Vanessa Rodriguez, Executive Vice President of People at the Pahara Institute at Lone Rock, has spent her career building systems that give young people a fair shot, from District 79 in New York City to a national fellowship designed to keep education leaders in the work longer. In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Vanessa to talk about what it actually takes to sustain a career in education without burning out. Vanessa grew up in Hartford, Connecticut after her parents moved from Puerto Rico so their kids could have better opportunities. In first grade, her teacher made her stand in the corner and face the wall for answering in Spanish. That experience shaped years of silence before she found her voice and committed her life to expanding opportunity for others. Vanessa spent seven years leading District 79, the citywide network serving over-age, under-credited students across all five boroughs of New York City. She and her team built referral centers that are still in place today, giving young people and families a way to navigate the system and find a path back to education. From there she moved through roles at Citizens of the World Charter Schools, Newark Public Schools, and NYC Outward Bound Schools before joining Pahara. Mike and Vanessa dig into how to hire for values and motivation, what happens when values come into tension with the work, and why the next generation of leaders is not buying the grind culture that defined earlier eras of education reform. Vanessa also shares the five priorities her vitality coach gave her: love, movement, sleep, nutrition, and purpose. Tune in to hear why sustaining in this work requires more than commitment. It requires vitality.   Chapters:🎙️ 00:27 Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com 🇵🇷 01:37 Vanessa Rodriguez: from Puerto Rico to Hartford to a career in education 🏫 06:16 Seven years leading District 79: serving over-age, under-credited students across NYC 🧭 10:43 What classroom teaching taught her about leading systems change 🤝 14:33 Hiring for values and motivation: the two questions Vanessa asks in every interview 🔥 17:13 What happens when your values come into tension with the work 🏔️ 20:04 Pahara Institute at Lone Rock: a fellowship built to sustain education leaders 📚 24:03 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org 📋 29:53 Pahara's application cycle and who should apply 👩‍👦 33:26 Raising a son as a single Latina mom and staying present through basketball🌟 39:38 If you are a leader or changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org 🎒 40:36 When your kid asks to leave early: Devin's choice to attend boarding school 🚶‍♀️ 44:34 Walking, water, and winding down: the habits that keep her going 💛 46:17 Love, movement, sleep, nutrition, and purpose: five priorities for vitality 🎧 48:52 Find more podcasts that matter at www.podcaststhatmatter.org Links:LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/vrodriguez7 Pahara Institute: www.pahara.org Learn more about the Pahara fellowship and connect with Vanessa on LinkedIn to follow her work supporting education leaders across the country. Connect with Mike: www.linkedin.com/in/mmscStronger Consulting: strongerconsulting.comPublish a Book That Matters:  booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters:  podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: geniusdiscovery.org For more great podcasts like this one, visit https://podcaststhatmatter.orgStay strong. 

From a special education classroom in West Philadelphia to corporate philanthropy at Vanguard, Nicholas Pascale has spent two decades building his career the same way he builds everything: through relationships. In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Nicholas, a former SPED teacher, principal, district leader, and nonprofit consultant who now works on Vanguard's Community Stewardship team. Nicholas grew up in a working class Italian family in New York with a twin brother and parents who both worked at JFK Airport. When he was a year and a half old, his father was diagnosed with terminal leukemia and given six months to live. He fought for ten and a half years. That early confrontation with loss shaped everything. Nicholas knew by first grade he wanted to be a teacher after Mrs. Kennedy knelt beside him on his first day apart from his twin brother and told him it was going to be okay. As a principal, he built school culture around reconciliation, insisting that adults model the same forgiveness they ask of thirteen year olds. When he pivoted to HR at a startup and got laid off, the relationships he had been building for years carried him into consulting with Bellwether, Albuquerque Public Schools, and DCPS. Ron and Nicholas also go deep on what it means to maintain relationships over time, why financial literacy belongs in schools alongside health education, and how a volunteer role at Vanguard led Nicholas back to education through corporate philanthropy. Tune in to hear why the only legacy that lasts is the way you make people feel. Chapters:📚 01:44 Publish your book at www.leveragepublishinggroup.com 🤝 02:34 Meet Nicholas Pascale: relationships as a way of life 🇮🇹 08:20 Growing up in a working class Italian family in Queens 🏥 09:55 Dad diagnosed with leukemia at one and a half: ten years of fighting 👩 14:12 Mom held the load as a single parent after dad passed 💰 16:45 Mentor, financial literacy, and how mom retired at 55 ✍️ 17:44 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org 🍎 18:44 Mrs. Kennedy in first grade: deciding to be a teacher at seven years old 🏫 23:36 Building school culture around reconciliation: kids come first 🔄 33:27 From schools to ed consulting: Bellwether, DCPS, and Albuquerque 🌟 35:53 If you are a leader or changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org 🏢 42:32 How a volunteer role at Vanguard led back to education through philanthropy 📱 48:25 The simplest relationship strategy: just reach out and tell people you love them 💛 52:55 The Ronderings: life is measured in love and kindness through relationships 🎧 57:17 Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com Links:LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-pascale-ab1701137Connect with Nicholas on LinkedIn to follow his work in corporate philanthropy at Vanguard and his continued commitment to education and community. Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapataloCheck Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473 Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.comPublish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org For more great podcasts like this one, visit: https://podcaststhatmatter.org 

Former Akron Public Schools superintendent Dr. David W. James never planned to work in education. He started at NASA, moved into environmental consulting, and ended up leading a school district for 13 years by accident. In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with David, now executive director of Summit Education Initiative, to talk about what it takes to move the needle on economic mobility when the old factory jobs are gone and nobody can tell you what the new ones require. David became superintendent after a business manager role put him in charge of rebuilding every school building in the district. What kept him there for 13 years was a model most districts do not attempt. He got the city of Akron to co-own school buildings through an income tax partnership. He brought Ford Next Generation Learning in to build college and career academies starting in kindergarten. He partnered with the LeBron James Family Foundation to open the I PROMISE School. Each of those required years of coalition building with people who did not always agree with each other. His approach came from consulting, not curriculum. Treat the community like your customer. Listen to the people on the front lines. When the freight trains of problems keep coming, stay calm and do triage. Now at Summit Education Initiative, David works across 17 public districts, tracking students from kindergarten readiness through post-secondary outcomes. The work is not about graduation rates alone. It is about whether a kid in Summit County can actually build a life. Listen in for a conversation about why the real constraint on student outcomes is not funding or policy. It is whether the adults around them can build something together and keep showing up.  Chapters:🎙️ 00:58 Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com  🏗️ 04:01 Meet Dr. David W. James: Co-op at NASA, environmental consulting, and a career nobody planned 🤝 08:01 A city partnership, an income tax, and school buildings co-owned with the mayor 🧠 10:41 Your first reaction is usually not the best one: learning to pause before you respond  🧪 13:15 Mercury in the schoolyard and why there is no playbook for everything 📐 15:57 The chamber of commerce could not answer what "prepared" actually means 🏫 17:52 Finding Ford Next Generation Learning and building career academies from kindergarten up 📚 19:26 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org 📊 21:15 Summit Education Initiative: cradle to career data across 17 districts 🏥 31:24 Why kids miss school: rent, food banks, grandparents with diabetes 🌟 40:27 If you are a leader or changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org 👥 42:01 Developing the next generation of leaders instead of issuing orders  ☕ 42:32 Morning coffee, slower pace, and going from 13 medications to one 🎧 51:36 Find more podcasts that matter at www.podcaststhatmatter.org Links:Connect: www.linkedin.com/in/david-w-james-ed-d-b8997211 Summit Education Initiative: www.seisummit.org LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/seisummit  Connect with David on LinkedIn or visit seisummit.org to learn more about Summit Education Initiative's cradle to career work across Summit County.  Connect with Mike: www.linkedin.com/in/mmscStronger Consulting: strongerconsulting.comPublish a Book That Matters:  booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters:  podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: geniusdiscovery.org For more great podcasts like this one, visit https://podcaststhatmatter.orgStay strong. 

Leadership coach and former statewide education CEO Dr. Maya M. Faison knows what it looks like when organizations want your brilliance but not your voice, and she is done staying quiet about it. In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Maya, founder of Faison Advisory Group and creator of the UNMUTED coaching experience, to talk about what it actually costs black women to lead inside systems that were never designed for them. Maya grew up in Philadelphia, where a classmate once told her she was not smart enough to get into Masterman, the top-ranked magnet school in the state. Her parents went to the school to apply. The counselor hesitated. But a principal who chose to see her potential advocated for her admission. What Maya found out later was that her older sister had been turned away years earlier. Different principal, different outcome. One block separated Masterman from a school where a third grader could not read the words "press enter to start." That gap set everything in motion. She went from the University of Pennsylvania to Harvard to the classroom, then into policy work as one of the original teacher ambassador fellows at the US Department of Education. She eventually led a statewide charter school advocacy organization for nearly a decade, passing legislation at rates most policy shops only talk about. But behind those wins, the personal cost was compounding. Board members suggesting she hire a white man to run the organization she was already running. Colleagues undermining her team. The quiet, constant pressure to shrink. When Maya started attending EdLoC convenings and connecting with other black women in nonprofit ed reform, she realized her story was not an individual one. It was systemic. Women hospitalized from stress. Women blackballed for speaking up. Women who left the country entirely. That pattern is now the foundation of her research project, I Survived Ed Reform, and the reason she coaches women to stop muting themselves and start leading from wholeness. Tune in to hear why Maya believes your job will never love you back, and what it looks like to lead without giving away your soul. Chapters:📚 01:36 Publish your book at www.leveragepublishinggroup.com 🎒 02:42 Meet Dr. Maya M. Faison: Philly kid, educator, truth teller 🏫 06:19 The little girl who said "you're not smart enough" and the gloves came off📖 08:24 Tutoring a third grader who couldn't read the screen one block from the best school in the state 📻 13:33 Mavis Beacon, summer spelling lists, and a nerdy family dinner radio show 🎓 17:26 Traditional teacher licensure, Harvard, and the long route into policy ✍️ 21:45 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org 😤 23:10 "There's this other guy": being told to hire someone to do the job you were hired for 🤝 26:19 Walking into EdLoC spaces and finding out it was all of us 📓 28:35 Interviewing women across the country for I Survived Ed Reform 🏥 30:23 Hospitals, Ghana, and the physical cost of leading under fire 💔 37:12 The biggest regret: putting off families for organizations that moved on without them 🌟 38:19 If you are a leader or changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org 📉 41:16 A love letter on LinkedIn and what 300,000 layoffs mean for black women 🧭 44:19 Negotiate from abundance, not desperation 💎 47:54 Maya's Rondering: you don't owe them your soul 👕 50:47 The shirt says healing over hustle and she means it 🎧 58:37 Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com Links:Connect: www.linkedin.com/in/mayabfaison  Website: www.mayafaison.com Faison Advisory Group: www.faisonadvisorygroup.comI Survived Ed Reform: www.isurvivededreform.com  Instagram: @mayabfaison Connect with Maya on LinkedIn or visit mayafaison.com to learn more about her coaching work with women in leadership and her upcoming book, I Survived Ed Reform.  Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapataloCheck Out Ron's Book: www.amazon.com/dp/1613431473 Leverage Publishing Group: www.leveragepublishinggroup.comPublish a Book That Matters: http://booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters: http://podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: http://geniusdiscovery.org 

Tricia Noyola is a charter school leader, Regional Superintendent at the KIPP Foundation, and former CEO of Rocky Mountain Prep who builds schools as love letters to the communities they serve. In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Tricia to talk about bold leadership, identity, and what it really means to build schools that serve their communities. Tricia traces her path from the Rio Grande Valley to a college experience that exposed the inequity gap she had never fully seen, to becoming a first-time principal of the lowest performing school in her network with no formal training and no intention of ever being a leader. She shares what mentor JoAnn Gama saw in her when she could not see it herself, and how she and her team turned that school into the highest performing elementary in the community. The conversation sharpens around two ideas Tricia keeps returning to: boldness means asking what if it does work out and acting on that answer, and the idea that 'high expectations and love for kids are opposites' is one of the most damaging false binaries in education today. Tune in to hear why accountability and care are not a choice, and what happens when leaders stop pretending they are.  Chapters:00:54 🎙️ Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com 01:09 🌵 Growing up on the Texas-Mexico border where culture was bright and identity was fluid 05:06 🏡 Native Texan roots: life before the border that felt like a border 08:39 🎬 The Selena moment and what border identity actually looks like from the inside 16:05 🎓 Getting to college and seeing the inequity gap for the first time 19:32 📚 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org 19:53 🏫 JoAnn Gama's bet: principal of the lowest performing school in the network 21:30 📉 Year one was a disaster and why that became the most important lesson 29:24 🔥 The boldness principle: what if it does work out? 31:36 🌟 If you are a leader or changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org 37:29 💌 My school is a love letter to the community 39:02 ⚖️ Accountability is not a dirty word: rejecting the false binary in education 45:07 🎧 Find more podcasts that matter at www.podcaststhatmatter.org Links:LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tricianoyola KIPP Foundation: www.kipp.org Connect with Tricia on LinkedIn and follow her work at the KIPP Foundation to see what bold, community-centered leadership looks like in practice.  Connect with Mike: www.linkedin.com/in/mmscStronger Consulting: strongerconsulting.comPublish a Book That Matters:  booksthatmatter.orgStart a Podcast That Matters:  podcastsmatter.comGo from Expert to Thought Leader: geniusdiscovery.org For more great podcasts like this one, visit https://podcaststhatmatter.orgStay strong.