Here to Serve
{Dr. Jerry Jenkins} Dr. Jerry Jenkins
Superintendent
Jerry Jenkins has served as NWESD Superintendent for the past ten years. His thirty-one year career in public education has included teaching in Federal Way, a junior/senior high school principalship, and superintendencies of the Ocosta and Selah school districts.
He has a B.S. in Plastics Technology (it was the future), a M.Ed. in educational administration, and Ed.D. in Educational Leadership with a research focus on the superintendent’s role in curriculum leadership. Throughout this career, Jerry has worked to be a practitioner of leadership through service to others and systemic continuous improvement.
{Carol Browder} Carol Browder
Assistant Superintendent, Finance and Compliance
Carol Browder has worked in K-12 public education for nearly seven years. She has served as the assistant superintendent of finance and compliance since March 2003.
Before joining the NWESD, she spent 24 years in the state Auditors Office as regional audit manager for the Northwest corner of Washington state.
Browder's undergraduate degree is in business and accounting from Western Washington University. She has been a certified public accountant for over 30 years.
Kayaking, reading books and making jewelry are her favorite past times.
{Buck Evans} Buck Evans
Assistant Superintendent, Operations
Buck Evans, a respected educator for 37 years, joined NWESD in August 2007.
As assistant superintendent for operations, Evans is directly involved in the day-to-day coordination and operational oversight of information technology, special programs, drug prevention, migrant education, professional development and payroll.
Prior to coming onboard, Evans ran a consulting business for five years and did national consulting and training, including instruction at NWESD.
Over his career, Evans taught vocational courses at R.A. Long High School in Longview for 17 years, and went on to become an administrator for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in Olympia for five years. Following that, he was instrumental in bringing reforms to the Selah School District in the Yakima Valley.
{Kathy Shoop} Dr. Kathy Shoop
Assistant Superintendent, Teaching & Learning
Kathy Shoop started with NWESD in July 2007, after spending 32 years as an educator and administrator in the La Conner School District in Skagit County. Shoop received her M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from Western Washington University in 1981 and her Ed.D. from Seattle Pacific University in 2005.
In the early stage of her career, she taught kindergarten in the morning and high school English in the afternoon. In the early 1980s, she decided to become involved in K-12 curriculum.
While proud to have spent the bulk of her career in LaConner, Shoop has acquired an impressive list of other assignments over the years. She taught "Reading in the Content Areas" and "Secondary Curriculum and Instruction" at WWU while on sabbatical in 1989-90. She continued in her role as college educator for "Curriculum and Instruction" there from 1991 to 1994. She also has facilitated groups for the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Harvard Graduate School of Education and, more recently, as a Professional Certification Associate at SPU.
"In the early '90s, I began to write grants, which took me out of the classroom more and more," she remarks. "One of the big projects that we had was a consortium grant, which taught me what to consider when working with groups of people." The project eventually encompassed the seven school districts in Skagit County and the popular Skagit River Poetry Project.
