Staff Directory

Abby Begeman is the Family and Community Liaison for Geauga County. She earned her Bachelor's Degree of Arts in Advertising from Michigan State University. After college, Abby started working in the nonprofit sector and quickly realized her passion for mentoring youth and helping families in the community. 

Abby has previously worked for the Lake County Y as the Sport and Outreach Director and Director of Program Development, for Torchlight Youth Mentoring Alliance (formerly Big Brothers Big Sisters) as a School Based Site Coordinator, is a former board member of Lifeline Inc, and is currently a volunteer assistant Den Leader for her daughter’s cub scout pack. With over a decade of experience in Northeast Ohio, Abby is dedicated to advocating and creating safe spaces for today’s youth and supporting and encouraging families. Abby enjoys exploring local parks with her husband, Seth, and their children, Norah and Penelope. They also enjoy reading the Harry Potter series together as a family. “Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”- Dumbledore

Dr. Brown has been a consultant with the State Support Team Region 4 since 2014. She earned her doctorate in Special Education from Kent State University with a focus on authentic assessment, inclusive practices, and promoting early literacy in special education programs. Dr. Brown has training and experience in working with individuals with disabilities from birth through age 21, and has consulted with programs to create high-quality inclusive environments.  Additionally, she serves on several workgroups and advisory groups with the Ohio Department of Education.

Debra L. Burke PHR, SHRM-CP is the Chief Operating Officer of the Educational Service Center.  She is responsible for the oversight of all facets of human resources for the LCESC and supports member districts with human resources projects.  Additionally, Debra handles LCESC business agreements and contracts, information technology, and facility management. 

Debra began her career at Reliance Electric, a Rockwell Automation Company, responsible for payroll, the HRIS/Payroll systems and accounting functions.  She was employed at Cleveland Municipal School District for 8 year as an HR Manager responsible for compensation, staffing, licensure, EMIS and records retention for all staff and students.  Additionally, Debra worked at Marous Brothers Construction and Cardinal Commerce as the department head of human resources. 

Debra holds Bachelors of Arts in Accounting and Business Administration from Malone University.  She obtained her PHR in 2005 and her SHRM-CP in 2015.  She joined the Lake Geauga SHRM in 2004 and served on the SHRM Board for over a decade.  She served as a Board Member and  Treasurer in a startup non-profit for over a decade supporting the medical needs for children and adults in Lake County.  , joined their board in 2009 and has served as the Vice-President of Membership since 2010. Additionally, Debra holds the position of Treasurer for B.A.L.D. Run Inc., a non profit organization helping low income diabetics in Lake County, since its inception in 2006.

Alanna Hruska has been the Early Childhood Supervisor at the Educational Service Center since 2017.  In addition to her Early Childhood Supervisor role, working for the Educational Service Center of the Western Reserve has opened the door for her to gain a wide range of experiences as the supervisor for the STARS and SAIL Autism programs, assisting a local district with Special Education Director services, and consulting with local districts to support Ohio’s Step Up to Quality preschool requirements.  

She started her career in the Cardinal Local School District where she served throughout the years as a classroom teacher, an Assistant Principal, a Principal, and as the district’s Special Education Director.  Over the course of her career at Cardinal Local School District she also had the opportunity to be appointed the Title I Federal Funding  Coordinator, District Testing Coordinator, and Gifted Coordinator.  

Dr. Vanessa Karwan, Chief Academic Officer, has been a leader who gets results in student learning at all levels--early childhood, elementary, middle, high school, adult vocational, and higher education.  Her recent experiences include serving as Principal for a state preschool program and leading an online virtual academy grades 3-12 instituting a concurrent enrollment and credit recovery program to support over 1000 high school students, resulting in her district reaching the 2nd highest graduation rates in a county of 400,000 students.

Dr. Karwan is bilingual and is passionate about helping English Language Learners. She has used her expertise to turn around and transform two of the lowest-performing schools in the state of California, an elementary and middle school with 90%+ EL populations and 90%+ poverty. 

She is an education consultant, a graduate global professor, and has served as Professional Development Director for TIDES, a nonprofit supporting San Diego County school districts, leading both teacher and leader data teams, inquiry-based practices for teachers and students, as well as project and problem-based learning professional development.

Kelly Moran is the Director of Instructional Programs and seeks to empower districts and teachers in curricular development and instructional growth. Prior to joining the Educational Service Center of the Western Reserve, Kelly worked as the Curriculum Supervisor for the Chardon Local School District.  Her work there focused on curriculum development and revision, overseeing professional development, Federal grants management, data analysis, PLC facilitation, and leading literacy initiatives.  She has extensive experience in overseeing the monitoring and compliance of Title I, Title II, and Title IV grants.  Prior to serving as a Curriculum Supervisor, Kelly worked as an Elementary Principal.  Her work in that role focused on developing strong systems of MTSS and RtI as well as implementation of early literacy supports focused on explicit phonics instruction.

Before her principal position, Kelly served as a Curriculum Director, Assistant Principal, and Literacy Coach for the Kirtland Local School District.  During this time she developed a school-wide system of literacy screening, trained teachers in evidence based practices for reading and writing instruction, and created RtI protocol for the district.  Kelly started her career as a third grade teacher.  

Kelly has been selected to present at numerous state and national professional conferences including the Ohio Educational Technology (eTech) Conference, Ohio Association of Administrators of State and Federal Programs (OAASFEP) conference, Ohio School Boards Association (OSBA) Conference, Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Progress (NWEA MAP) conference, and National Reading Recovery conferences. She led the Chardon Local School District in receiving a $1,050,000.00 grant from the state of Ohio to support elementary literacy initiatives.  Her work in early literacy and professional development was featured in her guest appearance on Amplify’s Science of Reading Podcast.

Earning a doctoral degree from Youngstown State University, Kelly devoted time researching teachers and administrators in Lake County for her dissertation studying teacher empowerment and personal development. Kelly is from northeast Ohio and attended John Carroll University.  She and her teacher husband are the proud parents of two girls. In her free time Kelly enjoys bonfires in her backyard, running, reading, and studying personal development. 

Shannon Ranta started as a member of the Lake County ESC in 2017. Mrs. Ranta first served as the liaison for the AWT RoboBots, the regional robotics program in Lake County. When the Lake and Geauga ESCs merged, Mrs. Ranta took on the role of Coordinator of Curriculum and Instruction and began to build the Curriculum Department for the ESC of the Western Reserve, which offers professional development and support to the districts in all areas of curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Prior to coming to Lake County ESC, Mrs. Ranta taught math, ELA, and science at the middle school level for ten years. Throughout her time in the classroom Mrs. Ranta served as department chair, mentor teacher, and instructional coach. After completing her Masters in Educational Administration, Mrs. Ranta served as a private curriculum consultant for five years where she assisted schools in all areas of  curriculum, including: mapping, common assessment, instructional coaching, resource selection, data-driven classrooms, and technology integration. In addition to her roles with the ESCWR, Mrs. Ranta currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Partners for Science Excellence, a Lake County non-profit promoting hands-on and inquiry based science instruction for grades K-12. 

Nancy R. Santilli joins the ESC of the Western Reserve as our new Assistant Superintendent.  Nancy comes for us from Kenston Local Schools, where she currently serves as Superintendent.  

Nancy’s administrative style can best be described as shared vision, shared leadership and shared teamwork.  As an administrator of a public school district, her primary role is being a leader for both staff and students to develop a sound, research-based educational program.  Through years of experience in the educational field, teaching and administration, Nancy has developed an open administrative style and effectively communicates decisions to achieve the highest standard of excellence. 

While practicing her profession as an art teacher, she went back to school to earn her Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Ashland University, so she could pursue her passion in educational administration.  She became a school Assistant Principal, and progressed to a high school Principal, Assistant Superintendent and Superintendent.  Her desire is to foster an educational culture that encourages collaboration with local school districts, students, staff and the community through articulating programs using a diverse combination of educational and leadership experience promoting success and growth.  

Nancy has numerous professional and community affiliations, including: Alliance for High Quality Education Executive Committee, Schlechty Center Superintendents’ Leadership Network, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Benedictine High School Board of Trustees and the Chagrin Valley Rotary Club. She has accomplished different honors and awards such as the Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow, Superintendent’s Outstanding Performance Award, Martha Holden Jennings Superintendent of the Year Nominee and Blue Angels VIP Flight.  

Nancy was born, raised and lives in Ohio.  Next to being dedicated to her career, Nancy is a loving wife, mother, grandmother, daughter and sister.  She enjoys spending time with her family and is very attentive with everyone at all times, including her close and extended family members and her friends and peers.  

Friederike Wintersteller is the Special Education Programs Coordinator for the Educational Service Center of the Western Reserve. As an educator for over two decades she seeks to inspire and promote student growth and staff development and is deeply committed to making a positive difference to the educational communities. She truly believes in educating the “Whole Child” and that all students can learn and grow.

Friederike is native German and relocated to the United States in 2008.

Prior to joining the Educational Service Center of the Western Reserve, Friederike served as the Principal of St. Mary School Chardon. Her work there focused on providing a safe and quality education, implementing best practices and STEM pedagogy, as well as providing many supportive systems to ensure future success of the students and school. Friederike opened a sensory room- one of very few amongst the non-public schools. It helps not only the exceptional learners, but all students to learn to interact with the world around them in a safe environment that builds up their confidence and their ability to regulate emotions. Additionally, Friederike successfully led the school through the accreditation process in 2020.

Before her principal position, Friederike was an elementary teacher at Andrews Osborne Academy. During this time, she taught Physical Education, Kindergarten, Second and Fifth grade, was a member of the LPDC committee, a teacher mentor and joined a school-wide task force for creative thinking.

Prior to relocating to the United States in 2008, Friederike was an Assistant Principal and teacher at an Elementary School in Essen, Germany for over 10 years. She also was an instructor for vaulting and taught therapeutic horseback riding for special education students for many years in Germany.

Friederike holds a Master of Education in Educational Leadership and Administration from Ashland University and a Bachelor of Education from the Westfaelische Wilhelmsuniversitaet Muenster, Germany. She and her husband are the proud parents of a son and a daughter. In her free time Friederike enjoys spending time with her family and friends, reading, running, and taking her dog for walks.