Executive Director
MASA
As I approach retirement at the end of this school year, I’ve found myself looking back more often, sometimes with a full heart, sometimes with a lump in my throat, and always with deep gratitude. Thirty-seven years is a long time to spend in one’s calling. I didn’t take a straight path through education, but I took a faithful one: teacher, assistant principal, principal, executive director, chief of staff, superintendent, and now Executive Director of MASA. Every role gave me a different window into the same beautiful, complicated system. And along the way, I gathered lessons I’ll carry with me long after I step away from the work.
The Heart of the Classroom
If I’m honest, the moments that stay closest to me are still rooted in classrooms and hallways. I think about students who arrived in our schools brand new to this country learning a new language, new culture, new everything, and yet full of hope. I remember their gratitude, their determination, the way school became a bridge to belonging. Watching them learn, grow, and find their footing reminded me again and again what public education is supposed to be: a place where opportunity is real and doors are truly open.
And I will never stop being amazed by teachers. Over and over, I’ve watched educators give more than anyone expects and more than any contract can capture. Planning late after everyone else has gone home, spending their own money on supplies, holding students’ worries as carefully as they hold their academic goals. Teachers do all of this because they believe in kids. That belief is the engine of our system. It’s not flashy. It’s not easy. But it’s profoundly good work.
The Weight of Leadership
Leadership in schools carries a different kind of weight, one that doesn’t always show on the outside. I’ve seen assistant principals and principals hold schools together day after day, handling emergencies, supporting staff, nurturing students, and still trying to make everything feel steady and safe. They do it quietly most of the time, because that’s what the work requires.
And at the district level, I’ve watched leaders take the hit for problems they didn’t create. Superintendents, chiefs of staff, executive directors. So often they’re the ones standing at the microphone when budgets shrink, staffing gets cut, or hard choices have to be made. They become the face of decisions that hurt, even when those decisions are necessary. It takes a particular kind of strength to keep showing up in that space, balancing fiscal responsibility, political realities, and community trust, while still protecting what matters most: students and their learning.
The Ongoing Evolution
In my role at MASA, I’ve had the privilege of stepping back far enough to see the whole ecosystem. I’ve gotten to advocate for the people who keep it running, students, teachers, principals, superintendents, and everyone in between. If there’s one through-line in all these years, it’s this: public education is deeply human work. It is imperfect, demanding, and often exhausting. But it is also full of possibilities. Every day asks us to hope, to adapt, to problem-solve, and to keep believing in young people, especially when the world around them is uncertain.
As I close this chapter, what I feel most is pride in the people I’ve worked alongside and gratitude for the students who trusted us with their growth. Education has never been “just a job” for me. It’s been a life. And as I prepare to step away, I do so still believing what I believed on day one: our public schools matter, and the people who serve in them are extraordinary.
