I have worked in the educator preparation and licensure space for over 20 years. First as a representative of a state education agency charged with establishing and enforcing standards for the preparation and certification of education personnel and then as an employee of companies creating and delivering assessments of those standards. During that time, my fundamental belief that states have the legal and moral responsibility to establish and uphold high standards for entry into the education profession has only strengthened. I also believe that everyone with a passion to teach should be supported in their journey toward the professional license. That means individuals with the knowledge and skills to become a teacher should be provided the support necessary to demonstrate their readiness. That is why I am launching Passage Preparation. Passage Preparation delivers high-quality, approachable preparation courses to assist candidates in successful completion of educator licensure assessments. In the 10 years preceding, I was a Vice President at Pearson where I paired my passion for educator preparation and licensure policy at the state and programmatic levels with a deep understanding of assessment, data, and accreditation to provide state education agencies and educator preparation programs with support in large-scale assessment. I facilitated communication to stakeholders and engaged elected and appointed government officials and policymakers in discussions surrounding the assessment of educators and support for educator preparation programs in implementing assessments for educator licensure candidates. These responsibilities extended across the national edTPA program and other state-specific educator licensure assessment programs.I collaborated with national and state organizations with a stake in recruiting, preparing and licensing representative educators ready to deliver high quality, equitable instruction to the nation’s increasingly diverse students.Prior to this, I served at Educational Testing Services (ETS) providing technical assistance for the Praxis program and served as the point of contact for state agencies and educator preparation programs.From 2004 to 2010, I served in positions of increasing responsibility and leadership for the West Virginia Department of Education. I took direction from the chief state school officer and Board of Education to solicit feedback from stakeholders to build policies supporting the state’s educator workforce.I also taught at middle school science in Putnam County, WV.