Dr. Stephanie Elizalde is the Superintendent of Dallas ISD.

Dr. Holly Ferguson is the Superintendent of Prosper Independent School District.

Episode 8 with special guest Mimma Sayuti Mat Khalid. She is the Head of Digital Learning Unit at Institut Pendidikan Guru Malaysia Kampus Bahasa Melayu. Distinguished Lecturer (Pensyarah Cemerlang) for Ministry of Education Malaysia.

Tanya Thiessen is a dedicated educational leader with a passion for positively impacting school culture, teachers, and students through genuine servant leadership. With a rich 17-year career, primarily at Elk Island Catholic Schools in Alberta, Canada, she has excelled as a high school teacher, school counselor, and school leader. Tanya also served as the Principal of the Canadian International School of Guangzhou, an Alberta Accredited International School, where she led Pre-K to Grade 12 education. Currently, she is an Executive Staff Officer for the Alberta Teachers’ Association, focusing on Regulatory Affairs within the Government program area.

Dr. Paul Walton is an educational Leader, qualified leadership coach, and writer, focused on developing staff and improving student outcomes. His career has included a variety of leadership posts both globally and in the UK, as well as being an advisor for educational IT use in two international regions.

He is a qualified school inspector and has organised training courses both in person and online for educators internationally. He has set up professional development communities in various countries and TeachMeet workshops bringing schools together.

Paul has a dual Doctorate, Doctor of Education and Doctor of Educational Leadership and Management, Master’s in Education, NPQH, NPQSL, and is a member of the European eLearning and eEducation group. He is currently a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching. He has received UK national teaching, wellbeing and UK school ‘learning experience’ awards.

A native Chicagoan, educational leader and Army Veteran, Dr. Tiffany Brunson is a highly sought after speaker, presenter, author and equity warrior. Dr. Brunson continues to be focused on community service and giving her gift of time to many organizations. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Illinois Alliance of Black School Educators (ILABSE) and is a member of the Superintendents’ Commission for the Study of Demographics and Diversity (SSCSD) where she serves on the Scholarship Committee. Recently, she became a contributing author of a new book, Centering Our Voices, The Anthology. This is a novel that celebrates the brilliance, persistence and significance of Black Women Educators.

In Brunson’s twenty-nine year career she has served as a teacher, assistant principal, principal and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer. Presently, she is the proud superintendent of Elementary School District 159, serving the families of Matteson, Richton Park and Tinley Park. Dr. Brunson has been recruited, hired, and tasked with being a co-founding administrator of a new school, the creator of many new departments, educational programs and serving on educational task forces and commissions. She has received awards and recognition for her progressive visionary and innovative leadership. Making the invisible visible and the impossible possible is her “Superpower”.

Jeni Neatherlin is the superintendent of Granger Independent School District (Granger ISD) in Texas. She has been recognized for her leadership, particularly during challenging times such as the COVID-19 pandemic and a significant tornado that impacted the community. Neatherlin has been a notable figure in educational leadership and has recently been named the lone finalist for the superintendent position at Hutto Independent School District.

Dr. Ciara O’Donnell began her career as a primary school teacher in Dublin. During that time she was appointed to the role of Home-School-Community Liaison Co-ordinator working with parents as first educators of their children. In 2005 Ciara was seconded to teacher education services where she held a number of leadership positions related to curriculum, policy and educational disadvantage. She was appointed as National Director to Ireland’s first cross sectoral and multi-disciplinary professional development support service (The Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST), a position she held for ten years. Leading a national team of teacher educators, Ciara continually advocated for teacher professional development to be transformative, sustained and rooted in school context.

Ciara now works as an independent teacher education consultant specialising in teacher and teacher educator learning, professional development strategy, curriculum and school leadership. She also works as a tutor with Maynooth University on school leadership, curriculum studies and teacher education programmes. Viewing teacher educators as a unique group within the profession she is passionate about the need for robust induction for the transition from teacher to teacher educator followed by ongoing teacher educator development through signature pedagogies. Her study exploring the secondment of teachers
to teacher education described by Professor Andy Hargreaves as “ground-breaking research”, has been presented internationally and has resulted in her evidenced based programme for aspiring and developing teacher educators “Becoming and Developing as a Teacher Educator”

Ciara’s published research about the professional learning of teachers seconded to work as teacher educators in Ireland explores their career experiences in navigating and carving out a new professional identity and the transformative impact of this career journey highlighted by transitions and tensions .

Read it here https://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2023.2293148
With FREE access available to the same publication at this link
http://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/17932

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