Dr. Kimberly Hendricks-Brown remembers when “equity” was widely used to describe meeting students’ needs and improving outcomes.

“Now it’s a dirty word,” she said.

Still, Hendricks-Brown remains committed to supporting marginalized students, no matter what the work is called.

“Equity — it’s just a word,” she said. “If we want this work to continue, and we know it must, it doesn’t matter what we call it. We are doing the work to meet the needs of the students and families we serve. Period. Call it what you want.”

Hendricks-Brown is the recipient of ACSA’s 2026 Valuing Diversity Award in recognition of her more than two decades of service as a courageous advocate for children at both the school, district and state levels.

Rooted in equity and a belief that change is possible, Hendricks-Brown’s mindset has helped her consistently transform schools that have earned state and national recognition for closing achievement gaps, improving culture, and promoting inclusiveness. It also guides her collaborative leadership style, which fosters trust and demands collective ownership of school improvement efforts.

Hendricks-Brown has held leadership roles as an assistant principal, principal and director in the Moreno Valley Unified School District, as well as principal positions in the Val Verde and Fresno unified school districts. Before retiring in June from Fresno Unified, she was a principal on special assignment, where she led a team that focused on improving the reading levels of marginalized students. She is now redefining the next chapter of her professional life.

Her leadership centers on relationships, honest dialogue and shared responsibility. At both the school and district levels, Hendricks-Brown has developed teams capable of doing the work that improves outcomes for students and families.

When she became principal at Columbia Elementary (Fresno Unified) in 2016, Hendricks-Brown said it was immediately clear that the culture was not conducive to student success.

“So we had to create that culture, that family atmosphere where our goal was that every kid gets what they need,” she said. “And we created the system around it to make sure that it happened.”

As the school’s culture improved, Hendricks-Brown turned her attention to academics, working with her leadership team to analyze data and identify systemic barriers. One strategy was to adopt a diagnostic assessment that provided detailed reading and math data on each student’s skill level. When the data showed positive results, Hendricks-Brown empowered teachers to expand the work schoolwide.

As a site leader, Hendricks-Brown’s belief that every student is capable of greatness helped change lives. She remembers a second-grade student who was known for becoming upset, yelling and throwing chairs in the classroom. Hendricks-Brown taught him to lower his voice using a simple visual cue: She would raise her hands, then lower them gently.

“He knew exactly what that meant,” she said. “By the end of the year, we had that down. He knew how to lower his voice and share his needs.”

Each year, Hendricks-Brown made sure the boy was placed with teachers who understood both his strengths and his needs. By the time he graduated from high school, Hendricks-Brown had moved to another district, but the student found her and invited her to his graduation. He told her he would not have made it if it wasn’t for her.

“Everyone had written him off,” Hendricks-Brown said. “He was a foster youth, a Black boy, and the only way people thought to help was suspension. But now he’s successful.”

When asked why achievement gaps persist for students, Hendricks-Brown is clear: “The gap is us. The gap is people.”

She reflects: “The power that we have and that we hold in our hands — even though you’re thinking it’s one student, it’s that one student that starts the ripple effect.”

When she rose to the district level, Hendricks-Brown continued to advance the needs of historically marginalized students, just on a larger scale.

As Fresno Unified’s lead for the CCEE/CAAASA African American Student Achievement Network, Hendricks-Brown guided monthly cycles of inquiry focused on identifying gaps, implementing action plans and reviewing outcomes. She will continue supporting the network as a consultant, managing, coordinating and facilitating the work while helping sustain its focus on Black student achievement.

“Her visionary approach and commitment to excellence have resulted in programs that address the diverse needs of our student body,” said Dr. Lisa Mitchell, executive director of FUSD’s Advancing Academic Acceleration & Achievement Department. “Dr. Hendricks-Brown’s ability to identify gaps, analyze data, and implement effective solutions has been a driving force behind our department’s success.”

Her expertise on Black student achievement has been shared extensively through published articles, statewide panels and through her work as part of the CAAASA-CCEE Professional Learning Network. In 2019, the group published the Equity in Action report, sharing problems of practice and solutions that have worked to raise African American student achievement in districts up and down the state.

“Once you have a practice that works for Black kids, it’ll work for other kids, too.” she said, urging others seek out the network and review the findings in the report. “That lever, that change that you want to make — it’s out there.”

An ACSA member since 2000, Hendricks-Brown has designed high-quality professional development experiences as chair of the planning committees for ACSA’s Equity Institute and Leadership Summit. She has also served as a committee member and chair for ACSA, and she is an executive board member for the California Association of African American Superintendents and Administrators (CAAASA).

One of her favorite quotes is “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” Through her actions — from volunteering for committees and task forces to responding to every survey she receives — Hendricks-Brown is demonstrating how change happens.

“The work that we have to do to change outcomes — it’s not that hard.” she said. “But we have to believe that it’s necessary. We have to believe that it’s possible. And we have to believe that we need other people to help us do that work. And that’s how I lead.”