Why me? I loved school growing up. Even when I didn’t love classes, I liked the structure, the social environment, and the process of learning and performing well. What really inspired me, though, was a handful of teachers I wanted to emulate. I kept finding new educator role models all the way through graduate school. I can still name all of them and how they have shaped the educator I aspire to be.

Why education? It is the most important work anyone can do and be involved in. When I say “education” I’m thinking of everything from the moment-by-moment moves teachers and students make in classrooms to leading schools that are inspiring, well-managed places to teach and learn to leading districts and communities that support and are supported by their schools. Schools and districts are the foundations of their communities. When education is strong, communities thrive; when it is weak, they wither.

Why here? Inflexion and Portico provide an opportunity for me to learn alongside other education leaders to help solve the large and small problems we face every day. I love this kind of work because I get to draw from more than 40 years of learning from schools from my own teaching and administration experiences, from teaching school leadership, from research, and from consulting with schools and districts across the US.

Why now? Now is the only time we have. We can’t make things better in the past, but we can work now to make a better future. I believe that future is about doing a better job of educating the whole child by integrating affective development with cognitive development in ways that help students grow into the young adults they aspire to be.