Willow Alston-Socha

Willow Alston-Socha is an Education Consultant with 18 years of experience as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, and district curriculum coordinator. Willow previously served as the District STEM Curriculum Coordinator for Durham Public Schools. Willow was selected for the 2014 Governor’s Teacher Network where she designed and shared professional development with teachers across the state based on her research that examined the effectiveness of technology integrated teaching practices on high school science learning. In 2012, Willow was awarded a Kenan Fellowship where her work focused on the rollout of the Common Core State Standards in North Carolina schools.

Since Willow joined RTI International in September 2021, she has supported school districts, schools, coaches, and teachers in training and implementing empowering instructional coaching practices, integrating educational technology, implementing high-quality inquiry-based and STEM learning, and the successful implementation of magnet theme embedment.  Willow is skilled in strategic consulting and has supported several districts and schools with the development of instructional frameworks and strategic plans. She also co-authored a toolkit to provide school leaders, coaches, and teachers with tools to support the implementation of blended learning. The Blended Learning Toolkit: Leveraging the Strengths of Face-to-Face and Online Learning has since been adopted by several school districts.

Willow is currently an educational psychology doctoral student at NC State University where her research has focused on the integration of science learning and reading comprehension. She is a Google Certified Educator – Level 2 and a member of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), and the American Educational Research Association (AERA).