Joanne McEachen is the CEO/Founder of The Learner First, an education consultancy based in Seattle, Washington, USA. She serves on the executive team of Karanga, the global alliance for social and emotional learning and life skills, and is also co-founder and Global Measurement Director of the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning (NPDL) global partnership, currently active in Australia, Canada, Finland, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United States, and Uruguay.
A former teacher, principal, and regional and national Ministry of Education leader, Joanne’s methodology re-focuses school systems through the eyes of their least-served learners, supporting systems to embrace and celebrate students’ cultural identities and individual interests and needs. Joanne is co-author of Dive Into Deep Learning: Tools for Engagement, Deep Learning: Engage the World Change the World and Measuring Human Return: Understand and Assess What Really Matters for Deeper Learning, which explores the measurement and development of the deeper learning outcomes that contribute to lifelong success. She is an expert on deeper learning measurement, assessment, and whole-system change, and her words are illuminated by continued, hands-on experience partnering with diverse groups of schools around the world.
Drawing from rich and varied experiences at all levels of educational systems, and from a focus on students’ and teachers’ sense of wellbeing, connection, and self-understanding, Joanne offers tools, processes, and expertise that enable anyone learning and working in a school system to unlock their greatest contributions to humanity.