Influential Woman · Education / Leadership Consulting
Layne Dillard, Ed.D.
Educator / Turnaround Expert / Keynote Speaker, Bang Up Good Leadership
Decatur, AL 35603
Her Story
About Dr. Layne
Dr. Layne Dillard has spent nearly three decades challenging assumptions about what people—and organizations—are capable of. At 29, she became the youngest woman ever hired to lead a school in her district. Years later, as a principal, she led a high-poverty public school from an F to award-winning results, becoming one of the most improved schools in Alabama. Today, through her work in the Office of School Improvement at the Alabama State Department of Education, she does that work at scale and can proudly say that every school assigned to her has come off the CSI list.
Those experiences taught her something that now drives all of her work: struggling organizations rarely have a people problem. They have a design problem.
Organizations are ecosystems. They produce exactly what they are built to produce. When a place keeps getting results it says it doesn’t want, the problem is rarely the people. It is the environment they have been handed.
That idea is at the heart of Dillard’s forthcoming book, The Oxygen Effect, and her work as founder of Bang Up Good Leadership. Her message to leaders is simple but consequential: You do not have to choose between a place people love and a place that performs. You can build both—but you have to design for it.
Among the principles she teaches:
- You are not the oxygen. Leaders create the conditions for it to move through the system.
- Don’t settle for buy-in. Build ownership. Organizations need owners, not renters.
- Systems beat heroics. Charisma can change a place for a quarter; design can change it for good.
- Transformation is built, not wished into existence.
These principles were forged in schools, but they belong to any leader responsible for both people and performance. Dillard now brings them to corporate stages, conferences, and media while continuing to work alongside the education leaders and schools that shaped her career.
Dillard holds a Doctorate in Learning Organizations and Strategic Change from Lipscomb University and has spent more than half of her career working with at-risk youth and communities facing some of the steepest odds. That work shaped what she believes about leadership, systems, and human potential.
Titles don’t transform organizations. People do. And when leaders design environments where people can win, performance follows.
That is the work Dillard has spent her career doing—and the challenge she now brings to leaders everywhere: Build a place where people and performance win.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Dr. Layne
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to refusing to settle and believing things can always be better. I tend to see possibilities, connections, and solutions others may not see yet, even when the circumstances are difficult. But vision alone doesn't change anything. I've learned how to bring the right people around that vision, build a team that believes in what's possible, and then do the hard work together to make it real. I don't give up easily, especially when I know something better is possible.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Learn the best practices, but don't lose yourself trying to practice them. Some of the best career advice I've received was to bring my own personality into the room rather than trying to lead, speak, or make decisions the way someone else would. I want to know what the research says and learn from people who do things exceptionally well, but ultimately, I have to lead as myself. Authenticity gives you the freedom to make the right decision for the situation instead of the decision you think someone in your position is supposed to make.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Trust your instincts, and don't put limits on what's possible for you. Learn everything you can, seek out people who make you better, and then be willing to trust your own judgment. Don't wait until you feel completely ready to step into an opportunity—you will grow into some of the best ones. And never underestimate the power of hard work. Talent matters. Connections matter. Opportunity matters. But there is no substitute for being willing to work incredibly hard at something that matters to you. Your career may take you places you can't see yet. Leave room for that.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of our biggest challenges is also one of our greatest opportunities: making education feel relevant to the future students are actually preparing to enter.
We get 13 years with young people, and we cannot wait until high school to start thinking about workforce readiness. Employers are asking for people who can communicate, solve problems, think critically, collaborate, adapt, show up, and take ownership. Those capacities are built long before someone applies for a first job.
We don’t start building the workforce when students get to high school. We’ve been building it all along.
We have an incredible opportunity to connect what happens in classrooms today to the lives students want to build tomorrow. When students can see that connection, school becomes more than something to complete—it becomes preparation for a future they can see themselves in.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
love bringing things back to life. That probably describes both my work and my life outside of it. Professionally, I’ve always been drawn to places with enormous potential that others may have stopped seeing. Personally, I’m happiest taking on a building or remodeling project—I’m completely comfortable with a skill saw or miter saw in my hand—transforming an old space into something beautiful and useful again. I love being outdoors for much the same reason: there’s something grounding about working with your hands and seeing what can be created. Whether it’s an organization, a team, or an old space, I think I’ve always been wired to see what something could be and then want to help build it.
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