Educational Background
Dr. Christopher graduated from Elizabethtown Area High School in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania in 1992. In 1996, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from Juniata College. He received his Master of Education and Principal Certificate from Shippensburg University in 2008 and received his Superintendent Letter of Eligibility from Shippensburg in 2011. Dr. Christopher successfully defended his dissertation titled, A Case Study of the Perceptions of the Principal, Teachers, and Parents of a High Performing, High Poverty, Rural Elementary School as part of the Shippensburg/Millersville University Joint Educational Doctorate Degree Cohort in 2018. He has published research in The Pennsylvania Administrator, and has served as a co-author of a graduate textbook. Dr. Christopher also completed additional coursework in workforce education and instructional systems at the Pennsylvania State University.
Work Experience
Dr. Christopher has spent his entire career as an educator in Pennsylvania’s public schools. He has worked in small and medium rural districts and in a large, suburban, high-performing district. Dr. Christopher began his teaching career in the Huntingdon Area School District where he served as an elementary teacher for nine years. In 2008, he was hired at the Juniata Valley School District in Huntingdon County. While at Juniata Valley, Dr. Christopher served as an elementary principal, high school principal, and as the district’s K-12 Director of Curriculum. In 2012, he was appointed as the district’s Superintendent. In 2016, Dr. Christopher joined the North Allegheny School District in Pittsburgh’s northern suburbs as the Assistant Superintendent for K-12 Education and was later appointed as the Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Education/Deputy Superintendent.
Dr. Christopher has served on numerous state level committees with the Pennsylvania Department of Education and with the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators, where he currently serves as the chair of the Technology Committee.
Life
Dr. Christopher and his wife, Aron, are proud residents of the Cumberland Valley School District and his two children, Caroline and Samuel, attend CVSD’s excellent public schools.