Heidie Ciesielski

My path to education wasn't straightforward. In college, I was undecided and initially thought I wanted to be a lawyer, but then I looked at how much law school was going to be. I was also an athlete, so I wanted to do something where I could continue with that avenue when I was younger. My older sisters, many of them educators, convinced me to take an education course when I was in college just to see if I liked it, and I really did. That turned the tables towards education, and I've never looked back since. I taught for 7 years before becoming a building leader. I knew right away that I wanted to be a building leader because I wanted to have larger impacts for kids. My career progressed from teaching to assistant principal, then principal, then central office assistant superintendent, and finally superintendent of a district with 3,200 students, 480 employees, and 200 direct instructional staff. Now, as Associate Director of Leadership Preparation and Certification for the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, I run an alternative path to certification program that certifies 175 to 200 educators a year to become building leaders. The other 25% of my job is going around to other associations and giving professional learning around what it means to be a good building leader. I love this new position that I started in July.