Note: You will find the option to vote below, after the statements. When prompted, please log into your ICSEI membership account first.
Each person standing for election was asked to provide a 300-word statement (without citations or references) detailing their motivation and contributions to school effectiveness, improvement, innovation and ICSEI, including their vision for ICSEI.
The President-Elect statements are listed in the same order as nominees are listed on the ballot paper.
Paul Campbell
As a long-serving member of ICSEI, I am deeply committed to our mission of advancing equity, excellence, and quality in education through global collaboration. My leadership philosophy is grounded in relational influence, centring community, dialogue, inclusivity, and purposeful action. Across my career as a senior leader in schools, policy advisor, and scholar in Europe, Asia, and Australasia, I have worked to connect diverse communities, sustain productive collaboration, and mobilise expertise to drive meaningful and lasting improvement. I see ICSEI standing at a critical juncture. Despite decades of reform, persistent challenges in equity and learning remain across school systems, and our community, rich in networks, knowledge, and diversity, is uniquely positioned to lead the next chapter in effectiveness, improvement, and educational change. As President, I would focus on three strategic priorities:
- Reimagining Collaboration and Collegiality: I will expand ICSEI’s engagement formats, introducing virtual roundtables, thematic series, and regional showcases, to foster inclusive, year-round collaboration. This will include building on existing networks to reimagine the reach and thematic relevance of our networks.
- Extending Strategic Partnerships: I will deepen partnerships with aligned research, practice, and policy organizations to amplify our impact, share infrastructure, and extend our reach to underrepresented regions and colleagues, particularly in practice and policy.
- Translating Research into Action: Building on my leadership of ICSEI Voices, the Dialogic, and regional events, I will develop the collaborative and digital infrastructure to create digital knowledge hubs, learning labs, and co-designed tools that connect research, policy, and practice and enhance our digital presence and community.
Building on nine years as a network coordinator, three years on the Board, and leadership roles spanning practice, policy and research, I bring deep knowledge, expertise and a proven commitment to ICSEI’s growth. I would be honoured to serve and lead this next chapter with you.
Melanie Ehren
As a Professor of Educational Governance at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, I bring over 25 years of experience in academic and policy roles within school effectiveness and improvement. Having served on the ICSEI board for three years, I have developed a deep understanding of our organization’s unique features and challenges. I’m standing for President-Elect to continue promoting ICSEI as the premier forum where academics, practitioners, and policymakers collaborate to advance education globally.
In an era when national priorities often overshadow international collaboration, ICSEI’s unwavering commitment to empowering school effectiveness and improvement worldwide becomes even more vital. As President-Elect, I would focus on:
- Expanding regional networks to provide more accessible local engagement opportunities
- Leveraging digital platforms—newsletters, website, and ICSEI Dialogics—to facilitate meaningful asynchronous collaboration and learning
- Developing fellowship programs to ensure equitable access to our events
- Securing external funding for seed grants enabling collaborative work on innovative questions relevant to our entire network
- Maintaining our inclusive culture that makes ICSEI a true home for education professionals worldwide
ICSEI’s greatest strength lies in connecting people across geographic, professional, and institutional boundaries. As President-Elect, I would preserve this distinctive character while ensuring accessibility and relevance for all members, regardless of location or circumstances.
We have built something extraordinary in ICSEI: a genuinely international community dedicated to improving education for all. My priority is nurturing the relationships that make ICSEI more than just a network—a place where people truly belong. Together, we can continue bridging borders to create lasting impact in education while fostering the collaborative spirit that defines our organization.
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The Board Director statements are listed in the same order as nominees are listed on the ballot paper.
Romina Madrid
Growing up and working in Chile shaped my conviction that education is a public good and a lever for equity. Early in my career, working alongside schools serving vulnerable communities taught me that improvement depends on trust, collaborative leadership, and context-sensitive innovation. This commitment has taken me from Valparaíso to Santiago, from Minnesota to Glasgow—each step strengthening my belief that change comes from connecting local expertise with global learning, and from engaging deeply with the complexities and similarities across very different education systems.
My ICSEI journey, now spanning more than a decade, was inspired and motivated by my advisor, Professor Karen Seashore. As co-convenor of the Crisis Response in Education Network, I had the privilege of working with colleagues to mobilise ICSEI’s unique strengths during the pandemic. Through research labs, we created collaborative spaces where practitioners, policymakers, and researchers could share evidence in real time—responding to urgent challenges facing the teaching profession while building knowledge collectively across contexts. This experience reaffirmed ICSEI’s role as a trusted global hub, where research is not only disseminated but actively applied to shape practice and policy.
Since then, I have continued this work through projects on climate change education and youth agency, and most recently through preparing a special issue on the role of education in the climate crisis. These initiatives reflect my conviction that ICSEI must be at the forefront of connecting school effectiveness and improvement research to the pressing global challenges of our time.
My vision for ICSEI is to strengthen its role as a truly global and inclusive platform—one that amplifies diverse perspectives, fosters equitable partnerships, and mobilises research for action in ways that are locally grounded and globally connected. I would be honoured to serve on the ICSEI Board to help bridge research, policy, and practice in pursuit of a more equitable and sustainable future.
Jeremy Hannay
I am driven by a simple, stubborn hope: that schools can be places people run toward. My work has been to prove it—building cultures where trust, joy and scholarly ambition live together, and where improvement is something we do with people, not to them. In a system that often defaults to surveillance and spectacle, I’ve led a counter-current: pruning low-value routines, replacing performative monitoring with professional inquiry, and designing humane, high-expectation environments that lift both outcomes and spirits.
My contributions sit at the intersection of culture, pedagogy and leadership. I’ve scaled lesson study as climate work, recast performance management as growth, and codified “culture by design” so ethos drives practice every day. I mentor leaders, write and speak widely, and steward a small family of schools to show what is possible—whole-child, community-rooted, academically exacting. Recently, I’ve explored AI as a “fourth space” for reflective practice—low stakes, high candour—so learning accelerates without eroding humanity.
ICSEI has been a professional home for this stance: a place to test ideas, connect with courageous colleagues and contribute to a global conversation about improvement that is both rigorous and deeply human. My vision for ICSEI is a movement, not a meeting: research, policy and practice braided together; open-source playbooks and longitudinal learning labs across contexts; practitioner and student voice centred alongside evidence; equity and wellbeing treated not as strands but as the medium of the work. Imagine ICSEI as the world’s lighthouse for humane accountability and professional capital—curious, courageous, and relentlessly useful. That is the beautiful rebellion I’m committed to—and the future I want ICSEI to lead.
Greg Bass
Having attended ICSEI for the first time last year, yet always aware of the significance of this body, I was thoroughly heartened to engage with so many education professionals from around the world that passionately brought forward their experiential perspectives on the system. A mentor and strong influence in my professional career, and my nominator Dr. Sharon Friesen – had always shared with me that ICSEI was the single greatest professional conference on educational leadership, change, and improvement in the world. It was an honour to attend and present in Melbourne, Australia this past February.
For almost four decades I have had the incredible opportunity to lead in various positions in the education system in Alberta, Canada. I have been focussed on leadership praxis over this entire span and have academic degrees at the graduate and doctoral levels on this specific topic. My focus is on large-scale systemic change in the best interest of students around the world and our collective futures. We are watching in real time the dangers of a society that is not highly engaged with, and a champion of, formal education. When we couple unprecedented rates of societal change and the corresponding slow pace of educational system adaptation, we are set up for even greater challenges in the future without large-scale intervention.
I view the opportunity to help guide ICSEI into the future as a director on the Board an incredible professional honour, and one of significant importance. In the best interest of the children and youth we are honoured to serve, we must be striving to continuously improve systems and measure their effectiveness, engagement, and impact. I see no greater table internationally to contribute to at this critical moment in human history than ICSEI.
Ellen Goldring
I first attended ICSEI in 1994 in Melbourne, and the experience profoundly shaped my career, expanding my understanding of improvement research across diverse, global contexts and launching collaborations that continue today. Since then, I have come to see ICSEI as a community of scholars with deep commitments and expertise. I have participated for multiple years in the conferences, including the Early Career Forums, and was honored to deliver a keynote in Chile.
My work sits at the intersection of education policy and school improvement, with an emphasis on educational leadership and mixed methods. I have studied leadership effectiveness and school district redesign to build and sustain pathways to effective leadership. Internationally, I am currently collaborating with the American University of Iraq–Baghdad and IBA Sukkur in Pakistan to support education programs in their colleges of education. I have served as editor-in-chief of the American Educational Research Journal, am a fellow of the American Educational Research Association, received UCEA’s Roald F. Campbell Lifetime Achievement Award, and was elected to the National Academy of Education in 2025. I serve as Research Dean at Peabody College, Vanderbilt University.
I see collaboration and connection as central to improvement research and ICSEI. If elected, I hope to help strengthen ICSEI’s caring community while addressing the resource demands of a small member association—through strategic partnerships, alignment with emerging areas of research, and structures that build, synthesize, and share collective expertise to support policy, practice, and the global knowledge base. For example, ICSEI could map and curate grant and fellowship opportunities, maintain a directory of funding calls, and offer open methods clinics and low‑barrier opportunities to meet—regional meet‑ups, virtual office hours, and member spotlights that make it easier to find collaborators by topic, method, or region. I look forward to collaborating with colleagues for ICSEI to expand and sustain as a vibrant and diverse community.
Marlen Faannessen
I would be honored to serve on the ICSEI Board. My professional focus has consistently been on strengthening leadership, collaboration, and innovation in schools, with a clear commitment to how leadership translates into improved student learning and engagement.
As Deputy Director of IMTEC in Norway, and incoming Director from January 2025, I lead and support leadership development programs nationally and internationally. These include train-the-trainers initiatives, advisory work with municipalities, and the design of leadership frameworks that ensure sustainable capacity. I work closely with school leaders, districts, and ministries on strategic leadership, professional learning communities, and embedding research-based practices into everyday leadership.
Internationally, I have contributed to projects across Europe, Asia, and Africa, with a strong emphasis on meta-learning—helping leaders not only to grow themselves but also to prepare others for leadership. This aligns closely with ICSEI’s mission of bridging research, policy, and practice. In autumn 2025, I began my Doctorate in Education (EdD) at the University of Glasgow, focusing on leadership and capacity building, as part of my commitment to connecting research and practice.
What motivates me to join the ICSEI Board goes beyond my professional background. ICSEI has been a vital network for me — a family of educators who inspire, challenge, and support each other. In a time marked by wars, rising populism, and the influence of extreme right-wing movements, ICSEI’s role feels more important than ever. Education can advance inclusion, equity, and democratic values — but only if we stand together and join our forces.
My vision is for ICSEI to strengthen its role as a truly global and inclusive community that bridges research, policy, and practice. ICSEI can serve as a beacon for equity and engagement, empowering leaders and fostering collaboration to build sustainable capacity and advance education as a force for justice, democracy, and peace.
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