Bruce King

Dr. M. Bruce King, Director of the AIW Institute, is emeritus faculty with the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His work in ELPA concentrated on teaching courses on instructional leadership and teacher capacity, coordinating the Wisconsin Idea PhD cohort program in K–12 leadership, and building effective partnerships between the department and schools and districts.

Bruce has been a researcher with the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, where he contributed to two studies focused on Authentic Intellectual Work, the Research Institute on Secondary Education Reform for Youth with Disabilities and the Center for Organization and Restructuring of Schools. He received his PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from UW-Madison and taught upper elementary, middle, and high school for 11 years in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Quito, Ecuador.

Bruce has been a research fellow at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, and has consulted on two research projects in Australian schools that extended the body of research on AIW. He served as associate editor for the international journal Teaching and Teacher Education, and has published in national and international research and practitioner journals. Currently, he provides professional development as an AIW coach in Wisconsin with previous work in Iowa, Georgia, Illinois, Connecticut, New York City, and with Dr. Laura Lang, in Israel/Palestine.

Along with UW-Madison colleague, professor of Curriculum & Instruction Fred Newmann, and Dana Carmichael, Bruce published Authentic Intellectual Work: Improving Teaching for Rigorous Learning (Corwin, 2016). He is also the editor of How Schools and Districts Meet Rigorous Standards Through Authentic Intellectual Work: Lessons from the Field (Corwin, 2016).

Laura Lang

Dr. Laura M. Lang is the Associate Director of the AIW Institute. In this role, she helps establish new AIW collaborations and provides professional development for multiple schools and districts.  

Laura also works at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she has taught face-to-face and online graduate courses in educational leadership and instructional coaching (School of Education), as well as in team design and leadership (Wisconsin School of Business). In addition, she continues to work as an educational consultant and has collaborated with a range of schools and organizations in Wisconsin and the Chicago area, including the Terra Foundation for American Art, Newberry Library, and the University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics.

Dr. Lang received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction (Literacy Studies) at the UW-Madison in 2012, her M.S.Ed in Reading Instruction from National Louis University in 2000, and her B.S.Ed (Secondary English Education) from Northwestern University in 1996. She also completed required coursework for Educational Leadership certification in 2006.

Prior to starting work as an AIW coach in 2013, Laura spent 17 years working in the Chicago Public Schools, at New Trier High School (Winnetka/Northfield, IL) and in the Madison Metropolitan School District (Madison, WI) as a high school English teacher, reading specialist and literacy/instructional coach in both urban and suburban settings.  A lifelong musician, she also works with Overture Center for the Art’s Lullaby Project, a songwriting collaboration between local songwriters and new/expectant families.  

Tina Salzman

Dr. Tina Salzman is Clinical Professor with the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA), UW-Madison, and Director of the Wisconsin Idea Principal Preparation program. As an instructor, she teaches face-to-face and online graduate courses in educational leadership. She also engages in outreach to build partnerships with schools and districts statewide to grow the next generation of school leaders.

Dr. Salzman spent over twenty years in K-12 public education first as a high school English teacher before transitioning into the principal role and later as a district Director of Teaching, Learning, and Equity. As a past K-12 teacher and administrator, her time spans both urban and rural districts across southern Wisconsin.

A graduate of ELPA’s first Wisconsin Idea Executive Ph.D. cohort, Dr. Salzman received her doctorate in 2012 from UW-Madison, her Master’s in Administration and Supervision from UW-Milwaukee in 2004, and her Bachelor’s degree in Secondary English Education from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN in 1995.

Rita Martens

Rita Martens currently coaches Authentic Intellectual Work at West Central Valley Schools in Stuart, Iowa. Rita, a former Iowa Department of Education administrative consultant and high school English teacher, led the effort to bring AW to schools throughout Iowa. She assisted AIW’s developers with designing the Iowa initiative into the context of the research-based Iowa Professional Development Model and securing the funding to support more than 200 schools in practicing AIW.

In addition to supporting AIW, Rita coordinated a team of content specialists responsible for providing professional development for Iowa teachers on the implementation of the Common Core State Standards.