Raymond J. McNulty is the President of the Successful Practices Network (SPN) and the National Dropout Prevention Center (NDPC). Before that, Ray was Dean of the School of Education at Southern New Hampshire University, which Fast Company magazine named the 12th most innovative organization in the world in its World's 50 Most Innovative Companies. Ray has served as the President of the International Center for Leadership in Education and was also the Chief Learning Officer for Penn Foster, a global leader in online education. In addition, Ray has been a Program Director and Senior Fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he worked with leading educators on improving our nation's high schools. On an international level, he is a senior member of the Aspirations Academy Trust in London, England. The Trust operates 15 Academy schools in Southern England focused on global 21st-century skills and learner success. Ray is a past president of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and author of It’s Not Us Against Them — Creating the Schools We Need, published in 2009 by the International Center. An educator since 1973, Ray has been a teacher, assistant principal, principal, and superintendent. From 2001-03, he served as Vermont's education commissioner. During his tenure, Ray focused on aligning the Department of Education's work on three key issues: early education, educator quality, and secondary school reform. Ray also is the cohost of K12 Confidential, a podcast series focused on leadership in uncertain times, featured on Spotify and Apple iTunes.Ray is a presenter at the state, national, and international levels on the need for school systems to accept the challenges that lie ahead. He is committed to raising performance standards for teachers and students and building solid connections between schools and their communities. Ray believes strongly that education systems cannot wait for the children and challenges to arrive at school; instead, schools must reach out and help forge solutions.