Jonathan G. Vander Els, Ed.S.

Jonathan G. Vander Els, Ed.S., is the Executive Director of the New Hampshire Learning Initiative (NHLI), a foundation created to serve as a catalyst for innovation in education in New Hampshire. NHLI supports the scaling of a fully integrated, personalized, and competency-based PreK-20 system in the state.

Jonathan was formerly the principal of Memorial Elementary School in the Sanborn Regional School District in New Hampshire. Under his leadership, Memorial Elementary School has became a nationally recognized model professional learning community and competency-based learning environment.

Jonathan has presented at numerous local, state, and national conferences on PLCs, competency-based education, teacher leadership, and assessment. He is actively involved in the New Hampshire Performance Assessment of Competency Education (PACE) initiative and leads the State of New Hampshire’s effort to integrate skills and dispositions into curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Jonathan earned a bachelor’s degree in history, a master’s degree in elementary education, and a specialist degree in educational administration and supervision from the University of New Hampshire. He holds elementary education, principal, and superintendent certification in New Hampshire.