For many of their monthly manager meetings, you won’t find leaders in Orcutt Union School District sitting around a large table.

Instead, Superintendent Dr. Holly Edds and her cabinet members try to leave the district office and go to the strawberry fields to meet agricultural workers. They go to Vandenberg Space Force Base and learn about the needs of the industry and military-connected families. They visit the local police department to hear about their drone program and the technology involved.

These “field trip” meetings have deepened leaders’ understanding of issues that shape their community, as well as how to best meet the needs of students and families. And it’s one of the ways Edds’ innovative leadership is building bridges in her community and instilling trust in public education.

Edds’ influence extends beyond her district’s boundaries. From serving the entire state of California as ACSA president to conversing with the Dalai Lama in India, her efforts to promote and strengthen public education have earned her ACSA’s highest honor, the Ferd. Kiesel Memorial Distinguished Service Award.

“Dr. Edds embodies the true meaning of leadership,” said Liz Phillips, president of Orcutt Union School District Board of Trustees. “She understands that leadership is more than knowing everything: It is about inspiring others through example and action.”

Edds’ interest in teaching was sparked by a job she held in college working as an emergency services dispatcher for a police department.

“I needed something to balance out some of the negativity, because people don’t call 911 when they’re happy,” Edds said. “So I started volunteering in a kindergarten classroom in the Saddleback School District.”

She loved it and recognized education’s potential to prevent interactions with law enforcement. She went back to school to earn her teaching credential and started teaching.

She went on to serve as a vice principal, interim superintendent/principal, and assistant superintendent of educational services before being selected superintendent of Orcutt Union School District in 2020.

During her tenure at Orcutt, Edds has optimized MTSS frameworks and staff wellness programs, ensuring student and staff needs are met. She and her team have created CTE programs in cybersecurity and health care to prepare students for high-demand careers of the future.

Edds’ leadership has led to the district’s acceptance into the League of Innovative Schools. She is also a member of the advisory committee for Future Ready Schools, a national network of K-12 leaders, putting her on the cutting edge of advancements that will help the district prepare its students for a changing world.

“For us, it’s really about asking those questions that can’t be Googled — higher order thinking,” she said. “But also those soft skill sets. So, how do you work as a team member? How do you communicate effectively?”

Edds excels at bridging the gap between public education and the local business and non-profit communities. Her involvement in organizations such as Fighting Back Santa Maria, her role as Committee Chair for the Marian Hospital community board, her membership in the Rotary Club, the Orcutt Children’s Art Foundation, Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, and the Joint Powers Agency for Santa Barbara demonstrates her unwavering commitment to community engagement and partnership.

“After COVID, it’s been so important to build trust,” she said. “So through that work in those organizations, it allows me to have those connections. I’m modeling and showing what I’m about and what our district is about.”

Throughout her administrative journey, Edds said ACSA and its members have been there to support her.

“I am who I am today because of ACSA,” she said. “ACSA shaped who I am, not only professionally, but also personally, through those relationships that I developed over the years.”

Edds wanted to give back to the association that gave so much to her, so she ran for ACSA office and won, serving as president in 2018-19.

One of the achievements during her presidency was establishing the Mental Health and Social-Emotional Learning Task Force in 2019. Created in the year following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Edds said school leaders at the time were only beginning to talk about the connection between mental health and school shootings.

“We need to intervene and connect with kids to address their mental health needs before it gets to the point where they feel so isolated, or feel that they need to commit violence,” she said. “So for me, it was about how do we prevent it in the first place, versus how do we defend against it?”

The task force’s work resulted in a Mental Wellness Toolkit, a collection of free resources available on ACSA’s Resource Hub.

In another highlight from her presidency, Edds and other education leaders in the state met with the Dalai Lama about SEE Learning, a free social-emotional learning curriculum the holy leader developed in partnership with Emory University. Later, when the curriculum was launched in 2019, Edds was invited to India, where she had a private audience with his Holiness and spoke of the need for teaching kindness and compassion.

It was a magic moment — and Edds believes educational leaders get to “create magic” every day by creating conditions where others can become leaders themselves.

She is also creating new leaders as an adjunct faculty member at California Polytechnic State University and California Lutheran University, where she is imparting her collaborative, ethical leadership style to the next generation of administrators.

Described as a servant-leader, Edds “shines in the shadows of those she leads,” according to Janet Bertoldi, retired assistant superintendent of education services in Orcutt Union. Edds said she’s “extremely humbled” by this award and struggling with the spotlight being shined on her.

“Because it’s really not about me,” she said. “It’s about my team and about the incredible people that I get to work with every single day because I couldn’t do this work without them.”