Dr. Michelle Picard is a passionate educator and leader with over three decades of experience leading transformative change in K-12 and university classrooms. Following more than ten years in the classroom, Michelle has held leadership roles in Virginia’s Arlington County Public Schools (ACPS) and Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS), designing and implementing student-centered, culturally responsive curriculum for elementary, middle, and high school students. 

As the ACPS Supervisor of Early Childhood and Director of Elementary Education, Michelle led public preschool programs for historically underserved populations. These innovative programs regularly outperformed local Head Start programs as evidenced by dramatic increases in kindergarten readiness and effects lasting through the fifth grade. Michelle led Arlington County’s school improvement process by accelerating collaboration between central office and high poverty schools. Under her direction, an executive leadership cohort was created, and  professional learning and consultation focused on issues such as root cause analysis, developing a 90-day school plan for improvement, characteristics of turn-around leadership, using short cycle formative assessments to inform instruction, and serving diverse students. 

Michelle’s greatest contributions focus on literacy education and the impact of high-leverage strategies in all classrooms. With a doctorate degree in reading and educational leadership from the University of Virginia, Michelle has experience increasing student achievement and creating systems to promote effective pedagogy and timely feedback.  She has robust experience designing curriculum which focuses on diverse representation, using and analyzing universal, diagnostic, and formative assessments, promoting high-leverage strategies for instruction, and providing effective feedback and professional learning opportunities for students and teachers.

She is a well-known presenter at local, regional, and state conferences along with the International Literacy Association. She draws from her expansive understanding of reading development, interdisciplinary literacy, culturally responsive instruction, young adult literature and literacy, discussion strategies to engage all learners, and how words work from phonics to morphology. Michelle has been a long-time, adjunct faculty member, sharing her experience and research based practices, while establishing high expectations for graduate students at the University of Virginia and George Mason University.

In 2016, the Virginia State Literacy Association (VSLA) recognized Michelle with the James D. Mullins Literacy Leadership Award for her exceptional work as a Virginia public school administrator. She authored Words Their Way for Parents, Tutors, and School Volunteers with Alison Meadows, Marica Invernizzi, Donald Bear, and Francine Johnston as part of the Word Their Way series.The professional text was written to provide friendly instruction in phonics, spelling, reading, writing, and vocabulary development.