Norma A. Lopez-Reyna, Ph.D., Principal Investigator and Project Director, is responsible for overall project administration, supervision, and fiscal management. Dr. Lopez-Reyna is an Associate Professor of Special Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research and expertise are in the following areas: assessment, particularly as it relates to informing literacy instruction; the interaction between language disorders and second language learning; parental roles in understanding and teaching their children with disabilities; and teachers' decision making through the use of authentic assessment information. She has considerable practice in grant administration, both research and personnel preparation. Additionally, she has extensive experience serving on advisory councils and committees on campus, in the community and with the Illinois State Board of Education. The latter have included serving on the Bilingual Advisory committee, Advisory Council for Individuals with Disabilities, and a panel of experts convened to develop the teaching standards to meet the State's new certification requirements. In the College of Education, Dr. Lopez-Reyna provided expertise in the design of assessments for teacher candidates, has mentored colleagues in research grant writing, is Director of the Educational Assessment Clinic, and mentors doctoral and master's degree students.

Mary Bay, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator and Associate Director of Program Improvement, is Professor Emeritus of Special Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her scholarly interests focus on prospective and beginning teacher learning, teacher preparation, mentoring, and educational policy as it relates to the development of a quality teaching force. She was awarded the College of Education's Excellence in Teaching Award in 1998. She has been the co-principal investigator on three OSERS-funded personnel preparation grants to prepare master's level teachers to work with urban youth with disabilities. In addition, since 1998, she has been awarded over $1,175,000 in grant funds to improve teacher education at UIC. She has served as the College of Education's Associate Dean for Clinical Experiences and Student Affairs and as the Executive Director of the UIC Council on Teacher Education where she oversaw 20 teacher, administrator, and school personnel licensure programs.

Barbara Guillory, CCC-SLP, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator and Associate Director of Grant Proposal Development, is actively involved in working with mentors and trainers providing Technical Assistance and grant proposal writing workshops. Dr. Guillory identifies articulation agreements between 2 and 4-year institutions, and devotes her efforts to identifying community colleges that either have or show promise for capacity building in pre-special education or related services. As a speech and language pathologist, Dr. Guillory provided direct services in two public school settings early in her career. Dr. Guillory's university experience began as an instructor at Southern University in New Orleans and continued at Howard University in Washington, D. C. during the late 60's and early 70's. Subsequently, she served as the Assistant Director for the $18 M dollar Chapter I (Title I) program in the New Orleans public schools for 17 years. As such, she developed and implemented an early childhood language stimulation program for more than 2000 preschool children and was responsible for all reading and mathematics compensatory programs in 50 schools. For the previous 9 1/2 years, Dr. Guillory served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology at Southern University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She acquired two significant research projects and two personnel preparation grants for Speech Language Pathologists through grant funding. The first research grant, Validation of an Alternative Language Screening Procedure for African American Children, was in collaboration with Michigan State University; the second was to study the language characteristics and the visual and auditory perceptual skills of African American males, who have been diagnosed with behavior disorders.

Peggy Snowden, M.Ed., Module and Resource Coordinator, oversees the activities necessary to create and disseminate resources. She coordinates the process for the Monarch Modules, maintains communication among Monarch PIs, content experts, module reviewers, and website development consultants, and is the primary manager of the Client/Faculty Database.  Prior to joining the Monarch Center, Peggy taught in schools serving the needs of low-achieving students with and without disabilities. Peggy is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Special Education. 

Michael Maiorano, M.Ed., Client Services Coordinator, is currently a doctoral student in special education. He has extensive experience and expertise in client-focused operations, overseeing implementation of project plans, identifying opportunities for improving service to clients, and insuring the integrity and accuracy of these functions. Michael holds a M.Ed. in Special Education and is currently pursing a Ph.D in Special Education. 

Dana Baumgartner, Ph.D., Research Associate for Evaluation, collects and analyzes data for Monarch evaluation purposes. She regularly generates descriptive and summary statistics and graphic presentations, such as those needed for use in quarterly and annual reports and for conference presentations. Additionally she contributes to Program Improvement Module development.  Her areas of interest include, teacher preparation, organizational/social psychology and emotional development. 

Nicole Stuart, M.Ed., Communications Manager, is responsible for scanning the websites and newsletters from other TA & D centers to keep the Monarch Team informed, for communicating with partners and the TA&D network regarding Monarch activities and accomplishments, and for updating the state-by-state Directory of Resources (DOoRs) and the MIHEs Directory with special education and related services. She also collaborates with the Research Associate for Evaluation to prepare drafts of brochures, Monarch Newsletters, and other promotional and reporting items. Nicole is a doctoral student in Special Education.

Dianne Zazycki, M.Ed., Program Improvement Supports Manager, collaborates with Mary Bay to coordinate the follow-along activities for each institutional team and creates technical reports by gathering descriptions of initial program improvement seminars, summarizing the Action Plans created by MIHE teams, describing the follow-along activities that were provided, and comparing final reports to Action Plans. Dianne holds a M.Ed. in Special Education.

Rebecca Page, M.Ed., Budget Manager, assists the Project Director with all Monarch budget activities including the creation and maintenance of consultant contracts and processing expense reimbursement and honorarium payments. Additionally, she is responsible for purchasing and maintaining supplies and equipment. Rebecca holds a M.Ed. in Special Education.

Jorge Morisaki, M.Sc., Data Analysis Specialist and Technology Manager, is responsible for developing and maintaining searchable databases, for preparing data for analysis, and for website development and maintenance. He also manages the Monarch Center server and provides technical support for all Monarch Center events.

Jim Green, Ed.D., Tribal College Liaison,confers on the content and process of services for Community and Tribal Colleges, identifying and facilitating prospective clients within this community.