Hi! I’m Ruth.
As principal consultant and project manager for Ruth Dutton Consulting, one of the things I love about my career is the opportunity to become a thought-partner with clients and creatively design solutions to their unique challenges and opportunities. I love working with change-makers and innovators, helping beautiful visions emerge into physical reality, and taking existing creations from good to great.
Prior to starting this consulting firm, for nine years I served my community as initiating Founder and Superintendent of The Academies Charter Management Organization (“TACMO”), a nonprofit established in Visalia, California to elevate and improve public education in the Central Valley of my home state by offering “gifted education for all students.” TACMO established and operates two K-8 public charter schools. The first of these, Sycamore Valley Academy, opened in 2012, and Blue Oak Academy opened as a replication of that model in 2017. Our schools model transformative change in education. Through their example, we see a portrait of a different way of approaching the task of properly educating the next generation for democratic participation. These schools engage students with a talent-development approach and also bravely engage the essential question, “How does learning best occur?”
Check out these two videos if you’d like to meet the schools I created with the help of many other community members and committed educators: Meet Sycamore Valley Academy and Meet Blue Oak Academy.
My years in charter school pioneering strengthened my entrepreneurial systems thinking and gave me an executive’s holistic perspective, which helps me envision, plan, and mobilize others to action. They also reinforced my belief in a talent-development, asset-based approach to working with others. I am an effective entrepreneur, collaborator, teacher, and facilitator. Before charter leadership, I taught high school level English for seven years. I possess a BA in Philosophy from New York University and an MA in Education with a focus on Curriculum and Instruction from Chapman University.
Visit my Services page to learn more about how I can help you!