Virginia Department of Education Training & Technical Assistance Center at Old Dominion University

Dr. Lisa Gehring is an Educational Specialist with the Virginia Department of Education’s Training and Technical Assistance Center (TTAC) at Old Dominion University, where she provides regional technical assistance to 33 local school divisions. Her work focuses on strengthening early childhood and special education systems through improvement science, leadership development, and capacity building. She is committed to advancing equity by supporting inclusive practices that ensure all young children—particularly those with disabilities—have access to high-quality learning environments. Lisa began her career as a school psychologist and later served as a special education program specialist in a Virginia public school division for 19 years. Across these roles, she developed a deep commitment to solving complex, systemic challenges and expanding inclusive programming for young children with disabilities. As part of her Ed.D. in Education, Lisa led an improvement research project focused on increasing the capacity of new technical assistance providers. Using improvement science methods, she developed and tested a change package that builds systemic supports—including a procedural handbook, targeted mentoring, and reflective feedback and evaluation—to strengthen onboarding and sustain capacity across roles. Lisa’s improvement work is grounded in early childhood inclusion, technical assistance systems, and leadership development. She is particularly interested in how organizations build the internal capacity of new staff to sustain high-quality practices over time and how leaders create systems to support and guide continuous improvement. In addition to her professional role, Lisa contributes to field-building efforts through participation in state early childhood workgroups and advisory committees. She is a former aRPy Ambassador for the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children, serves on her local school division’s Special Education Advisory Committee, and is a member of the Virginia Board of Education’s Early Childhood Advisory Committee (ECAC). She is also actively engaged in her community as a nonprofit advisory board member and Girl Scout leader.