Susan Shaffer
CHAIR
President, MAEC
Susan has been a nationally recognized expert for more than four decades. Her transformational work in public schools has centered on the development of comprehensive technical assistance for system wide change, training on educational equity and culturally responsive pedagogy and practice, school climate and culture, family, school, and community engagement, and multicultural gender-related issues. Recently, Ms. Shaffer served as the Executive Director of MAEC’s Center for Education Equity. She also represents MAEC as a partner with the Chief State School Officers to create a State Consortium on Family Engagement, developing a Birth to Age 21 Family Engagement Framework for 18 states. Ms. Shaffer has published extensively on gender equity, family engagement, civil rights, multicultural education, and disability. Her publications include a co-edited journal, Equity-Centered Capacity Building: Essential Approaches for Excellence & Sustainable School System Transformation, and co-authored book, How to Connect with your iTeen: A Parenting Road Map.
Ms. Shaffer serves on several boards, including the National Association of Family, School and Community Engagement since 2013, (co-founder) and the Bowie State University School of Education Board of Directors from 2012 to 2019 as well as the Harmony Through Education Board of Directors since 2006. Her other equity work includes Continuous Improvement for Equity and as a national member of the Model Design and Initiation program with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; with the Collaborative Action for Family Engagement (CAFE) State Family Engagement Center since 2019; as the Co-Chair of the Maryland Family Engagement Framework Committee; a member of the Equity-Centered Capacity Building Network since 2014; she has been a member of the Committee of Title I Practitioners for the Maryland State Department of Education since 2010; and she is a member of the Maryland Superintendent’s Family Engagement Advisory Council. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her service, leadership, and significant contribution to curricular materials on women. She holds a B.A. in History and M.A. in education from the University of California, Berkeley.
