Staff
Our staff of professionals are here to assist district personnel in establishing and implementing effective
substitute teacher management programs, and to assist substitute teachers in improving and perfecting the skills necessary
to be effective teachers in the classroom.
Meet the staff:
Blaine L. Sorenson
is the Acting Director
for the Substitute Teaching Institute. Blaine has extensive experience in teaching staff development workshops and
presents in several state and national conferences on Best Practices in Recruiting, Training, and Retaining Substitute Teachers.
Blaine received his BS in History and an M.Ed in Curriculum Development. Blaine is actively involved with school district
personnel throughout the country in scheduling and presenting SubManagement, SubReady, Train-the-Trainer, and Substitute Teacher
Training workshops. Email Blaine at
blaine@sti.usu.edu.
Geoffrey G. Smith
is on a leave of absence as the director of the Substitute Teaching Institute at Utah State University, the principal
investigator for STEP-IN (Substitute Teacher Educational Program Initiative), and has served as principal investigator
for several other substitute teacher projects. He is the publisher of the Substitute Teacher Handbooks, the SubExchange
newsletter, and the SubJournal. Geoff holds an MBA and MA in Educational Economics. He has been actively involved
in educator professional development for a number of years.
Email Geoff at
geoffrey.smith@usu.edu.