Gary Duke, Executive Director

Gary has been with the San Joaquin Valley School Leadership Center for ten years. Previous to his joining the SLC, he was an elementary and middle school principal with Madera Unified and a teacher at the high school, middle school, and elementary levels.

Gary is currently an adjunct professor at Fresno Pacific College and was a professor in the Graduate School at Brigham Young University.

David Derby, Regional Director

Dave has been an elementary and intermediate teacher, vice principal, principal, facilitator and trainer. He was a teacher for 11 years and administrator for 14. Dave also conducted training sessions dealing with team-building, communication, time-management, trust building, instructional leadership creating shared vision and mission, and school change. He is a trained facilitator for The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and First Things First through the Covey Corporation. Most recently, Dave was principal of Valley Oaks Elementary School in the Clovis Unified School District.

Laurel Pruitt, Regional Director

Laurel is the newest member of the SJVSLC family! She has been in education for 24 years during which she was an elementary and intermediate school principal for the last 10 years and a teacher of grades 3-8 for the previous 14 years. Laurel has designed and facilitated a teacher induction program for new teachers and conducted workshops on achieving results through integration of the curriculum. Most recently, Laurel was in the planning stages of opening a new school, Westside Union Intermediate School, in Los Banos Unified School District.