John E. Critelli Jr., Ph.D.

Dr. Critelli holds a Doctorate in K-12 Educational Leadership and currently serves as the School Leaders Grant Coordinator and Program Coordinator for the FAU-Broward County Public Schools EQUIP Partnership Program at FAU. Having served seven years in public education, he started his career in higher education in January 2017 as a Graduate Research Assistant working on the University Principal Preparation Initiative (UPPI) sponsored by the Wallace Foundation. Through his work on the UPPI, Dr. Critelli gained experience in graduate program redesign; developing, strengthening, and sustaining district-university partnerships; developing sustainable systems; collaborating in state educational policy development, and expanding district partnerships. As Grant Coordinator, by submitting grants and negotiating professional learning contracts, Dr. Critelli has helped land over $3M since 2020.

Importantly, Dr. Critelli has also led the development and implementation of FAU’s three partner districts and FAU’s Leadership Tracking Systems and through his consulting work has worked with multiple universities nationally to do the same.

Finally, his research is focused on social-emotional learning and the incorporation of SEL principles into traditionally accepted models of educational leadership. Most recently, Dr. Critelli has focused on the development and implementation of university leadership tracking systems and the development of valid and reliable measures of school leadership competencies, skills, and dispositions for use in Leadership Tracking Systems.