How have your life experiences impacted how you lead schools and how you serve students? My life is shaped by all the things I experienced, and those experiences serve as a driving force to how I see myself in leadership and how I want others to experience me as a leader. When I speak to resiliency, it comes from practice and not theory. I truly believe in meeting people where they are, and the diversity of my life experiences and conditions have afforded me a lens to see people, circumstances and environments through a multifaceted lens which has afforded me the opportunity to lead with knowledge, but also with understanding. I believe leaders know what to do to serve students, understanding how to serve them is much different, and understanding comes through experience.

What are some of the accomplishments you’ve been most proud of in your current role? I have received numerous accolades from organizations, elected officials, educational institutions, community organizers and organizations, newspapers, etc. and I truly value each and every recognition and will hold each of those as uniquely special and encouraging. The accomplishments I have been most proud of as the first Chief of Equity and Access for SBCSS have really been the things that do not come with special attention or a spotlight. The opportunities to engage with all those that have a touch point in the lives of children and youth and especially young people as they interact in the educational process has been the thing I am most proud of in this role. I once had a scholar tell me I was a Disney princess after speaking to her class about my role, and she followed up by saying I was magical.

While on a visit to Pacific High School, a student that was Latino and male folded up a gum wrapper into a heart, wrote his initials on it, and came up to me after I addressed the class and right as the team was leaving, told me he felt like I loved them and he had never felt like that from someone he knew for a few minutes. I still have that gum wrapper to this day; I keep it in a pouch along with my work badge on a lanyard I wear daily.

In speaking to another elementary class of students and sharing about the loss of my grandmother and sharing it was the anniversary of her death that day, and her being my role model, the entire class, unprompted, began singing happy birthday to my grandmother. When it was done, several came and hugged me and shared stories of their grandparents’ impact on them and other role models. Those are the precious moments that cannot be quantified that I count as some of the greatest accomplishments.