What inspires you?

The butterfly is my personal metaphor for change and transformation. A caterpillar has to actually ‘unbecome’ as part of its metamorphosis. I love to create spaces that foster transformative moments. When I see the ‘aha’ or ‘aahh’ moment in someone’s eyes or experience its articulation in words, movement, or sound – I am inspired.  

Like our ever-expanding understanding of neuroplasticity, the human soul has amazing capacity to grow, change and evolve. I am moved when I have the opportunity to bear witness, and even the more when I can play a role in being a provocateur of change.

What makes a great leader?

A great leader is like a pot of gumbo. They bring a unique set of ingredients, all in the right proportions – and the spice if just right.  That pot has to simmer and marinate to allow all of the components to marry. A lot of tasting goes on, which allows for modifying portions to see if anything is missing. I’ll call that practice of taste-testing and modifying reflective agility in the context of leadership.  A great leader must have core capacities to vision, to delegate, to develop, to persist, to reflect, and to pivot. 

Early in my professional life, my Myers-Briggs inventory showed me to be an ENTJ. It fit. Sounded just like me. I took great pride in being task-oriented – always with the goal in mind. I had the perfect justification for why I exalted the goal above those needed to fulfill it.  Some of my most significant lessons have come from areas where I have fallen short and taken the risk to evolve. I had to learn that relationships matter. Connections count. All in the proper proportions.

Leading requires you to have a relationship with where you are heading, the path or context you are following – and most importantly – a connection to those who follow. You must ‘taste-test’ often: where are we, how are we, what do we need? The art and skill of reflective agility allows for a leader that knows themselves to determine which traits, approaches, and practices are necessary to ensure that everything in the pot (people, processes, goals, outcomes) has come together to form a cohesive experience for those who will take part.

Tell us about a time you felt truly proud of your work. What did you accomplish?

When I think of accomplishments that bring me a sense of pride, I think about my opportunity to develop a program called The Arts Integration Institute.  This program was developed at Christina Cultural Arts Center in Wilmington, Delaware. It was designed to be a tool to close the achievement gap amongst black and brown learners. The program pairs teaching artists with classroom teachers and assists the teachers in learning how to integrate arts learning into academic areas of language arts, math, science and social studies.  In the model, the teacher-artist pairs co-plan lessons that initially the artist will implement with the support of the teacher. The goal is to progress to co-leading lessons to eventually, the classroom teacher leads and the artist supports. 

That program is nearing 20 years in operation and is still operational, though I am no longer with the organization. The program has trained educators from pre-k through high school. Our most significant impact has tended to be in the pre-k though 8^th grade space.  The program has impacted 1000’s of students and hundreds of educators and teaching artists. Because the program also addressed social emotional learning and cultural awareness, all participants experienced a growth that superseded academic growth.

Tell us about your most difficult challenge and how you overcame it.

One of my most favorite words is Kujichagulia, a Swahili word than means self-determination: defining yourself, our selves, and defying the definitions others place on us. One of my most difficult challenges was a phase in my life where I allowed how others saw me to become how I saw myself. On a deeper level, this became a self-fulfilling prophesy and tainted my vision – which resulted in me sometimes seeing judgment where it didn’t exist or at levels that didn’t exist. I had to go inside. I had to own my faults and mistakes. And then I had to remind myself of who I am – why I inhabit this place called earth. I had reconnect with my purpose and my vision for myself. The result was a shift in careers, a realignment of focus, and a more graceful acceptance of my whole self – both the thorns and the rose.