To meet the needs of Central Ohio districts and schools, the ESC provides supports in various content areas such as adolescent literacy and mathematics. Two subject areas in which staff expertise was added this August include foundational literacy and STEM/science. Amy Urban (pictured on left) joins the ESC as a foundational literacy specialist in which she will fulfill three roles in collaboration with other staff: consultant, coach and facilitator. As a consultant, she will assist districts with options for targeted instructional practice and additional intervention strategies. As a coach, she will work with districts and teachers to identify areas of professional need and provide resources and strategies to address these. And as a facilitator, Amy will provide professional development for teachers and administrators which address curriculum development, teaching strategies, trends, and data analysis.

Over the past 12 years, Amy has worked as an intervention specialist, reading coach, preschool coordinator, and Response-to-Intervention (RTI) coordinator.  As Westfall Local School District’s RTI Coordinator, she oversaw every component of the RTI process, including Title reading curriculum and supervision, instructional coaching, data and assessment, Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions, professional development, and initial evaluations for 504s and special education.  She has experience developing K-3 foundational literacy curriculum maps and K-3 scope and sequences for phonics and word study.

Amy’s passion for literacy and dyslexia have allowed her to provide literacy training at the K-12 and college levels. She completed her formal education at Ohio Dominican University and Concordia University, and certificate programs at the University of Notre Dame (teacher) and University of Cincinnati (principal).  Amy has been trained in multiple programs, assessments, and instructional approaches. (i.e., Dibels, Acadience, MAP, i-Ready, SPIRE, LETRS, Heggerty, Literacy Collaborative, and OG), however, she strongly believes that instruction should be based on data and that teachers teach, not programs.  She is very excited to build relationships across the region to ensure ALL students have access to a strong foundation in literacy instruction and ALL teachers have access to support and training in teaching foundational literacy skills. Amy lives with her husband of 30 years, Richard, and has three adult daughters, Hayley (teacher with Columbus City Schools), Lacey and Lexy.

Rob Niedermeyer (pictured on right) also starts with the ESC this August as its STEM/science specialist. Similar to the foundational literacy specialist, he will fulfill the three roles of consultant, coach and facilitator. As a consultant, Rob will assist districts with options for targeted instructional practice and additional intervention strategies. As a coach, he will work with districts and teachers to identify areas of professional need and provides resources and strategies to address these. He can provide model lessons, assist with planning lessons and units, and provide support with securing materials, resources, and data. Finally, as a facilitator, Rob will provide professional development for teachers and administrators that addresses curriculum development, teaching strategies, trends, and data analysis.

For the past 15 years, Rob has taught in middle school science and STEM-based classrooms.  His recent work included designing and teaching content for both a makerspace and an environmental science/urban agriculture lab in the Reynoldsburg City School District.  In these labs, he developed relationships with community partners to provide students with real world experiences and culturally relevant problems to solve.  His passion for science and STEM education has been recognized at both the local and statewide levels.  

Rob completed his formal education at The Ohio State University and Ashland University.  He currently lives in Columbus with his wife, Amanda, and two sons, Carter and Theo. As Central Ohio's STEM reputation continues to grow, Rob believes all students in this diverse region should have access to the 21st century skills taught in STEM-based learning.  He is looking forward to joining the ESC to help support educators expand STEM education to students throughout Central Ohio.  

To learn more about the services and supports offered to educators at the ESC, please see here: https://www.escco.org/EducatorServices.aspx.

Amy and Rob may be contacted at [email protected] and [email protected].