Deborah Parizek

Executive Director and Director of Education

Deborah Parizek is the Executive Director and Director of Education for the Henry Ford Learning Institute. She provides direction and support for the strategic implementation of HFLI's mission, promotes the development of relationships with like-minded organizations focused on innovative educational reform and communicates with key stakeholders on shared interests. She will lead the curriculum adaptation process, and oversee instruction and assessment for new schools. Parizek also maintains primary responsibility for adapting the HFA Model to new schools and is also charged with implementing the professional development program.

As one of the founding teachers of Henry Ford Academy, Parizek helped shape the vision of the school and write curriculum for many of its core components during the planning and early implementation stages, including Forum and the Senior Mastery Process. She developed and taught Global Issues, American History and Junior Workshop for four years, along with designing and directing an extensive teacher leadership development program. While at the Academy, Parizek earned the distinction of Master Teacher from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Parizek was most recently an Assistant Principal for Instruction at Plymouth Canton Education Park, an integrated three-high school system with 5,800 students on a single campus, Director for Novice Teacher Induction for the district, Co-Director for the Teaching American History Grant program, and Standardized Testing Coordinator.

Parizek has Master's degrees in Educational Studies and Chinese Languages and Literature and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chinese and Russian Studies, all from the University of Michigan. She lives in Ann Arbor with her husband, Charles, (a science instructor at Henry Ford Academy and PhD candidate at the University of Michigan).

Shannon A. Clements

Director of Site and Fund Development

Shannon A. Clements is the Director of Site and Fund Development for the Henry Ford Learning Institute. She directs HFLI's site engagement and fundraising efforts and is responsible for contacting and engaging potential host institutions, cultural institutions, institutes of higher education, school districts, and businesses and corporations. She also is responsible for developing funding relationships with national and community-centered philanthropic entities. In addition, she directs HFLI's brand development and production of marking/PR materials.

Clements was a member of the Henry Ford Academy's planning team and served as its Director of Operations for the Academy's first three years, with responsibility for budgets, fundraising and grant writing, coordinating facility and technology infrastructure development and maintenance, state and federal reporting, and recruiting students and staff. Prior to her work with the Academy, Clements was the Annual Fund & Grants Director for The Henry Ford.

Clements has a BA and MA in English from Purdue University. She lives in Dearborn with her husband, David, two daughters, Lucy and Margaret, and their two rescued Jack Russell Terriers.

Chris Reynolds

Director of Network Development

Chris is the Director of Network Development for The Henry Ford Learning Institute and is leading the design process for the HFA Network of Schools. He has experience as a CPA, CFO, middle school teacher, and consultant. He has a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Tennessee and an MBA from the University of Michigan.  

Chris has always had a strong interest in education and community development, and left public accounting to teach for two years in rural Louisiana as an early member (1992) of the national teacher corps, Teach For America. After completing his MBA at Michigan, he spent six years as the CFO at Zingerman's where he assisted in a successful turnaround of the nation's most respected specialty food organization. He has also served as the managing director of the Michigan Business School Domestic Corps, a service-learning program that sends graduate students to provide capacity building assistance to nonprofits in economically distressed communities. He and his wife, Gwen, have two sons, Nathan and Marcus.

Neal Uppal

Intern

Neal Uppal is an intern with the Henry Ford Learning Institute for the summer of 2006. To date, he has completed best practices and benchmarking research in the areas of principal training and education reform websites. Currently, he is assisting with HFLI's CPS Charter School Application.

Though new to the education reform arena, Neal is quickly discovering and nurturing a sincere passion for it.

Neal is a rising senior at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In his spare time, he enjoys playing and watching sports (especially Michigan football), discussing current events, and dreaming big.