Her Story
About Heather
I worked in education for many years, and it's kind of where the wind took me. My mom was a teacher, and I had been working in different fields and felt kind of unfulfilled at all. Once I had the opportunity to go back to school and get my master's degree in education - it was actually my second career - I knew I loved working with kids, but I didn't really know what it would feel like to be in the schools. Once I was in the schools, I realized I was home, and that was it for me. I realized how much is needed there, and how much of an impact you can have on lives, and really how much it changes the trajectory of people's lives when they have strong leaders and educators and adults in their lives that can help them. I've been working at a nonprofit for 3 and a half years now. Currently my day is filled with lots of meetings, collaboratively with different partners. I work with school districts, I work with nonprofits, I work with people internally in my organization and other organizations, and I try to bring in community members too - that's a big thing that we're pushing on. Yesterday we had a big celebration of a report that we released around emergent bilingual students. Today, I'm going out to a district to observe some presentations of action research that teachers completed. It's varied - it goes from grant writing to internal staff meetings to external partner collaboration and building.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Heather
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I still think the best advice I get, and I have to remind myself, is just to listen. Like, listen so closely, and understand before being understood. I think so many leadership miss this opportunity when they get into roles to really understand who they're working with and what their pain points are and what their needs are before they start acting. So, really just slowing down and listening and spending that time to get to know who you're leading and who you're working with.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think I would give them the advice that it's so important, it's so rewarding, and while it is very challenging, try to find ways to sustain yourself within it. Because I think the reason why there is so much teacher burnout and attrition is because people just can't find ways to pivot, and I know there's not always opportunities. I feel like I've been very blessed to have opportunities to pivot, but figuring out ways to sustain what you love about education is so important. So, whether that means taking a different role, or teaching in a different grade, or whatever, but you're never giving up if you stay in the field. You might just have to change the way that you're operating within the field to be able to sustain yourself. Just finding a way to not burn out and sustain yourself is kind of key.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think education is a huge, well, it's critically important, right, for our society as a whole. The challenges are pretty immense, just based in Texas, we have challenges around funding, teacher shortages, enrollment declines, there's plenty of challenges and limited solutions.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think the values, to me, are trustworthiness through transparency - telling people what is happening and not trying to change it. I think people can handle much more than we give them credit for. Especially from leadership roles, you know, you want to protect your people that you're leading, but in the same sense, you want people to understand what's going on. So, transparency is a value. Personal growth, too. I think we're never done, so no matter what type of role you're in, no matter how high you get, there's always opportunities to grow and reflect. That's a value of mine, and I guess another one would be listening - really listening, something I always have to work on for myself, too.
Keep Exploring
More Influential Women · Texas
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.