purpose regarding assumptions, beliefs and values within the organizational context, culture and systems
• Extensive work with school district personnel and related agencies based on best practices research, Professional Learning Communities and the collaborative problem solving process
• Broad-based knowledge of early childhood development and programming, disabilities and inclusive education (preschool through secondary level), curriculum, family partnerships, adult learning styles and the provision of training and ongoing embedded technical assistance
• Futures Planning through the use of a structured protocol involving critical stakeholders, including: staff, students, and family members. The process is designed to engage in discussions and decision-making based upon review of student profiles and longitudinal educational and other relevant data. From this, realistic and functional educational goals and programs for students with significant disabilities and their families are designed to function as a guide or ‘roadmap’. As an outcome, school and community-based curricula and authentic learning experiences are better aligned with the skills students will need for successful and worthy lives, beyond their school careers.
• Curriculum Alignment Process – IDEA indicates that students with disabilities, to the maximum extent appropriate, must be educated in the LRE in which they will be most successful. This protocol offers a structured and collaborative process, that brings together teams, of special and general educators, to create shared goals, learning priorities and to craft the daily schedule and program modifications necessary for the delivery of meaningful inclusive education for the student with a disability within the general education setting.