Biography & Profile

As I move toward leadership, I am being tasked with telling the story of my work. After quite a bit of reflection on WHY I want to lead, I have come to the following…

Biography & Profile

Within a school community, I work to create environments for teacher and student success. My experience with individualised, multidisciplinary, multi-age, experiential, highly able and special education have all contributed to my perspective on learning and team building. I enjoy increasing morale and improving relationships and observing the impact on schools. I believe that highly functional teams are those that run with empathy, perspective and vision.

My earliest memories are of collaborative work and discovery. My family was part of an intentional community formed in the late 70s on ancestral lands of the Sauk-Suiattle people in the mountains of Washington State.  The members of the community were equals and worked together to build and maintain the land and its structures. Ideas were openly discussed and respectfully argued over (often over homemade pie). In the 80s and early 90s, I rode a yellow school bus for an hour through the winding valley to attend a gloomy, uninspiring one-story school mainly educating the children of loggers, miners and foresters. We watched reel-to-reel movies and read Fun with Dick and Jane. Much of my real learning took place at home on the land: natural science, history, philosophy, crafts, building, mechanics, farming & food production. I loved learning but I found my public school to be entirely disenchanting.

In my early career, I was a classroom teacher and team leader, teaching multiple grade levels of students with behavioural disorders.  This work was multi-faceted and allowed me to learn a lot about team dynamics, conflict resolution, social-emotional learning, wellbeing, individualised education, diversity, equity and inclusion. We were advocates for the rights and needs of students from historically marginalised communities. Through this work we were able to have a positive impact on our students and our school community.

Working internationally has allowed me to additionally progress as a leader. I credit my experience at IB schools in Sudan and Uganda for teaching me how to be culturally responsive and flexible when managing the unique challenges of international schools. Along with my team mates, we were able to achieve success, increasing the capacity of the schools to serve the needs of all students.

I am working to create environments where staff and students can examine the world around them, pursue their interests, exercise flexibility in working individually and in teams and can experience a coaching/mentorship dynamic. As a leader, it is my job to create environments that support teachers so they can do the work of creating a flexible, ethical, knowledgeable and collaborative human future.