Velma B. Saire 

Adjunct Professor of Educational Management
PhD, Education University of Pittsburgh
email: vsaire+@andrew.cmu.edu

Publications

"Who Owns Educational Leadership?" for The Journal of the Connecticut Organization for Professional Development.

Professional Experience

Saire has had a number of professional opportunities that provided her with a broad range of teaching and administrative experience. In 2000, she retired as Assistant Superintendent for the Quaker Valley School District located in Sewickley, capping a long career in public education. Her background includes teaching in the primary and intermediate grades and experiences as a special education teacher, and serving as Director of Allegheny County's Early Childhood Development Centers (Headstart). Her administrative and supervisory credentials include assignments as an elementary supervisor; and as elementary, middle school, and high school principal; as an educational consultant to schools across the nation; as the Restructuring Project Specialist with the Mon Valley Education Consortium, and as a part-time instructor for undergraduate and graduate courses at the university level. She has been a Carnegie Mellon University adjunct professor since the inception of the Educational Leadership program. Since her retirement from public education, she has continued her affiliation with her school district, assisting them with special projects and activities and, most recently served as an interim elementary school principal.

Community/Public Impact

Saire is active in her local church and serves in an advisory capacity on a number of educational committees and task forces. She served as a trustee for the Sewickley Public Library for four years.

Honors

In 2000, Saire was named Distinguished Woman Educator of the Year by the University of Pittsburgh's Tri-State Study council. In 1992 she received the Educational Leadership Award from the University of Pittsburgh's Tri-State Study Council. While a high school principal in Darien, Connecticut she was selected for membership in the prestigious 100 member Headmasters Association as one of the 25 public school educators. In 1989 the Connecticut Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development designated her as one of three finalists for their Educational Leader of the Year Award. As a principal, two of the schools the high schools she led were named national Blue Ribbon Schools. She has been a five-time I/D/E/A fellow.

Education

Saire is a cum laude graduate of the University of Pittsburgh where she completed her undergraduate, post-graduate and doctoral studies with concentrations in elementary education and school administration. She has taken additional coursework at Kent State University and Dartmouth College.