Sarah Parker
Sarah Parker is an experienced educator and instructional leader based in the Grand Rapids Metropolitan Area, known for her student-first philosophy and commitment to supporting both learners and educators. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education and Teaching as well as a Master of Arts in the Practice of Teaching: Curriculum and Instruction from Western Michigan University. Throughout her career, she has developed deep expertise in K–12 education, including curriculum development, literacy, mathematics, science, differentiated instruction, and classroom management. She is also a licensed Public School Administrator and Elementary School Teacher in the state of Michigan.
Her journey in education spans 20 years and has taken her through a wide range of roles and leadership experiences. She began her career as a 5th and 6th grade teacher, spending 13 years in the classroom before transitioning into leadership positions. From there, she joined a state emergency management initiative with the Michigan Department of Education, supporting efforts to stabilize and improve an at-risk school district within Benton Harbor Area Schools. After that experience, she returned briefly to the classroom, later serving as a behavior specialist where she focused on student support systems and behavioral intervention strategies. These diverse roles helped shape her well-rounded approach to instruction, leadership, and school improvement.
Currently, Sarah serves as a Dean of Intervention with National Heritage Academies at Eagle Crest Charter Academy, where she is in her second year in the role. She works within a collaborative leadership team made up entirely of women, including a principal and three other deans, focused on meeting the needs of both students and staff while ensuring strong school operations. Her primary areas of expertise include curriculum and instruction coaching, behavior support, academic intervention, special education oversight, and student data analysis. Her daily work centers on building relationships, supporting staff development, observing instruction, and providing meaningful feedback to empower educators while improving student outcomes. Each day is dynamic and fast-paced, driven by the needs of students, staff, and the school community.
• Public School Administrator
• Elementary School Teacher
• Western Michigan University - BASc, Elementary Education and Teaching
• Western Michigan University - MAT
• Fundraising support for local cat cafe
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to amazing mentorship throughout my career. It started when I was a lead teacher and someone in curriculum and instruction who was the director saw something in me and really fostered a complimentary and very strong partnership and mentorship. She told me she could really see me going into curriculum instruction someday and that I could make a difference in coaching some of these younger teachers that are coming in. That really made my push towards getting my master's in Curriculum and Instruction. Then when I was in my behavior specialist role, my principal fostered me getting my principal license, which is how I ended up with both my master's in curriculum instruction and taking the alternate path to get my educational leadership certification to become a principal. It's been that fostering of mentorship, that push in the right direction at every step of the way, with people along every step who believed in me and helped me grow.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My most important advice is to gain experience from the ground up, because we have a lot of people that get into positions like this where they don't have the experience behind them. You really have to foster that partnership with people who may be more experienced than you, the same, or even less than you. Really starting from the ground up and understanding what it's like to be in the trenches, in that role, in the trenches at all times - I think that's imperative to being a really powerful leader. You need to understand what it's like to be in those positions before you can effectively lead and support others.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenges right now are staying progressive and above the trend, especially technology-wise. In our building, it's competition with local districts because we have really strong public school districts around our area. We are a public charter school, and so we have to be above and beyond - we've got to be at cutting edge in order to compete in that arena. The other major challenge is that not a lot of people are going into education anymore, so the teachers that we're getting are needing a lot of significant coaching in order to become effective leaders and teachers. That's something we really have to foster and work hard with. I believe that's why NHA has a really great dean model here, so that we have that many instructional leaders within our buildings so that intentional coaching is being done.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Work-life balance is incredibly important to me. If I pour too much into one or the other, I don't get enough to pour into the other one. I think maintaining those healthy boundaries in relationships is really important in order to be healthy when you're in both areas. When you're at work, you can pour into work, and when you're at home, you can pour into home. I also value prioritizing things and staying organized - knowing what to make a priority and letting some things sit when they have to sit for a while. These values help me stay effective and healthy in both my professional and personal life.