Wendy Thowdis is Program Manager for the Center for Reaching & Teaching the Whole Child. She has been a University Supervisor for the Secondary Education Department and teaches United States History to K-12 undergraduate teacher preparation majors at San José State University. She comes to us from New York State as a retired high school Social Studies teacher who has been working as an Education Consultant since 2006. She created and coordinated a highly innovative “School Within a School,” bringing an interdisciplinary team approach to high school education with a career/workforce skills model to address the needs of students who were “falling through the cracks.” She became a diversity trainer and coordinated Race Dialogue Circles with students from inner city and suburban schools. She has also worked as a Master Teacher/Education Coordinator for the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.