Dr. Ann Little is an experienced leadership coach and regularly delivers professional development and coaching for school and district leaders. Her personal mission is to support school leaders in order to make the highest level of learning available to all students. She was a middle school principal in Cecil County, Maryland School District before her current career as Senior Leadership/School Improvement Specialist with the University of Delaware Academy of School Leadership. She has 30 years of experience working in the public school sector as a language arts teacher, department leader, Title I resource teacher, curriculum writer and administrator.  Her strong knowledge of instructional pedagogy and school improvement is complemented by a passion for supporting struggling and marginalized students, especially those impacted by trauma. Using a systems perspective, Ann has utilized continuous improvement efforts in middle schools and has supported many school leaders throughout the region in creating structures for academic and behavioral improvement at various levels. She successfully led schools through the implementation of Common Core State Standards, training in Trauma-Responsive Instruction, Restorative Practices and the use of virtual and hybrid instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic.  She also created a highly successful behavior support program that served struggling middle school students from her district.

Dr. Little earned her bachelor’s degree in Secondary English Education from Slippery Rock University and her master’s in Administration from Towson University. Earning her Ed. D. from Walden University in 2011, Ann studied the Baldrige Framework for Continuous Improvement and its application in middle school language arts classrooms. Ann has presented at the NCTE Conference, Delaware Women’s Conference, Common Ground Maryland Conference, Delaware Policy & Practice Institute, East Coast Improvement in Education Summit and the Wallace Foundation Principal Pipeline PLC Teams.

A lifelong learner, Ann is currently studying team dynamics and their effects on systems improvement, as well as the impact of multidisciplinary coaching on school improvement. Originally from rural Western Pennsylvania, she has made Cecil County, Maryland her home since 1991.  She has two grown children who are proud and successful graduates of the school system in which she worked.