Tonya Jolley

                       "Leadership--is a journey of expected and unexpected paths." Jolley

 Tonya Jolley has a plethora of roles--such as mom, wife, daughter, doctoral graduate student, and Principal--all of them make her very proud of the life she lives.  Tonya has a passion for life, works hard, and loves to have fun being creative and thinking outside the box. 

 Tonya currently works for Lincoln Public Schools and has done so for the past 11 years. Before transitioning into the Education field, Tonya has worked for the Gallup Organization for 12 years in several different capacities. Tonya's last position at the Gallup Organization was as a coordinator for marketing and sales in Irvine, CA. This position required close coordination with companies to improve work satisfaction. Tonya's leadership and organizational philosophies are a combination of her previous experiences in both the educational and corporate fields.

As a non-traditional student, Tonya was very eager to become a teacher. She has taught special education for several years and after completing her Masters in Special Education and her Administrative Certification and Masters in Educational Leadership she was a Special Education Coordinator, and Vice Principal.

This academic year Tonya started her 6th year as a leader as the Principal at Kloefkorn Elementary School. Kloefkorn is home to approximately 500 students in a higher-economic area in Lincoln, NE.  The journey to this role has been very rewarding and she finds great passion in school-climate and culture, special education and job satisfaction in the work place.   Tonya is a very novice researcher--her experience with The Gallup Organization will be helpful as she works toward her dissertation topic and finishes her last course work over this next year.