Cindy Knight Meisner
Network Capacity Coach
Cindy Knight Meisner, MS, SSP, is a Network Capacity Coach in the Central Region. She has experience as an educator serving as a School Psychologist, Department Supervisor, and Director of Special Education. She provides coaching and technical assistance to help districts establish a continuum of practices and supports based on their needs. Her leadership and coaching experience provides vision, direction and cohesion of practices leading to better effectiveness, efficiency and improved student outcomes. Cindy specializes in administration of special education and prevention programs with particular attention devoted to strengthening relationships between general education, special education and alternative/at-risk student programs and building equitable, inclusive practices at all levels. She has expertise in leadership development, continuous improvement processes, integrating and scaling up
multi-tiered systems, building collaborative teams and collaborative culture, embedding trauma-informed practices, and facilitating family-school-community collaboration.
Cindy is credentialed in PERA evaluation processes for both principals and teachers. She earned her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Millikin University and completed graduate work in School Psychology and Educational Leadership at Western Illinois University and the University of Illinois-Springfield.
In addition to her work with local and state educational systems, Cindy has served as an Adjunct Instructor for Quincy University in both graduate and undergraduate teacher prep programs and has worked as a consultant to programs for students with autism, complex trauma and multiple disabilities. She has regularly supervised and mentored new teachers, administrators and related service providers, strengthening connections between preparatory programs in higher education and field-level service opportunities. Cindy has also provided leadership to large-scale systems integration and visioning as the Lead Educational Agent for The Children’s MOSAIC Project, a system of care project funded by the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation. This project connected schools with community mental health providers and primary care physicians, leading to integration of mental health screenings in schools and embedding services in the most vulnerable neighborhoods and schools in the community. Cindy has served as an invited speaker at local, state and national conferences on topics of systems change, leadership development, at-risk youth initiatives, mental health in schools, and family engagement.
