In the Pursuit of Impact with Dr. Damia Thomas

In The Pursuit of Impact with Dr. Damia Thomas

[00:00:00] Mhm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Welcome back to another episode of the X interview, a podcast for black educators. We're in season five, um, back to back. Fantastic guests. And today is no different. Dr. Damia Thomas is on. It's taking a minute to get our calendars synced together so we can do this. Um. I'm going to let her, like, introduce herself and everything, but I want to read your bio first. So, Dr. Demia Thomas brings over two decades of dedicated advocacy for students in urban education environments, having navigated these systems herself as a student, and later impacted them as a teacher, a coach, a school leader, a mentor, a researcher, a district leader, I mean, everything, right? Uh, Dr. Thomas offers a profound understanding of urban schools, multi faceted challenges. Her career reflects a commitment to transformative leadership, marked by her tenure in various roles [00:01:00] that have spanned teaching, and consultancy. Dr. Thomas has demonstrated success in fostering school cultures that prioritize academic excellence and inclusivity, folks, okay? Achieving measurable improvements in student outcomes across diverse urban districts, including California, New York, Maryland, Arkansas, Illinois, and Richmond.

And maybe one day she'll be here in Colorado. Welcome to the show. Dr. Demia, how are you?

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: I'm well. Thank you. I'm well. I'm well. How are you feeling?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: I can't complain. Like I said, before the show, I got a little bit of a little cold, but the show must go on, you

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Right?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: that's right. And we're, we're moving into the holidays. We're recording this in December folks. And she has her tree in the background, just glowing.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: If you saw what the rest of the place look like, filled like boxes, moving boxes, you would know why the tree is the thing that you're seeing right now.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Listen, no judgment. Okay, listen, [00:02:00] no judgment. Yeah, I'm so excited. Like I said before it's been a while We haven't had a chance. We've been

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: this for a minute.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: we have.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: each other at lots of places We were at Locke together met you in real life again, because we've met each other

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah, we sure did. See the black line.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: The state of black artists.

So shout out to the folks over there, um, in Pittsburgh. So, yeah, so excited to have you on the show.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Thank you. I'm

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: call it.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: excited to be here.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Yeah. I don't want to call it harassment, but I've been low key. Like you gotta come on the show. You gotta, I think I'm like, I'm persistent. Um, yeah, let's just jump right in. Uh, so many folks come on the show and we talk about like, where the journey started.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: and some people start very young at knowing they want to be an educator and some people will discover that later in life. What's been your story? How did you know the education was for you,

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Wow. That's a great question. So, um, it's so funny [00:03:00] because when I was in college, I was like, yeah, no, I'm, I don't want to work with kids. I don't want any kids, you know, I was in my early twenties. So you're not thinking about that stuff. You're just like, nope, the juice too much work. And then, uh, upon graduation, I applied for this teaching program, teacher America.

Um, and got accepted to the program and as soon as I stepped foot in a classroom and started engaging with the kids, I was hooked. , I was completely hooked and I'm, I'm gonna date myself. That was back in 1993. Okay. So I've been in this game for a minute, um, and I just thank

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: but

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: you, darling. Thank you. Um, I've never looked back.

You know, it's, it's been a passion of mine ever since I felt like it connected to my values. Um, doing this work. And so it's where I, where I remained in education.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: So thinking about that journey, I mean, we, we want to know what grades you've taught, things

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Oh, you didn't know the deets. Okay. Let me,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: What about the details?

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: [00:04:00] so it's so funny. Cause when I started teaching, I taught in, uh, the Bronx in New York, I'm from Brooklyn, New York. And so I taught in the Bronx for two years. I had fifth grade two years in a row. Well, my first year I had fifth grade and the second year I got, you know, the bureaucracy messed up my paperwork.

I had to leave and teach at a, um, um, A, uh, a day. Um, what do you call it? Uh, you know, for students who have emotional problems, I'm forgetting the term right now, like a day in day care program. So I took there for a year, which was such an eye opener for me, just understanding what teenagers are going through that put them in the situation where they are.

So that place was the point before they go to court. Right. Like all of these emotional problems that they are navigating challenges that they're navigating. So it's, it's the safe, it's the safety net before they go to court. Like you need to go to this, this treatment program [00:05:00] so that you don't go to jail kind of thing.

Right. Um, and there was really intense cause you know, you had to. If, if they were acting up, you had to get physical with them, like physically restrain them and that kind of stuff. So, um, it definitely wasn't for the faint of heart, but being from Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, I was like, yeah, come on, we can do this.

Um, but it really opened my eyes to the new, like the different experiences that our kids Our black and brown kids go through and how we are not treating them properly in the education system. So then when I left that place after a year, I actually came back to Brooklyn and taught at my alma mater. So my fourth grade teacher was right down the hall from me, which was amazing.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: yeah,

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: I was there for a good while teaching at, uh, PS five. Shout out to PS five on Hancock Street. Um, and so that was, that was such a beautiful feeling to be teaching in the same building with my teachers, right? A school that, that I [00:06:00] moved on from. Um, and so I taught third grade, fourth, fifth, back then it was sixth grade in, in elementary school too.

So I taught sixth grade as well. Um, and then I left and taught at preschool, like I taught. I became a director of a preschool. So young toddler up to about five years old. Um, and so I had a good experience of, you know, pre K through six teaching and directing and leading. Um, and then I moved to Maryland and while I was in New York, there, I was also an adjunct for the.

New the teaching fellows in New York and the my students were coming in explaining these challenges that they were having. And these were adults who this teaching became their second career, right? So they were coming in with these challenges that I was just like, I don't understand how this is happening.

What is going on in [00:07:00] education? Why? Like this culture has shifted so much. And so when I moved from Brooklyn to Maryland, I decided I want to get back in the classroom because I want to see and experience what is going on, right? Like if I knew I wanted to become a principal. And I was like, I need to, I need to go back in.

I need to get my feet wet and see what's happening. Um, and there really was a shift. Um, and I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was, but it changed how, again, another shift in my learning and teaching and learning is it's, it changed how I engage with kids and families.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: I think it's really interesting that you've talked about going back into the classroom because I've heard a couple folks come on the show and say that they were at director level or they were administrators and they've decided to go back in the classroom [00:08:00] and I had not heard of that until I started the show

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Hmm. Mm

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: especially because so many folks are, and I've talked about this many times on the show, so many folks are told to move up and keep moving up

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: and that to go from, you know, You know, Dean to back into the classroom is like a demotion of some sort,

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: but to say that you made the decision to go back to the classroom out of curiosity. I love that, right? It gives us permission to do whatever feels good to us and not like we have to follow a certain way of doing things.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: right.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: and I, I want to pause to, that you went, you were a preschool all the way to high school. And I just have to back up a little bit. That shift into the preschool space teaching bigger kids, we can't skip past that.

What was that like?

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: So I wasn't directly teaching preschool. I was a [00:09:00] director of a preschool, right? And I didn't go to high school. Like I've never taught high school. I went from, I've been in the preschool arena to middle school, eighth grade, and I've worked on the high school level supporting school leaders, but never actually teaching a course in high school.

I skipped high school and taught adult learners for a teaching program, right? So there was a gap. That gap is high school, but, uh, I never taught preschool. I don't think I would have enjoyed that. I'm just not a fan of fluids. So I don't think I would have enjoyed the preschool too much because I've seen it.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Yeah. Well, even as a director of a preschool, what was that like that shift for you?

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Oh, wow. It's so, it's, it's amazing. I'm so glad I'm having this conversation because it's really helping me reflect on the learnings that I have experienced in each. On each level. So preschool really taught me a lot about parents, [00:10:00] right? Of course, learning the DAP, like the developmental appropriate learning stages of children at that age, right?

That's that's a framework that when you're working with kids that age, every teacher or teacher's age should know and be and use that as their guide. But working with parents at this age is very different than working with parents in elementary, middle or high school. Because parents at the preschool age are they're mama and daddy bears like they are

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Hmm.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: um, want to know everything that you're doing.

They're very involved and even in the hood, like I've always taught in the hood. I've never taught in any other arena because I feel like that's where I'm supposed to be. That's where I'm from. That's where I can have the biggest impact and shift the lives of black and brown kids, right? Yeah. And so the preschool age, the parents are, they [00:11:00] come out aggressive, but it taught me that that aggressiveness, that assertiveness is not directed towards me as the adult or my staff as the adult.

It's just this innate. I need to protect my baby space and learning how to communicate with them in a way where you empathize with them, right? And you hear them because that's the biggest piece. You just need to hear them. That's all they want to do. They just want to be heard. Um, their delivery may come across like something else, but deep down inside, that's really not what it is, right?

They're just protecting their babies.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Hmm. I appreciate you saying that. Um, we've had a couple ECE folks on the show, but I don't think they've ever mentioned that component, but it does make so much sense, right? Especially if the, the EC, the. the little is their first coming through,

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Mm hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: this is their first peek at what it is to [00:12:00] be in a school setting or school type setting. And so they're trying to figure it all out. And I love that you said that, the delivery, right? Um, if more folks understood the heart of the families when they come in.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yes.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: way less friction and conflict with families, uh, than we do right now. Thank you. And so I know, I know we kind of spent some time there, but continue.

You were talking about going back and we went back a little bit, but

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah, that's okay. I'm glad you did because it helped me see this is good. Like I said, because it's helping me see where my learnings were occurred because you don't think about it, right? You just naturally go through the process. So these conversations are really, really fruitful. Um, and so I went back into the classroom when I went, when I moved to Maryland in oh six and taught for two years, um, and then, uh, joined, uh, got accepted to a new leaders for new schools program and became a principal in 2008.

And it was always my dream to become a principal. I think, [00:13:00] you know, teachers who are really strong in the classroom. Um, like, I think that's their dream. Some of them are that's their dream is I want to be a principal. I want to lead a school like I want to cast a wider net. That was my whole thing is I can do this on the on the classroom level.

I can, I can cast my net wider and impact more kids, right? And more adults. And so, um, I was super excited when I became a principal, uh, in Baltimore city. Um, and if you can, if you can teach and be a principal in Baltimore city, you could do that anywhere. Cause Baltimore city is the training ground for it.

Okay. Um,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: the same way about Detroit. I never taught Detroit, but I got a feeling between

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: probably right.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Chicago, Buffalo, Baltimore City. I feel like those are some good training work

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Um, and so I became a principal and I was so excited, [00:14:00] like, so excited to be a principal. And let me tell you what the district told me. So I finished my training program. I was just finished up finishing up my last round of chemo.

So the executive director calls and it's like, yeah, so Demia, I need you to go to XYZ school. Um, just go in there and clean up the culture.

Okay. And yeah, no, just the, I need you to clean up the culture. Is there anything else you'd like me to focus on? Or like, I'm, I'm hanging on the line waiting for this, my executive director to tell me like, what are the other things that are the priority for the district, for the school that I'm, that I have to go to, right?

So mind you, I get there. I actually, I hang up the phone and I'm like, [00:15:00] okay. You know, I'm the type of person where I like chaos in a way where it helps me think like my synapses start firing. Like, how do I, how do I just, what do I need to do? Who do like, what do it? And so the thing that popped in my mind is, okay, let me go to the school before my, so let's say they told me that I need to report on a Monday.

This was on a Wednesday. And I said, okay, let me go to the school before Monday. Cause I want to go and see What's going on? Right? So I get to the school, the principal who's being removed is still there. I go there and I'm like, you know, introduce myself to her. Hi, I'm so I'm so and so and so. Um, I just wanted to come and walk around if you don't mind just to get a feel for You know what's happening in the climate of the building.

She's like, yeah, sure. No problem So i'm just looking around at the bulletin boards. I'm not walking in classrooms and doing any of that stuff, right? Plus this was in the summertime So there weren't any [00:16:00] kids in there But i'm just looking at bulletin boards and just checking out the auditorium because they had a real auditorium Which is very rare nowadays in schools.

And so I leave I don't stay long at all I'm there for like 15 minutes. Just want to see what the You know, just the landscape, walk around outside the building. So Monday comes, I walk in the building. This principal, who's being removed, is supposed to be gone. So, she's still sitting in the office. So I said, I said, you know, uh, to the assistant principal at the time, you know, it's very uncomfortable.

I said to assistant principal, um, is there a possibility that I can speak to the principal? I go in, I sit down with the woman who's been dedicated to the school district for decades,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Sure.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: clearly was like, I was not even aware that I was being removed from the school. No one from the district office told this woman that she was being replaced.

She thought I came in on Wednesday. Like as a person from central office, just to scope out, if the school was going to be ready for the, [00:17:00] for the school year to open,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Oh,

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: you didn't know that I was the principal that was going to replace her. So I sat down with her and I explained. You know what the district that the district assigned me to the school to start the new school year and you can see on her face that she was hurt that.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: pause. So you're telling me That you're the one that she didn't get a phone call right before are delivering this news to her.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yes.

And, and I hate to say this, you know, I think we've we in the public school system have become so accustomed to things like this that. It's, it's just how it happens. And I think you have to have a [00:18:00] really strong constitution and sense of self to navigate that kind of ambiguity, right? It's, it takes a lot to do that.

And so I'm sitting in the office with this woman and I can see on her face that she's hurt. And I just say to her, you know, I just want to learn from you now, mind you, I'm a brand new principal. I had leadership roles in New York, but I never was a principal of a school. Right. And so I just say to her, you know, I, I, I, um, just want to learn from you and learn about the great things that you've done with XYZ school.

And if there's anything, any suggestions that you can give me to help continue your legacy, please tell, like, let me know what that is. Right. Because I can see the woman's pain, like the pain on her face. Um, we had a conversation, so I, I leave the main office that's supposed to be mine, that she's sitting in.

[00:19:00] And I, before I leave, I say to her, Is there a space that I can work in for now until you are ready? Until, you know, you're ready to, to leave. So she tells so and so, I go to the space down the hall. I must have been in there from, I don't know, maybe three days. While she was getting all her stuff because she didn't know so she was packing all her things to leave It was so awkward.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Wow.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: So awkward. I tell my executive director. She's like, oh, I'm sorry about that HR they call it talent talent was supposed to let her know Blah blah blah blah Okay, there's nothing I can do about it. I'm, I'm in, I'm in the seat, right? So naturally I'm in the seat and news travels fast in the building. You know, everyone's talking like, oh, this woman came and is replacing the principal and blah, blah, blah.

So now I had the, first of all, it was an issue with culture in the building, which is why I was sent [00:20:00] there in the first place. And now there's an issue with me because I'm the per, I'm the face of the, of the district that has come in now to replace this woman who has been there.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Yeah.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Great.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: not helping the culture. Is

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Absolutely not. But it's okay.

Cause your girl got it down. Okay. It takes, it took me two years to navigate the waters like the people who needed to be on the bus and headed the same direction that I was. By, by year three, by the end of year three, we had a rock solid leadership team and we had the people on the bus that needed to be for us to go in that the direction that we needed to, right?

And I'm talking, this is a pretty large school. It's about 700 kids, pre K through five. Okay. Um, it took, it took some time, but

the way that I did that, and you know, the way that I did [00:21:00] that was actually using data and being a human first. Like my emotional intelligence is high. Right. I feel I'm an empath. I can feel when how people are, even if their mouth is saying something, I can feel if that's the truth or not. Right. Simple gestures, you know, like walking around every day and saying good morning to every single person in the classroom, walking in, checking in.

Good morning. How you doing? Right? Just, just checking on you, making sure what do you need, right? Just do those simple things. Those simple acts of kindness help build the foundation for me and help establish trust. Right? Then there were other things I had to do, right? I had to prove myself because at the time I was a younger principal and um, I didn't, I didn't feel like I wasn't one of those principals where, you know, I'm the principal, so I don't need to go in a classroom and teach.

No, if I need to go in a [00:22:00] classroom and teach and model for you as a teacher, what my expectation for strong instruction looks like, I will do that. And I have done it several times, right, in that role. And debriefing with the teacher and showing my coaches that this is how I want it to look, sound, and most importantly, this is how I want it to feel when you communicate with teachers.

Right?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Yeah.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Um, and it was really impactful. We had by the end of year three, we had, uh, moved data instructionally. Our climate data skyrocketed to the eighties and nineties of satisfaction, where before it was in the forties, parents weren't happy. Teachers weren't happy. One of the highest values that we saw after year three was that it was the vision for the school was clearly communicated was that 93%.

But that didn't exist before, right? Um, and again, it's just about being [00:23:00] human first. We know that there are things that the district is Ask every school to do this, like a checklist, tick, tick, tick, tick. But if you're just ticking off things and you're not connecting with people and you're not communicating and having them feel and understand what your vision is, what your values are as a leader, then they're, they're, they're not going to buy into it.

They're not going to get on the bus with you going and they may, some may get on the bus, but are they going to go in the same? Do they want to go in the same direction? Right. So those were really, uh, I loved that experience at that school. And, and a lot of the, the both assistant principals, a teacher, two teachers right now are now principals.

Three of them are principals. And one is a director at another school that we've, I still communicate and kept in contact with [00:24:00] them since working with them at that

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Yeah. This is really, I love this so much. And I'm, as you're talking, I'm thinking about the administrators, future administrators, listening to the podcast and I hope that they're taking notes. Right? Mm hmm. You've mentioned data a couple of times, and I know we'll get into that

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: school.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: we talk about what you're doing now, but this idea of like, what does, what are the numbers and the stories tell us,

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yes,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: and then how do we use that to drive towards the goals, to get everyone on the bus, or to kick people out the back of the bus because it's time for you to go,

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: absolutely.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: just, yeah, it's so important, the strategy you're talking about takes the ego out of it.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: It does.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: And I think that's really important. When I was teaching in the middle school that I was in for a long time, first principal that I was under at that middle school, the whole school was built around his ego,

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Oh,[00:25:00]

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: and they used to call it the most beautiful school. And this is so, this is such an odd story.

I'm just thinking about

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: God.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: school when I went in. was mostly young blondes, men and women. I am not kidding. This was like a, they would call the people physically beautiful. And the

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Like,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: been

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Aryan Nation, blonde, blue,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: was

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: a little

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: it was giving, I don't know if they noticed it, but as a Black woman coming into the space and looking at our school photo at the first year that I was there. It was very obvious the, the, some of the people are, if not all, were picked, yes, of course, on their skills, I pray so, but also there was some, there was some very much like whiteness, like what white beauty standards were

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: that school. Um, And so the whole school was built on ego and so, and that seems like an extreme case, but I put money on it.

There's lots of folks [00:26:00] who are brought into a school and make decisions based on what they want to see or how they want to

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah. Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: not what the community needs, what the students need. Who's best for the job. It's just some other thing. Right. Um, right. I told, I promised a friend, so now they can come to the school because I like them and they need a job or whatever the situation, uh, after you left that particular role, well, first I'd love to know, like, how, how long were you there and what was that transition like?

And then what was the next step for you?

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: So I was there for five and a half years. Um, and one of the, one of the, uh, my math coach at the time told me about a position that, uh, Baltimore city was opening up an all girls middle school. And she said, Ms. Thomas, I think like this would be [00:27:00] perfect for you. And I was like, Oh, you know, I didn't pay it in mind.

I was like, okay, just, you know, thanks for telling me about that. But you know, I'm, I'm, I'm good. And then someone from Teach for America, uh, called me and said to Mia, I just came from a meeting. Um, and Baltimore city is going to open an all girls charter school. Um, because the. All girls private schools, but the private schools in the in the community, the superintendent at the time, the CEO challenged the private schools like this is your city to yes, you have private schools, but public school Children are going to be operating and working and living in the city as adults too.

So it would behoove you to come together to really support it. the public school work that needs to be done. So the private schools came together and said, okay, that's creating a single sex, all [00:28:00] girls charter school. And so they took them a year to work on that year and a half. And then, so they were looking for a founding principal.

So all they had was, they understood that they wanted this specific curriculum and that was pretty much it. Um, but they didn't have anything else. They knew that there were these tenants that they wanted for a single sex, but that was pretty much it. It was a pretty much a skeleton. Um, and so, uh, the woman from teacher America calls me and she's like, I just came out of this meeting and they're going to open up an all girls school.

And I immediately thought of you. I was like, wait a minute.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Wow. Yeah.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: I was like, wait, okay. Universe, you, you are clearly giving me signs for something right now. Like saying to me, like. Something else needs to happen. And then I thought about it. Like, I, I went back home and I kept thinking about it and thinking about like the things that, cause I, I write a [00:29:00] lot, right. In different phases of my life.

And I went back to some journal writings that I had from high school. And when I was becoming a teacher and some of the things that I wrote as a teacher, and I, one of the things in my teacher journal was that I wanted to open up my own school, right. And I was like, okay, so this is my opportunity for me to put my legacy on the, in this building.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Yeah. Mm hmm.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: And I applied. I was the very first application for the school. The application process was like, it was almost a year long. It was like four different parts to the application process, right? A lot of people applied for it. I ended up getting the job. And it's so funny because when I got the job, the executive director that they hired said, you know what, [00:30:00] Damia, you were the first application.

And Here you are. I'm like, well, you didn't have to go to all those other people. If I was the first application,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: we're gonna save some

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: um, and I had the beauty of, um, transitioning out of when I got, when I was offered the position, I had the opportunity to train my two assistant principals at my current placement, um, to let, for them to like take the lead once I was gone, because I was going to leave, I think in like January or something like that.

And they gave us so that was good to do that, right? I still kept supporting them. I had a year of planning before any students walked into the all girls school. And so this was new for me because this was middle school. I had always done up to 6th grade, but never 7th and 8th grade, right? Um, [00:31:00] and the learning was amazing.

You know, it was a expeditionary learning, which is now called E. L. Schools. Absolutely love how they operate with crew. And I just love the whole, uh, framework that they have and had this whole paradigm of, of teaching and learning and how students learn and, you know, teaching with kindness and building core tenants of, of character.

Those things are so important in the school. So I bought into it right away because it aligned very much, very, it aligned well to my beliefs as an educator. Right. And so I did all this research, had to find the science curriculum, find math, all the other pieces, put together the pieces that are needed for it to get the school open.

The school opened a year later with 75 girls. Um, and eventually we grew to 350 girls.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Oh, wow.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah, it was, it was, it was beautiful. [00:32:00] And then our first class, I don't want to say graduating because you technically don't graduate to leave high school, but our closing ceremony is what we call it. A closing ceremony.

Um, our first set of girls who At the closing ceremony, you know, they all look so beautiful. It was so emotional. Everybody was in white. I was like, look at my babies. They're actually like moving on to high school, like to see it and feel it and feel that energy. And I was like, you all look absolutely amazing.

And it felt like something changed in them. Like they became these young adults. And I was like, what is going on in here? Like, how, how come you all? And they said, Ms. Thomas. You think we don't listen, but we listen when you speak. I was like, aw, I love you babies. And that, and that experience working in middle school, especially single sex and all girls now, there was drama.

There was definitely drama.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Of

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Um, [00:33:00] but again, I had the opportunity to hire my, the team, my winning team. I didn't have to go in and sift through. I had the ability to actually hire the team that I wanted. So. We hit the ground running. It was, it was absolutely amazing. Such a great experience to do that. And I stayed there for five years.

And I think I, I honestly feel like I would have stayed, would have stayed longer if it wasn't for the executive director at the time, um, while I was the principal at the all girls middle school. My cancer came back, I had to go through chemo again and my, my community cloaked me in love and support. So that wasn't a challenge, right?

Still going to work. The challenge came in where the school, the board decided to, because [00:34:00] when we first started the executive director and myself. Found both founding. Uh, we're at the same level, right? Same salary and everything. We're at the same level. Nobody was above anyone giving anyone any directives or anything like that.

We took our directors from the board. Right? And that's one of the benefits of working in charters that they can structure it any and pretty much any way they want as long as they follow the guidelines of the L. E. A.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Sure.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: And so after a certain after maybe year four after year four, The board decided to change the structure and make it like a lot of school structures always the board, the executive director, the school principal.

Right. And mind you, the executive director had no experience in education whatsoever. Zero had experience in nonprofit, no experience at all. When we were building the school, [00:35:00] she kept saying, I'm turning to you to me. I don't understand what this is. I don't understand what this is. Like help me understand and navigate it.

Right. Now she's at the point where she understands more and now she's here and I'm here.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: I need to interrupt you for a second. You would not be the first person who said that on this show

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Mm hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: specifically about just how you're saying opening a school executive direct everything you're saying. I've heard it so many times where folks feel like seeing too many accolades go towards the principal is they want to step whatever the situation again back to that ego.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Mm hmm.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Right? No place for ego in our school systems, but there it is. And then when they start making decisions or causing conflict where there should not be any. Yeah. [00:36:00] Continue?

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah, so I was okay with the shift because it's really just a role for me, right? For me, my values weren't being impacted. So I was cool with it. I'm like, okay, not a problem. I, I need to speak to the executive. I mean, we worked together well anyway, right? Until that point, because I remained the same, but she changed.

Yeah. Um, and mind you, I will say that I, I was the only boy, like the school board was all white and the executive director was white, right. But they needed, they needed me because I had experience with Baltimore city and new people in offices that I can call instead of having to wait. Right. Um, and so when that shift changed.

The executive director started behaving differently. So things that I would do, like I'm a master scheduler, right? [00:37:00] I would create the master schedule. Um, we would always sit down and talk about it and explain why teachers should be here, why this course should have this, you know, those kinds of things.

It's like we collaborated all the time. So I never worked in isolation, which was beautiful. Um, So we would go through the process. One year, we went through the process of me doing the like we always did with the master schedule and she would take it and excuse me, share it with the, uh, share it with the board.

And then we would present at the board together. Just explaining. You know, the rationale of the schedule. And then she shared it in a drive that, uh, that shared with the leadership team and it was completely different. The master schedule that I worked on completely different. We're talking about a person who has no idea of the curriculum.

Doesn't has never taught at all. Doesn't know which teachers should be teaching. What [00:38:00] only knows through licensure, but doesn't know which teachers would be most impactful in what they're doing. With what sections, right? No idea at all. Just shifted the whole master schedule. So I was like, okay, what's going on here?

Like, why is, why has the schedule changed? Is there something wrong with it? Like, we usually have a conversation about these things. So what's, what's going on? The, the explanation was very, it was Kirk. It wasn't, it wasn't the same person.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Mm.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Who I used to work with before, who would be like, well, you know, just the normal collaborative, collaborative conversations where you would push back and, you know, explain this.

So that it was kind of like, yeah, no, I just had to make the changes for the budget. Okay. So what about the budget? What's going on with the budget? Yeah. There's just some shifts that we had to make to save costs. And like, it was very [00:39:00] cryptic

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Yeah.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: and I was like, wait a minute. Okay. Spirit. Um, yeah, something's off here and it continued to be that way so much so that the leadership team that I hired started to see it and feel it and they started to come to me one to one, one, like individually, like Ms.

Thomas, because I was Ms. Thomas at the time, Ms. Thomas, uh, What's going on between you and X and me being professional? What do you mean? Everything like, you know, everything's, I'm keeping everything at bay because I feel it. But my staff, my leadership team are also feeling it too. Right now, it's starting to trickle down into not just my core leadership team, but other members of the staff are starting to feel it too.

Like my teacher's [00:40:00] aides. I started to feel it. And then you're hearing like little chatter going on, like something's going on. Now, mind you, me and person X have never like had disagreements in front of people. Nothing like it was just kind of like, I can feel that her energy shifted. And clearly because my staff was connected to me and in that way, they felt my energy shift too.

But anytime they asked me, like, what was going on, it was kind of like, oh, no, it's just a really stressful moment, a lot going on with the budget, you know, that kind of stuff. I kept it very, very flat. Um, and so it can, it continued to be where the person X kept. X ing everything, every decision I was making as a school leader.

And so now it was violating my value of freedom.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Yeah.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: And I was like, [00:41:00] I didn't realize that that is what it was like. It took me some time to realize that my value of freedom was being violated. It was manifesting as frustration, anger, um, you know, those negative emotions. That can cause

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: hmm.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: burnout, right? As an educator, it can.

Those are the things that make educators burnt out when you feel like you're not being heard, like the work that you're doing is, is, is not valued. You know, like, like your work doesn't matter. Those are the things that push Educators over the edge that plus a couple of things. Naturally, it's never just one thing, but that's I started to feel this feel negative about the work.

Like I wasn't enjoying coming into work anymore.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Yeah. One thing that I, that we talk about on the show, you know, is [00:42:00] like this part of the tensions in education, but then also like the racial battle fatigue, like this racial component that it's hard to determine if that's the case, if it's, have to kind of deal with that, and I'm not making any assumptions about that in this particular case, but when we talk about this, um, the value freedom was being violated. And then it feels like this burnout and this constant pushback, that thick layer of teaching administration is difficult. But when we have to, a general sense, decide if it's race related on top of that,

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: it very difficult, I feel like, to do the job. And I just, I, I always want to name racial battle fatigue, uh, in, in the show because of so many folks have never heard of it,

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: to make sure that the audience has heard of it before.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yes.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: this may not be your case, [00:43:00] but I think that sometimes it is for people racialized on top of the other political pieces

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah. Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: pieces that have to do with what we're experiencing in education.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah. Thanks for pointing that out because I did actually for me, I did know that there was a distinct difference. Like you mentioned with the staff that I was the black leader. There was a white executive director and a white school board.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Yeah. Yeah,

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah. And so, you know, to, to your point, whenever the executive director would bring in, um, funders.

I always felt like, I always felt like, you know, when she would walk folks around, all white, walking folks around the building, I always felt like, I feel like this is a plantation. Like she's walking these white rich folks around [00:44:00] asking for money to support the school and in all these classrooms of black, black girls.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: sure.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah, it's a black principal, like that, it did bother me, like I, and I did share that with her. Like that's how I felt. Not that I was expecting her to, to do anything differently because I did understand that we needed the money as a school, right? Like we were trying to raise money to keep the school up and running.

So I get that, but it doesn't erase the fact that I still felt that way.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Right.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: still made me feel like, I feel like we're on show. Like we're, we're on display. Like, oh, look at these poor black kids. Let's give them some money. I didn't like that feeling. I didn't like it. Um, but once I realized that my freedom, back to my freedom, was being violated, I made a plan to, to leave.

And so, um, [00:45:00] after five and a half, I left in December. After five and a half years again. I left. Um, I had to get, have surgery done and then the pandemic hit. So then I was, wasn't in a school building during 2020. And then I moved to Richmond, um, and decided, you know, let me try the district work and see if, if that's, if that's, Because originally, like, I had always told my mom, like, I really think me, the superintendency is something that I would like to, to work toward and then working at the district level when I moved to Richmond, I was like, yeah, no, superintendency is not for me

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Yeah. Yeah.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: the bureaucracy, the politics. I don't do well with politics. I'm a shoot from the hip and I just, I just don't do well with it. And I can't justify sitting back appeasing adults. Um, when [00:46:00] kids are, are, are the sacrificial lamb here, I can't, I can't do it. Can't do it. Um, and so I, then I decided, you know what?

I need to, because I had said that I wanted to, you know, start some coaching and, you know, I dabbled in it because I had been coaching on all these years. I have assistant principals that I, that I was still communicating with and coaching them through their assistant principalship to get to their principalship offline before I even opened and started my business.

Um, and so I decided, you know what, I am going to, the district is not for me. I'm going to do what I said I wanted to do. What that I'm, what I'm going to do, what I'm good at, which I, I know I've proven to myself and to the people that I've supported that the work can get done right. Um, and so open, officially open my business in 2022, um, driven LLC, which is supporting, uh, school [00:47:00] leaders.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: We're going to get to that in a second. I want to go for it to a break and then we're going to come back because I do want folks to hear all about your business and we have a few more questions to ask. But before you go on break, you have a fascinating story.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Thanks.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: there's so many people who are probably shaking their head in their car or listen to the, on the walking, um, they're listening to this episode that, yeah, it's such a unique story.

And to think about when you talk about Baltimore City being full of black folks, then here comes this layer of white folks trying to save the day, rescue all these things. it's just such a complex. situation to be in. Um, and this, yeah, it's so fascinating. But yeah, when we get back, we'll talk more. Uh, I'm loving this story. Thank you for sharing.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Good. Good.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: All right, folks, welcome back. So a couple of things I have to ask. [00:48:00] The first thing, you know, we, you've shared your story, preschool, middle school, administrator. In the classroom, teaching adults, you living on the East Coast, recording here from Denver, we have less than a thousand Black teachers in the state of Colorado. And so when I asked the question, like, what is it that schools and districts and unions can do keep Black educators, you know, folks here may have a different, you know, Um, set of ideas. I want to ask you having your career being mostly on the East coast, really fully on the East coast until you started your consulting, what do you feel like schools, districts, unions can do to retain black educators, especially when we're in this conversation of not so much retention, though it should be, we're talking about recruitment, but on the side of retention, what do you think?

What's, what's [00:49:00] your opinion?

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: That is a great question. Um, I think as a leader using a leadership lens.

Kindness and patience. Like, I think a lot of times we think about retention, you know, this, we, we use a, a formulaic solution for a non formula problem, right? Like the, the challenge of retention is not so much about, and I say it all the time, like, I know educators who are like, I do this work because I love the work and I'm talking about those.

I'm not, when I'm speaking, I'm not speaking absolutes. I'm not saying it's all of everyone. Right. But I know that there are school leaders who were like, you [00:50:00] know what? It's really not so much about the money as it is about the work environment, the culture, the kindness, the thoughtfulness, those things are, are so critical.

You know, we, We talk about data all the time and it pains me every single time I hear people talk about data in a way where, and I know this is what the district does because this is what the city is asking of them. It's what the state is asking of them, right? Okay, school A only needs two and a half kids to get to the growth mark.

School B needs ten and a half kids. Why are we doing that? Why are we talking about people, like, in that way? We're talking about kids. We're talking about teachers and what teachers need to feel like they are valued, you know, to, to, to feel like they, they [00:51:00] have the freedom and autonomy to be creative in their classroom.

We have curriculums that are written by people who have no idea about the communities in which they're being taught. So when you talk about retention, for me, it is kindness, it is patience. And if we want to add like a, you know, a formula in here. Right? It really is about allowing teachers the freedom to create instruction, like to create, bring, if you, if you keep giving, uh, giving teachers Giving us educators verbatim curriculum, how do you, like, how do you, how, how, that doesn't add up.

How do teachers really learn the standards if all they're doing is teaching curriculum?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: [00:52:00] Say that again. one more time.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: How do teachers ever really learn the standards if all they're doing is teaching curriculum? Curriculum is a guide. It is not the end all be all. Your standards are the guide. And so my goal in the work that I do is I work with school leaders to become courageous enough. And learn the standards themselves in a way where they are courageous enough to encourage their teachers to be creative.

Use the curriculum as a guide, but how could you add to that? What do you know about your students in the community that you could bring into this lesson? Where's the creativity? I think that that's a huge factor in retention.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: I love that so much. And this idea, I know people are, [00:53:00] I'm just, that's the curriculum is exactly right. You just, you will never learn it. There's always the training wheels.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Mm

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: When do you take the training wheels out? I remember teaching when I first started teaching in 2006. We had a, Houghton Mifflin had a whole series and grammar book, spelling book, the whole thing. And as a first year teacher, first couple of years, I held on so tightly,

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: hmm. That's right.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: felt more comfortable I just lifted up one training wheel. And so, so I kind of skated on that one. And then eventually I was able to use a curriculum that provided as needed, but the school gave me autonomy in this way.

All of us really in the school. Shout out to Sunrise Elementary School and Cherry Creek School District to flourish. And that's how I know, that's how I know I became a better teacher.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah,

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: I had that in my beginning stages of education and I now understand how rare that is. Especially I've had [00:54:00] folks come on and say I've had to have my lesson plan book checked over every single Friday and they would just make sure that I was following everything verbatim and there's no room for exploration.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: that's exactly it. Educators

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: that.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: stifled. They're stifled.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Hmm.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: So where's the love? That's not teaching. Where's the love of teaching? We need to bring that back.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Yeah, I love that.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: You need to bring that back.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Need to bring that back. Thank you. Um. I guess my next question is you've had the opportunity to work with so many black educators and I'm sure you were taught by black educators too. And you know, some right now, like you just mentioned, is there a black educator or multiple that you'd like to shout out on the show?

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Oh, wow. Um, so miss hall, my fourth grade teacher [00:55:00] at PS five, she was so loving and so kind and so sweet, um, but she didn't play around and she was your auntie, you know, that you didn't play around with, she would give you that. I loved him as hall. She was such a blessing. And it was, it was such a blessing to come full circle and work right down the hall from her.

It was. It was absolutely amazing to do that and just pop in and say, hi, Miss Hall. Um, like I was still in her class. Um, and I think I was, I was still learning from her, which is a beautiful thing. Um, my middle school teacher was Miss Logan. I went to, it's funny cause my mom, growing up in the hood, my mom was like, listen, I'm sending you to a middle school to make you into a young lady.

Cause you out here. Elementary school. Not that I was a fighter or anything like that. Now, I wasn't that, but she was just like, you know, I'm gonna send you to middle school, Catholic middle school at that whoo. Anyhoo, that's another whole story. And so predominantly white [00:56:00] teachers, nuns walking around like real nuns walking around teaching classes, stuff like that.

But, but Miss Logan with her jerry curls. Miss Logan was no joke, social studies teacher. I loved, and now that I'm thinking about it, she was a social studies teacher, the black lady in the building. Anywho, Miss Logan, I would give a shout out to her. Um, and in high school, I had a writing teacher who Encouraged me to write.

I think he was a person who actually I can't remember his name right now, but I could see his face clear as day. Um, he was very animated. He was the first person, the first teacher who wasn't so stoic. You know, he was very animated and it helped spark my curiosity. And I believe that he's the reason why I continue to keep journals like, you know, in different phases of my life.

Um, and so, [00:57:00] yeah, those would be the three people that I would shout out.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Awesome. Well,

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: to them and their work. Hopefully maybe they'll, you never know. They might hear this episode. So now you've hinted to this a couple of times. What are you doing now? What is it? What's your work? Let's let's hear about it. We want details.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: So I, I work with school leaders, specifically school leaders, and I'm very deliberate about this. I work with school leaders that have predominantly black and brown populations, Title One schools. Right? So what I do is I help school leaders feel more confident about their work because there's so many demands, especially in a turnaround school, because my elementary school, believe it or not, was considered a turnaround school was on a persistently dangerous list in elementary school.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Mm.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: and so I work with school leaders who have who are in [00:58:00] scenarios like that, and I help them hone in on three things. The first thing is I help them hone into their value system, because if you are just doing the work that the district is telling you to do, then you're just a robot, essentially, right?

But to hone in on your value system means that you are connecting the work that you do To something meaningful. So you're happy going to work like you love your job. It's not just a job. It's a part of who you are because you're living in your values, right? So that's the first thing is identifying your values and working those values through your leadership team.

I know the work that I have been doing with school leaders now is they don't maximize and leverage the power of their leadership team. And a lot of them don't even realize What the leadership team really is the instructional leadership team, right? But that's the first thing I do. The second thing I do is once they understand what their values are, then we start creating [00:59:00] processes, systems that are rooted in those values, right?

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Mm

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: So everything is about a process. For example, when I was at the elementary school, it used to be two separate schools, pre k to third, and then pre k to two, and then third, fourth, and fifth, and both schools had separate uniforms. I had to create a process. For making the school one and a simple thing like changing the uniform, but I didn't just go in and change it.

I asked the community. I had forums, you know, I had families come out and talked about colors, a uniform. Do you hear me? It took us months to agree on what two colors the uniform would be for both schools because they were both really loyal to their school colors, and they didn't want to feel like they were losing a part of who they were.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Yeah

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: were very long time, right? I had to make sure that's a process. You mean I think it is. A lot of school leaders don't think it is, but it is a [01:00:00] process, right? You need to think through those things. A process for how you're gonna, you know, navigate in the hallways. A process for how, you know, there's little processes that happen in a building.

So I help leaders think through that. And then the third part that I help them think through is, I think, the most challenging for a lot of leaders. It's the consistency. And the consistency is what builds accountability and trust. So when you, well, it's actually the other way around. When you, you're building a counter, it's, it's a cycle, actually, when you're building being consistent in your systems, being consistent in your actions, being consistent in your actions and that your staff start to see, okay, these are the values that this principle holds.

I see it in how he or she is behaving. I see it in how, She's making decisions about the school. I see it in how she dealt with that parent. I see it in how she's dealing with children and staff. When they see that consistency, they start to trust you. [01:01:00] When they start to trust you, you know, you're building this cycle of accountability and trust.

And so those are the three pillars or phases that are actually help school leaders navigate through, um, to help build their courage. Um, and, and, and reduce the burnout because they're overwhelmed.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Yeah.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: And so leveraging their leadership team, like I'm working with a client now who You know, um, she's, she really felt like she wanted to take the month of December off, December and January off just for her own mental capacity.

And, um, I'm currently working with her and her leadership team to show her how and what she needs to do to delegate the work. Part of the learning here is that a lot of times leaders feel like they are delegating work. But they're not being clear on what needs to be [01:02:00] delegated. So then they get frustrated when it's not getting done.

The other part of that is leaders need to let go, because if you're delegating work, that person may not do it the way you did it. It's okay. You got to know when to let go as a leader and not hold on to everything, because you can't control every single thing. And so I help leaders think through that process.

Um, so that they can, they can find a sense of freedom and bring the joy and love back in the work.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Yeah. That's beautiful. And tell us where, what's the name of your firm and where people can find you if they want to reach out and get support from you.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Oh, great. So, uh, my website is www. drivenllc. com and driven is spelled with a Y instead of an E. So it's D R I V Y N. Um, and I can be reached at contact at driven, D R I [01:03:00] V Y N L L C. com. Um, I'm also on LinkedIn as, uh, Dr. Demia Thomas, E D D. I'm on Instagram as driven underscore LLC. And I'm also on Facebook and I'm on YouTube as, uh, my middle name, which is Conchita.

Yeah.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Okay. All right. And we, and we have all this information in the show notes. So folks, if you miss that, if you're driving, you can't write it down. It's in the show notes. We're going to make sure that you all are set up for success. Last question for you. does it mean to be well?

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: To be well is for me, um, knowing when I need knowing my body and my mind, like knowing my spirit, just knowing everything about who I am and knowing when I need to take a [01:04:00] break, being self aware of. Okay. I'm feeling a little anxious right now. Why am I feeling anxious right now? Like running those questions through my mind instead of letting that anxious feeling take over.

Why am I feeling anxious? What is, what is happening in this moment? That's making me feel anxious. Okay. And even if I don't have an answer to that, Me taking deep breaths, me putting my mind in a, in a different space, a different head space, listening to my breathing, right? Being well, it's being aware of your body because We become unwell when we don't pay attention to it.

Right. And it's, it's a buildup of this inattention that explodes into the point where you're, you're just not, you're not doing well anymore. Like you're just like, I remember when I was the director of the preschool, I had [01:05:00] an anxiety attack and I thought I was having a heart attack.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Mm.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Um, and the doctor was like, yeah, we can put you on medication.

I said, Oh no, you will not

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Mm.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: watch this. And this was years ago. This was, you know, I was in my. 30s at the time. And, um, I learned how to identify the signs, the, the triggers in my body that make me feel like I'm going into a negative space and, and know how to counteract that. But you have to be aware of that, which means a lot of times you just got to slow down.

So I'm intentional about slowing down too.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Yeah. folks, this is the end of the show. As always, a fantastic interview. I'm so glad that Dr. Demia came on to bless us with your wisdom. Um, folks, make sure you reach out to her. And if you're thinking like, Oh, I'm not ready [01:06:00] yet. She's on LinkedIn. She lives on LinkedIn. Like I live on LinkedIn. So watch.

She has a live that she does. Make sure you watch the lives, make sure that you get to stay connected with her and her work, um, because you won't be sorry. Uh, thank you so much for coming on the show.

squadcaster-3jjc_1_12-18-2024_164232: Thank you so much, Dr. Asia. I appreciate your time and the work that you're doing. It really is an honor to be here. Thank you.

dr--asia-lyons--she-her-_1_12-18-2024_144230: Yeah, no problem. All right, folks. Thank you for tuning in. We'll talk to you next time. Peace.

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