On December 4, 2018, John Eisenberg assumed the role of Executive Director of the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE). Before this new role, Mr. Eisenberg worked in the Office of Special Education and Student Services at the Virginia Department of Education for fifteen years, seven of those as the State Director of Special Education. Throughout his career in special education, he worked in a variety of other roles including Director of the Virginia Deaf-Blind Project, Technical Assistance Specialist with the National Technical Assistance Consortium for Deaf-Blindness and a classroom teacher for students with developmental disabilities and Deaf-Blindness. Mr. Eisenberg proudly served on the NASDSE Board of Directors for over four years and became President in 2015. Mr. Eisenberg earned his M.Ed in severe disabilities from Hunter College at the City University of New York and his B.A. from New York University. He is also a proud graduate of the Virginia LEND program from Virginia Commonwealth University. He comes from a family of teachers and special educators and is very passionate about improving the educational outcomes of children and families across the United States.
Audrey Levorse joined NASDSE in 2022 as Senior Director of Government Relations and External Affairs. Prior to joining NASDSE, Ms. Levorse served as the Senior Policy Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) at the U.S. Department of Education. While at OSERS, Ms. Levorse developed Federal policy on multiple issues related to the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended.
Prior to OSERS, Ms. Levorse worked directly with families of children with disabilities as they navigated the development and implementation of IEPs in public school systems.
Ms. Levorse earned her J.D. from the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, and her undergraduate degree from George Mason University. She is particularly passionate about ensuring individuals with disabilities have access to both quality services and new opportunities.
In January of 2000, Nancy began her tenure at NASDSE, and since then she has worked on various projects.
Nancy served as a Recruitment Coordinator, for Phoebe Gillespie, on the Personnel Improvement Center; Program Coordinator and CSPD Conference Coordinator for Karl Murray; on the National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Services (NEC*TAS) with Luzanne Pierce, and Administrative Support for Joanne Cashman, of the IDEA Partnership.
Currently, Nancy serves as Executive Assistant to John Eisenburg, Executive Director at NASDSE, NASDSEs Office & Publications Manager, and Liaison Coordinator for the NASDSE Annual Conference Sponsors.
Joanne joined the NASDSE staff in 1998 to assume the leadership of the IDEA Partnership. Before coming to NASDSE, Joanne held roles at the local level and in higher education. She came to NASDSE from the George Washington University where she served as Director of the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program, Leadership for Full Participation. Prior to that role, she served for 26 years as the Director of Special Education, Dropout Prevention, Alternative Education and a Building Principal in the Shikellamy School District, Sunbury PA.
During her tenure at NASDSE, she led the IDEA Partnership, an affiliation of 50 national organizations united to promote cross-stakeholder collaboration and build ally relationships between state education agencies and professional and family networks. Most recently, Joanne also served on NASDSEs staff to the National Center for Systemic Improvement(NCSI) and was instrumental in organizing the NCSIs service team on communication and collaboration.
Joanne has deep cross-agency experiences and continues to work on projects, advisories and contracts in adaptive leadership, school-based mental health, communities of practice, military connected students and cradle-to-college and career systems.
