Alli Chance | Training Specialist

Being an educator was a career I knew I wanted to commit my life to at a very young age. I watched my grandma and my mom, who were both elementary educators, as I was growing up and wanted that life for myself. I had the privilege of watching these two educators not only teach young minds how to read and write, but I also saw them build relationships with students that were so strong the students came back to visit well into their schooling career. I started my own journey in education as a 6th grade special education teacher in Center Grove. I spent the first 5 years of my career in this position, working with students, families, and other educators to create plans for success for each and every student with whom I interacted. I saw early on that building relationships with students, especially during those middle school years, would be a key component to how I educated young minds. 

After 5 years in the classroom, I moved into administration, serving my next 6 years as a district Special Education Administrator. I continued my work with families and educators to help support students in the school setting, many times working with teams to help shape maladaptive behaviors taking place in the home/classroom. I was a part of many staffings and case conferences where we were trying to pinpoint triggers of behaviors, what type of positive reinforcement we could implement, and what type of punishment we could implement to stop the behavior. Some things worked…for a short period of time. Others failed miserably. I could see students hurting, knowing this was not how they wanted to behave in school. I could see parents hurting, knowing that their children were precious, regardless of what behaviors they displayed.

It was in 2017 that I met Amy Abell and my perspective on all human behavior changed completely. I attended one of her TBRI® trainings and immediately started implementing strategies in my own home. I could see and feel the difference and knew these were strategies that needed to be brought into our school district. Over the course of 2 years, I helped bring TBRI® to life in Center Grove and began to see the hope for our students that I had been desperately seeking. I was trained as a TBRI® practitioner in October, 2019 and joined the HopeAlight team in July 2021. It brings my heart such joy to bring this powerful information to educators, parents, and community organizations as we all work together for our children!

Education

I studied Elementary and Special Education at Ball State University. I continued at Ball State University and earned my Master’s degree in Special Education Administration. I was also nominated and accepted into the first Woodrow Wilson cohort at University of Indianapolis where I earned my MBA in Educational Leadership. I hold both my Director of Special Education license and my Building Principal license.