Leadership Team Bios

Bruce Buterbaugh, Chief Financial Officer

Bruce Buterbaugh has worked for the Council since 1988. He began as business manager and became director of administration and finance in 1994. He assumed his current role in 2002.

Prior to joining the Council, he worked in public accounting as the audit manager for Ben A. Kendall, CPA, for four years. While there, he was responsible for auditing various organizations, including 501(c)(3) and (c)(6) not-for-profit corporations, a school district, and a manufacturing company. He first worked on the Council's annual audit with Kendall during a summer internship in 1983.

Buterbaugh is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the Greater Washington Society of Accountants and the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

He enjoys hunting and fishing.

Education:
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Shippensburg University
Certified Public Accountant, 1986

Melissa Zack Johnston, Chief Operating Officer, Interim Strategic Initiative Director, Information Systems and Research

Melissa Johnston joined the Council of Chief State School Officers in 2003 and assumed her current role as Chief Operating Officer in March 2010. Johnston oversees the implementation of the Council's strategic plan and the direction and leadership of the following areas of the Council: Membership Services and Outreach; Education Workforce; Information Systems and Research; Next Generation Learners; and Standards, Assessment, and Accountability. Additionally, Melissa serves as the Council's staff liaison to the Board of Directors and Internal Operations Committee.

From June 2008-March 2010, she served as the Council's Director of Strategy and Implementation. Prior to that position, Melissa worked with Council members and other state policymakers to develop, augment, and implement policies and programs that effectively prepare, support, and sustain education leaders.

Melissa has a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies and Black World Studies from Miami University and a Masters in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago. Her concentrations at the University of Chicago were in policy analysis and non-profit management.

Prior to graduate school, Melissa worked for Reading Is Fundamental and the Public Education Network in grants management, program development, and technical assistance capacities. She also worked directly with the national professional development program at the National Association of School Psychologists.

Melissa lives in Silver Spring, MD with her husband Mark.

Chris Minnich, Senior Membership Director

Chris Minnich serves as the Senior Membership Director at the Council of Chief State School Officers ("CCSSO"). In this role, he manages the communications, advocacy and membership functions of the Council. This includes advocating on behalf of the state chiefs and generating collective state action around key education reform areas.

Prior to his current role at CCSSO, he led the standards and assessment work at CCSSO, where they are currently working on implementing common standards across states.

Prior to CCSSO, Chris worked at Pearson Assessment as the Director of the Assessment Academy Project which provided information regarding assessment practices to different users around the world.

Scott Norton, Strategic Initiative Director, Standards, Assessment, and Accountability

Scott Norton joined CCSSO as Strategic Initiative Director for Standards, Assessment, and Accountability in July of 2012. In this role, he works with states to implement the Common Core State Standards and assessments and to create and implement new student-focused accountability systems.  The team is also responsible for the State Collaboratives on Assessment and Student Standards (SCASS), the National Conference on Student Assessment (NCSA), and collaborative work with the assessment consortia.

Scott previously served as the Assistant Superintendent of the Office of Standards, Assessments, and Accountability at the Louisiana Department of Education. His responsibilities included the implementation of content standards and development of the Louisiana Comprehensive Curriculum as well as the state's transition to full implementation of the Common Core State Standards. Scott holds a Ph.D. in Educational Administration and Supervision from Louisiana State University.

 

Janice Poda, Strategic Initiative Director, Education Workforce

Janice Poda recently joined the Council of Chief State School Officers as the Strategic Initiative Director for the Education Workforce. Previously, Janice served as the Deputy State Superintendent of Education for Administration and Chief of Staff at the South Carolina Department of Education under State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex. She has broad and deep experience in educator human resources issues. During four years of her service as Deputy Superintendent of the South Carolina Department of Education's Division of Educator Quality & Leadership, Quality Counts ranked South Carolina as #1 and #2 (two consecutive years each) in the US for the state's efforts to improve teacher quality. In that role, she oversaw educator certification, a statewide evaluation system for teachers, leaders, and other school personnel, program approval, the state's teacher of the year program, and federal Title II programs.

She also worked as Executive Director of the South Carolina Center for Teacher Recruitment (now known as the Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement (CERRA)) at Winthrop University. While Assistant Superintendent for Personnel in Greenwood School District 50, Poda assisted with the aftermath of a school shooting and a chartered bus accident. She began her career teaching social studies and children with learning disabilities, and has worked at the district level in testing, research, and evaluation. She is currently a member of the Council of Accreditation of Educator Programs' (CAEP) redesign team and interim board, and has served on the Unit Accreditation Board for NCATE.