Cynthia Witt is currently K-6 Principal and K-12 Curriculum Coordinator with the Lake Mills Community School District. She has served as a middle school principal, assistant high school principal and as a Language Arts teacher for over twenty years. Cynthia has taught adjunct classes in education for Buena Vista University and currently teaches Content Reading Strategies and Integrated Language Arts and Social Studies courses for preservice teachers at Waldorf College.

Cynthia has developed a keen interest in systems thinking through her experiences with the Iowa Writing Project, the National Service Learning Leader School project, the North Iowa Career Readiness Council, the School-to-Work Statewide Technical Assistance Cadre, the Cummins Industry Community Involvement team, the Lake Mills Substance Abuse Prevention Task Force, and the Tri-State Service Learning Organization, among many other school and community learning opportunities. Her experiences with educational systems from K-Prep through postsecondary have helped her to develop a passion for taking systems thinking from theory into practice for learners of all ages.

Writing a weekly half-page for the local community newspaper on K-12 school improvement efforts for the last 15 years has provided this educator ample time to reflect on systems and how they interact to impact both teaching and learning for all. She credits colleagues, students, parents, board members, and community members of Lake Mills Community School System for many of the artifacts used as field examples of systems thinking in action.