About

Diane Heacox, Ed.D.Dr. Diane Heacox is an international consultant and professional learning facilitator focusing on strategies to increase learning success for all students. She is Professor Emerita at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She is a national and international consultant to public, independent, charter, and church affiliated schools on a variety of topics related to teaching and learning. Dr. Heacox has been honored to also work with teachers in international schools in Denmark, Sweden, South Africa, Germany, Ireland and Canada.  Her experience reflects work with educators representing a wide variety of school settings from small rural schools to large urban systems such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York City. Dr. Heacox has taught at both elementary and secondary school levels and has served as a gifted education teacher and administrator, as well as an instructional specialist in public education.

Dr. Heacox is the instructional specialist for the Jacob Javits’ Federal Grant for Gifted Education awarded to the Minnesota Department of Education. Her role in the Project Northstar grant was to develop the teacher training modules on differentiated instruction for gifted and academically talented students. The Javits grant focuses on students in rural settings reflecting high poverty populations with particular attention to students in Native American reservation schools.

Dr. Heacox is also the author of four books. Her first book for Free Spirit Publishers was Up From Underachievement: How Teachers, Students and Parents Can Work Together. Her second book, Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom: How to Reach and Teach All Learners was updated and released in 2012. Making Differentiation a Habit earned the 2010 Association of Education Publishers Distinguished Achievement Award. A second edition was released in 2017. Her newest book co-authored with Richard Cash, Differentiation for Gifted Learners: Going Beyond the Basics received the 2014 Legacy Book Award for Educators by the Texas Association for Gifted and Talented. It is now in its second edition. She is currently working on a book that provides practical, do-able strategies for student success and active engagement in learning.

Her books have been translated into Dutch, Hungarian, Korean, Arabic, and Portuguese. Her Differentiation Classroom Practices Inventory was used by the Ministry of Education in Portugal for conducting a national survey of classroom practices. Her books are frequently selected for faculty book studies as well as used in undergraduate and graduate education courses.

Dr. Heacox serves on the Minnesota Department of Education Gifted Education Advisory Board. She is the past chair for the Middle Level Network and the Education committee for National Association for Gifted Children. She is past president and member of the Board of Directors of Minnesota ASCD. Dr. Heacox was recognized by the Minnesota Educators of Gifted and Talented as a Friend of the Gifted for service to gifted education. She is also in the University of St. Thomas Education Hall of Fame for contributions to the field of education.