The Team

Micki Evans

Micki began her educational career 38 years ago as a classroom teacher using experiential learning and PBL to teach the content and connect students with the community. She brings a wealth and variety of expertise — classroom teaching with a PBL focus, curriculum development and writing, instructional and systemic coaching and facilitation, and teaching and supervising in higher education pre-service and graduate education programs using PBL.

Micki has also worked extensively with schools in their redesign process, and helped to build professional learning communities to sustain the work. Micki has worked nationally and internationally with students, teachers and schools in school-wide redesign with a focus on project based, place based and problem based learning. She believes that the power of place shapes students thoughts, feelings, values and actions; it makes them who they are and plays a critical role in what they may become. She believes that Place Based Learning creates in students a sense of connectedness to the community and empowers students to make their community and the world a better place.

Erin Sanchez

Erin has spent the last sixteen years working as a high school and continuing education teacher, curriculum writer, video producer and a national PBL coach. Her commitment to support PBL as a vehicle to equitable teaching and learning practices is paramount in her professional experience. Erin has taught in both self-directed and teacher directed PBL environments, and knows firsthand that PBL is a continuum, with each school/district having a unique vision and journey.

Erin was a national coach with EdVisions schools, worked as a curriculum specialist and provided planning resources for schools being served by the Small Schools Project, and a curriculum writer for numerous organizations. Most recently, she was a PBL coach for Chief Leschi Schools for the Puyallup Tribe of Indians. For the past seven years Erin has been a National Faculty member at the Buck Institute for Education, focusing on school-wide PBL implementation.

Charity Parsons

Charity comes to Place Based Learning with a breadth of experience as a teacher, coach and consultant in the Project Based Learning environment. As a teacher and a K-12 coach she has been able to witness the transformative power of PBL to connect students –especially black males – to their world. She leans heavily upon exploring the dynamics of power and connectedness within a classroom/school/community. Because of this passion, she’s founded iDoSchool.org, an organization dedicated to providing the planning frames, tools and thinkspace necessary to support educators as we craft effective and empowering learning experiences for our students.

Charity believes wholeheartedly in Place Based Learning as an instructional delivery tool because of the immense amount of interconnectedness students experience in this learning environment. PBL is how we prepare students for a future we cannot foresee, and when leveraged appropriately, PBL has the power to dispel achievement disparities and empower ALL stakeholders to become lifelong learners.