Kelly Bullock

I absolutely attribute my success to my parents. I come from a very strong family support system. My mom and dad were married for 58 years, and my father is deceased now, but they always, always, always put us first. They taught us that you have to keep going, you have to keep moving. My mom and dad worked tirelessly. My mom beat breast cancer twice and just turned 85 two weeks ago. She's totally cancer-free now and only takes vitamins. To see my mom and dad just work tirelessly to make sure that all of us had those opportunities that we wanted to explore and try is mind-boggling, because my mom and dad sacrificed so much for us. They couldn't afford to put us through school at all, but they encouraged us to keep going. I have three degrees - a bachelor's and 2 masters, and I went to Columbia. I actually have a dedication page in my first book to my students, and it's to my family. They've been the strength and the backbone of our family.

The best advice I received is to, despite the challenges, continue with your goals. I've always been encouraged with just being in education, and things that I wanted to change, or things that I just wasn't satisfied with, or even equity. A lot of my professors have always said, no matter what, continue with what you're doing, and remember that when you fail, it's your first attempt in learning. It's a success story. So I always kept that in my mind when I was trying different things, and not necessarily looking at a failure as a failure, but actually a failure as my first attempt in learning, which is moving more toward my success. So I learned to really embrace those failures and turn them into something positive.

I would share with women that self-care is important. You can't give somebody, or even your job, personal life, professional, either or, you can't give somebody 100% if you don't have 100%. You can't give somebody what you don't have. You have to make sure you know that you're fulfilled in life. You do have to put yourself first, your needs, and those things are very, very important. Once you are healthy mentally, physically, and spiritually, then everything else will come a little easier.

The biggest challenges right now is equity in education. It doesn't look the same for everybody. It is very different. When you're talking about equity, equity is important. The lack of educational resources could definitely hinder student learning and student outcome. Also, the pressure around testing and state report cards, and how do you maneuver through all of those things when we can only control what we can control at school. We can't control things outside of school. In our field, we have to make sure that we are making sure that our kids and our students have everything that they need, despite the challenges that all of them face when they leave our building.

The values most important to me are integrity and honesty, which are always at the forefront in everything that I do. Family and relationships are also important. My family is everything to me. Friendship is important, as well as compassion and empathy. Recognizing my blessings that I have and always being a giver, wanting to give back, is very important to me.