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 Director, Human Resources and Operations for the Lake County 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.

Dr. Jerlisa M. Calhoun is a life- long learner and an educator for nearly two decades. Before educating northeastern Ohio's most vulnerable populations, she held various educational responsibilities, mainly in the area of Special Education. As Principal of ESCWR Residential and Alternative Schools, she was the leader of The Lake Academy, Carrington Youth Academy, The Hale Rd. Building and The Online Learning Academy.  Before joining the ESCWR Team, her administrative roles were an Assistant Principal and Special Education Administrator for CMSD and The East Cleveland City School District. Before her career in education, she worked as a Social Service Worker and Juvenile Court Diversion Case Manager in Cuyahoga County. It is through her experiences as an urban educator, tutor and administrator,Tri C- GED teacher and Social Service background that she learned to apply behavioral strategies while helping to develop teachers into being the very best that they can be in the classroom.

Dr. Calhoun has a Doctorate of Education from Walden University and completed the Center for Educational Leadership Principal’s Licensure Program, A Master of Education and Bachelor of Arts from Cleveland State University. In 2020, she was a contributor in creating a High School Academy concept for the ESCWR. She believes that “All students are capable of learning; regardless of disability” and continues providing Professional Development to Intervention Specialists. Her passion and focus is Educating the “Whole Child” and improving graduation rates. 

In 2020 she created a domestic for profit organization which provides service in the areas of education consulting and Ohio Notary Public. She holds various memberships in Church, Community and Ohio Administrative Organizations. In these community roles her leadership responsibilities were President, Vice- President, Secretary and Member- At- Large. Her most noteworthy roles are that of a Mother, Daughter and Sister.

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. 

Donna received her undergraduate degree from Kent State University and her Masters of Education Administration from Cleveland State University.  She has been employed with the Geauga County ESC, now the ESC of the Western Reserve since 1999.  She was the only principal of the Geauga Academy, the alternative high school in Geauga County from the program’s inception in 1999 until the program ended in 2017.   Since that time, she has overseen numerous county programs and departments.  

Donna’s current assignments include the oversight of the Gaitway High School, Carrington Youth Academy and Prevention Administrators as well as the ESCWR social workers.   Donna is the Director of The Geauga Youth Center School, part time administrator for Cardinal Local School District and the iStem Early College High School.  She also represents the ESCWR on the Geauga County Crisis Response Team, Family First Council/Screening Committee, The Suicide Prevention Committee and the Mental Health and Recovery Board Hub Committee.