Ted Kalmus, MPA

Research and Teaching Interests

Ted’s research primarily engages issue of leadership in education and how it is cultivated and sustained. In addition, Ted is interested in the ways schools are incubated and developed, who influences their success and what prevents real community partnership, innovation and strategic leadership from taking root.

Biography

Over the past twenty five years, Ted Kalmus has shaped learning environments that authentically engage students, support and elevate teachers, and collaborate actively with families. Currently, he serves as Director of the College’s Education Administration  program, teaching future building leaders, principals, school heads and superintendents. Before joining the College of Education, Ted taught in Seattle University’s Liberal Studies department. Ted also works as an educational leadership consultant coaching principals, non-profit leaders, boards of trustees. Ted served for eighteen years (1997-2015) as Head for Billings Middle School in Seattle and subsequently from 2016-2018 as Interim Head of School at Seattle’s Westside School (PK-8). Prior to his work in Seattle, Ted worked in the Bay Area supporting writers in the Oakland and San Francisco Public Schools, and in Costa Rica, helping to develop the academic program at The Cloud Forest School in Monteverde. Before entering the classroom, Ted directed outdoor education programs in the Northeast, Pacific Northwest and Southern Europe.

Ted holds a Masters in Public Affairs and Administration from the Daniel J. Evans School at University of Washington along with graduate work in Poetics at the New College of California’s Poetics Program and a bachelor’s in literature from Vassar College.