staff

Thaly Germain joined the Lynch Leadership Academy in June of 2012. As director, she oversees program strategy, development, and implementation.  Most recently, Thaly served as the executive director of aligned staff at New Leaders, a national leadership development organization. In this capacity, she co-led New Leaders’ program redesign, through which she had the distinctive experience of recreating the organization’s recruitment, selection, training, and principal support programs for implementation across 10 partner cities. Immediately prior, Thaly served as New Leaders’ national director of charter school strategy. In that role, Thaly developed the first-in-kind charter-specific strategic plan for improving leadership and achieving dramatic student academic gains across the Washington, DC, charter sector. Additionally, Thaly developed a differentiated curriculum and structure for recruiting, placing, and supporting charter school leaders in Washington, DC.

Thaly gained much of the firsthand experience and knowledge which has informed her career in leadership development while serving as a principal and assistant principal in Washington, DC, and in teaching history in both New York and Washington, DC. While a DC charter school leader, Thaly’s school received the Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) “Silver Gain” award.  During her tenure, her school achieved 40-point gains in reading and math. In New York City, Thaly worked as an educator at Harry S Truman High School where she helped to establish the Peace and Diversity Academy.

Thaly received a master’s degree in education from Trinity University and a master’s degree in administration from Fordham University. She earned her bachelor of arts in cultural anthropology at Bryn Mawr College.

Irwin Blumer is currently the coaching coordinator at the Lynch Leadership Academy. In this role, Irwin recruits, selects, trains, and evaluates the program’s leadership coaches.  Also in this role, he coaches LLA participants. Irwin’s coaching work extends beyond the Lynch Leadership Academy as he also provides coaching to sitting principals and superintendents. Formerly, Irwin was the chair of the Boston College Lynch Graduate School Educational Administration and Higher Education Department. His research interests include educational leadership and the relationship between systems and schools; effects of racism in education and on its leaders; the focus on improving instruction as the goal of education change/reform; and the effect of unionism on public education and its management. Among his publications is a 2005 article in MASCD Quarterly titled "What kind of support do beginning principals need?"

Prior to Boston College, he worked in public education for 35 years as a teacher, counselor, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent, and superintendent of schools. He is also a past president of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents. Irwin holds a bachelor of arts degree as well as a master’s degree from Northeastern University and an Ed.D. from Boston College.