Talia J. Palacio

I started in education in 2000 while in college as part of the first group of bilingual cultural mentors for Memphis City Schools, which is our largest school district in Memphis, Tennessee. I became a full-time teacher in 2006 and have been in the field ever since. Growing up in the district as a teacher and transitioning into the bilingual communications role is where I grew the most in my professional career. I was able to lead the strategic communications and marketing efforts for our largest school district, which went through several name changes from Memphis City Schools to Shelby County Schools to now Memphis Shelby County Schools. I was only focusing on the bilingual communications piece because growing up in Memphis, we've never had bilingual communications. We never had a dedicated platform that supported the storytelling and the brand alignment to support our largest subgroup of students and families, which were Spanish speakers here in Memphis. It helped create a lot of opportunities just for family engagement and to have our students and families feel heard and to celebrate cultures across different platforms, something that we haven't had as a city. I'm very fortunate to have been one of the first individuals to lead that effort. Within that role, I was able to take it outside of the classroom by hosting the first bilingual show on one of our local radio stations and being very active in our community through other nonprofits to help support their mission as well. Currently, I am the Director of Marketing and Communications for Freedom Preparatory Academy Charter Schools in Memphis, Tennessee, a position I've held for three school years. I support the storytelling of our students, our families, and our educators in a way that builds trust and strengthens our communities. I support our Freedom Prep Charter Schools here in Memphis and also our schools in Birmingham, Alabama, since we expanded there in 2024. Every day changes - sometimes I am leading the communication charge through managing our website, storytelling through video production, media inquiries, and managing our social media and developing content for that. I do that in English and in Spanish, since I know it's our second largest demographic here. My most notable professional achievement has been crossing over from teaching into K-12 communications and marketing and working with the multicultural sector. I've been able to bridge a gap to make sure that more families feel seen, informed, and included in our community.