Her Story
About Kimberly
I am in my 32nd year in education, and my journey began when I was in 5th or 6th grade. I originally wanted to be the President of the United States, but since you can't do that until you're a certain age, I wanted to find out what I could do in the meantime. Growing up in a family full of educators, I really enjoyed helping people achieve things, even at a young age - building understanding and helping people succeed by figuring out what they need to learn, what they need to grow in, and how they can be successful. Today, each day is different for me. I support principals and provide a lot of coaching to them, spending a couple hours sometimes every day, sometimes at two sites in one day, meeting with principals, coaching them, and being a thought partner. We visit classrooms together and work on things that they have identified that they want to grow in. I also spend my time in planning meetings and accountability meetings where we monitor programs, and I get the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues on something new that we're doing to support students and teachers. I transitioned from working at a school site to working at a district office, and I learned that things move differently - the organizational structure is different, the way the work gets done shifts from being the person that is in charge of the work to the person that is supporting the work.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Kimberly
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think one of the biggest challenges is the amount of things that we cannot control for. We cannot control for the budget, we cannot control for what the student experiences from 3 p.m. to 8 a.m. - we are not in control of those things. So I think one of the pieces that is really important for people going into education and going into leadership is if you can't control something, you identify what you can't control for. Then, what do you do with the time that you can control? What do you do with the focus? What do you do with the relationships? Those are things you 100% can control for. How are you building relationships with your students and families? How are you taking the time to professionally learn strategies that are going to be most effective with your students? How are you building relationships with your colleagues? That's really critical, because that's how you're going to make the most of those 7 hours that we have the students with us, that we can control for.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges is the amount of things that we cannot control for. We cannot control for the budget. We cannot control for what the student experiences from 3 p.m. to 8 a.m. - we are not in control of those things, and that is a challenge. The key is to identify what you can't control for, and then focus on what you can control: the time, the focus, the relationships. How are you building relationships with your students and families? How are you taking the time to professionally learn strategies that are going to be most effective with your students? How are you building relationships with your colleagues? Those are the things you 100% can control for, and that's how you're going to make the most of those 7 hours that we have the students with us.
03What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The first one is integrity - being willing to have hard conversations and showing the follow-through that your word means something, and that you're willing to be honest with people, and sometimes that's telling them and helping them see things that they don't want to see. The other thing that is an important value for me is relationships. Taking that time to connect - my most successful coaching relationships of principals is when I have a strong connection with them. There's trust, there is belief that both parties are valued in what they bring to the relationship. I also put hope and optimism together, because it's critical that there is a positive outlook on things - not toxic positivity, but there has to be that positive or hopeful outlook, which also gets into what do you believe is possible for you, as well as what do you believe is possible for others, especially those in your charge. That also links into the value of love. You have to love the work that you do, you have to love the people that you serve, and you have to look at how are you spreading that love and commitment and passion to the work that you're doing. Then the last one is collaboration - how are you finding solutions? How are you being a lifelong learner that is continuing to grow yourself? How are you honoring what other people bring to the table in that collaboration mode? How are you helping to make them better, but more importantly, how are they helping to make you better in how you conduct yourself and how you interact with others?
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