My Background

As a special education teacher, I taught across the continuum of settings, steadily working to maximize student ownership of learning, co-create responsive learning environments, and move all students towards higher levels of understanding. For me, the greatest joy was in achieving that magical moment with a learner, the one where they light up when they’ve got it. The richness, complexity, and creativity involved in getting to that point ran counter to the system that segregated them and limited their learning experiences because of deeply flawed beliefs about intelligence, the brain, and their potential. As I moved into district-level support for classrooms and school leadership, I helped identify and remove barriers to learning at scale and improve instructional practice through an inclusive framework. I provided tiered levels of coaching and technical assistance around evidence-based research, inclusive best practices, and federal and district guidelines. I launched an early literacy initiative with a cohort of schools, building out a community of learning and practice around early language and literacy and leading to significant gains in the most vulnerable populations. I also worked to redesign the instructional rubric to elevate the most high-impact instructional practices and capture the complexity of instructional responsibilities.

At the Aspen Institute, my work included rethinking human capital in K-12 Education to identify better ways to recruit, support, develop and advance teaching excellence and school leadership. I supported network convenings of policymakers, practitioners and researchers to dialogue across differences, examine evidence, and share innovation to drive improvements in public education.

As a mother, when I think about what I want for my children, I don’t think about the academic standards I want them to master. I think bigger. I think happiness, belonging, love, freedom, significance, meaning, fulfillment, self-efficacy—the stuff of life that matters. The kind of world I want to build for them—for all children—is one that is limitless, uplifts them, values them, and provides them agency to explore their unpredictable and incongruous passions and interests. What if we stopped trying to repair what is broken and instead turn towards building a liberatory system that is fair, equitable and just? What if we truly presumed competence, intelligence, and agency from each one of our young people? What if we prioritized what matters?

Now, as the Director of Consulting at reDesign, I build partnerships with states, districts, and schools to strengthen capacity around learner-centered design, change leadership, and adult development. In my work, I aim to honor the strengths and diversity of all brains, dismantle systems that segregate and perpetuate inequities, and build communities where all learners experience rigorous learning and feel belonging, connection, and community.