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The
Davidson Academy of Nevada
Colleen
Harsin
Director
As director of the Davidson Academy of Nevada, Colleen Harsin, M.A., MSW oversees the educational environment of a growing student body of profoundly gifted students, many who have moved across the country to attend this free, public day school. Colleen works with the students, their parents, teachers and professors to optimally match educational options to each student's needs in order to challenge them to reach their full potential.
Prior to her work at the Davidson Academy, Colleen was instrumental in the development and expansion of the Davidson Institute for Talent Development’s Young Scholars program, in which consultants work directly with profoundly gifted young people, their parents, and educators in the areas of educational advocacy and planning, talent and interest development, and socio-emotional well-being. She developed
Advocating for Exceptionally Gifted Young People: A Guidebook, and worked with Nancy Robinson, Ph.D., to produce,
Considering the Options: A Guidebook for Investigating Early College Entrance. Both of these guidebooks continue to serve as tools for parents to address the broader educational needs of exceptional students.
“I have always been committed to trying to improve educational
opportunities for underrepresented, overlooked populations,” she
said. “At the Davidson Academy we do have a one-of-a-kind,
break-the-mold curriculum. My hope is to have pieces of our model
utilized in other schools.”
Colleen graduated summa cum laude from the University of Idaho with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. She moved to Reno in 1995 to pursue graduate studies in psychology and social work, receiving master’s degrees in both disciplines from the University of Nevada, Reno. She has been working with students, families, and educators in the context of Davidson Institute for Talent Development and Davidson Academy of Nevada programs and services for 14 years.
Colleen has presented at the annual conference of the National
Association for Gifted Children (NAGC), as well as various other
national, regional and state conferences on gifted education. Since
2003, she has actively participated in the focus groups assembled at
the Templeton Summits, held every other year in support of the
Institute for Research and Policy on Acceleration. These summit
meetings have informed A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back
America’s Brightest Students. She has been a contributor to and/or
quoted in a number of published texts, including Genius Denied: How
to Stop Wasting Our Brightest Young Minds, Early Entrance to
College: A Guide to Success, and Dumbing Down America: The War on
Our Nation’s Brightest Young Minds and What We Can Do to Fight
Back. In the context of her continued commitment to supporting
educational opportunities for exceptional students, Colleen has
served three years as a member of the Advisory Council for the
National Merit Scholarship Competition.
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