Victoria Brinson, director of curriculum for Edenton-Chowan School District in North Carolina, says she's inspired everyday by her students to have a future-forward focus and to bridge the gap between day-to-day classroom realities and high-level strategic planning.

"Even though we live in a small rural community, that should not take away any opportunities that our students have in this community to experience the rest of the world," Brinson said.

She aims to build connections between Edenton-Chowan's nearly 1,800 students and the larger world through global education frameworks that link academic outcomes with career readiness skills. She helped launch the Student Global Ambassadors program at John A. Holmes High School that encourages student leaders to connect with local businesses and community organizations regarding broader global challenges, such as sustainable development and food insecurity. 

That initiative led to a student-organized scavenger hunt in the downtown area that mapped how sustainable development goals relate to local realities. That event sparked student-led blood drives and food drives. Brinson also serves as interim principal at Holmes High School.

Brinson, who previously worked as a social studies teacher and instructional coach, also hones in on the supports teachers need to be successful. She implemented school-based strategy coaching for new teachers and aligned district meetings with milestone events in the school year. 

For instance, she pairs mentors with beginning teachers to make parent phone calls together during the first month of the school year. This initiative helped address educator confidence, family-school connections and community trust. 

Many of Brinson's proactive efforts are behind the scenes. She brings principals and assistant principals together monthly to analyze academic, discipline, and attendance data using a structured problem-solving protocol.

In her role as chief of staff for the 32,000-student Spring Independent School District, LaTracy Harris helps lead one of her region’s largest districts and is credited with driving cultural transformation amid a district turnaround effort. Her contributions to the district’s culture and climate have been credited with measurable increases in staff morale, collaboration and engagement. Her ability to build trust while navigating difficult work is one of her defining leadership strengths.

When Superintendent Kregg Cuellar tasked Harris with helping to lead cultural transformation and to ensure culture remained central to Spring ISD’s turnaround strategy, Harris told K-12 Dive, “I viewed that responsibility as much more than implementing a series of culture initiatives. It meant helping create the conditions for a different way of working across the organization.”

“Culture cannot live in one department or belong to one team,” Harris said. “It has to be reflected in how departments communicate with one another, how campuses interact with families, how leaders respond to employees, and how the district responds when something is not working.”

Part of that work, she said, includes reviewing survey data, monitoring feedback, examining campus interactions, and identifying areas where practices don’t match expectations. And that focus on culture, accountability and opportunity have ultimately contributed to the district’s 11-point increase in its overall accountability rating, three comprehensive high schools moving from F to C ratings, and 30 of its 40 campuses showing notable improvement, she said.

A 7th grade science teaching position at Indianapolis Public Schools' H.L. Harshman Middle School turned into over a decade of experience in education for Jack Hesser, who — over the course of that time — has risen to assistant principal and led the school through a cultural transformation. 

Recently, Hesser has honed in on amplifying student voice and ownership as part of that transformation, including empowering a student council and helping students see themselves as part of the community rather than separate from it. 

As a result, the 500-student school's student-driven food pantry campaign has more than doubled the number of families it helps monthly, from about 15 to over 30.

During 2025-26, the middle school was among 32 schools across 18 states to receive a Kind School Designation award from Teach Kindness. The organization recognizes schools where "students and staff create a shared definition of kindness," students receive at least two "kindness lessons" and students implement  a schoolwide kindness project or ongoing practice.

As an assistant principal at Florida Virtual School, Kaleigh McCoy has leveraged her prior experience as a teacher and school counselor to strengthen supports for both students and staff — particularly as she has led the school’s efforts to expand its advanced coursework and student opportunities for credentials and career and technical education.

Those supports have been driven by a desire to increase visibility for the school, which served over 250,000 K-12 students in the 2024-25 school year, and improve students’ connections to opportunities. They include a focus on curriculum alignment, strategic staffing, professional learning communities and intentional cultural shifts.

“One of the biggest challenges in a virtual school is visibility,” McCoy told K-12 Dive. “In a traditional school setting, students might walk past a career lab, see a classroom project, or hear about opportunities from peers. In the virtual environment, those connections don't happen naturally, so we have to be very intentional about communication, outreach and building relationships. It's important that students understand not only what opportunities are available, but also how those opportunities can help them reach their goals.”

Thoese efforts have paid off, with the number of students who successfully complete advanced courses, earn college credit or gain industry certifications on the rise. In the school’s Cambridge Advanced International Certificate of Education program, for instance, 90% of course areas surpass international average pass rates. And in CTE, the school hit 3,113 course enrollments and 946 industry certifications earned 2025-26.

“We worked hard to increase CTE awareness, expand opportunities, and build strong support systems for both our students and teachers — ensuring our team felt both equipped and empowered to keep students engaged from enrollment through certification,” said McCoy.

Juliana Rashwan credits much of her success in strengthening her school’s culture and climate to partnerships throughout Meadow Elementary’s school community. “I believe that meaningful change happens when we work together — administrators, teachers, families, the PTA, and community partners — to expand what is possible for our students,” Rashwan told K-12 Dive.

From collaborating with Principal Yolanda Martin on determining what experiences and opportunities remain to be provided for the school’s roughly 600 students or working with the PTA on initiatives like academic challenges and special events, she aims to enrich learning for all students.

One recent accomplishment: deepening Meadow Elementary’s social studies curriculum by helping students connect directly with students at Kajiado Children's Home in Kenya. Meadow Elementary School's students learned about Kenyan culture, exchanged letters and participated in a virtual meeting that brought the young learners together. These interactions ultimately resulted in the Meadow Student Council, students, staff and PTA working together to raise over $14,000 to buy 14 brand-new bicycles for the Kenyan students, which many will use to get to school, said Superintendent Anthony Mignella. 

Working in a building with a sizable special education population, she said, also keeps her inspired “to think even more intentionally about access and inclusion.”

“This has motivated me to continually seek out new partnerships and resources so that we can remove barriers and ensure that every child feels seen, supported, included, and empowered to succeed,” Rashwan said. “When we work collaboratively, we can create a school culture where every child has access to opportunities to grow, be challenged, discover their strengths, and feel that they truly belong.”

Shakera Ross’ leadership has had an “immediate and transformative” impact on the school community at the 100-student Kansas City Girls Preparatory Academy, says Principal Caroline Dornan. “She consistently steps forward to meet challenges with clarity, initiative, and an unwavering commitment to student success.”

Among Ross’ accomplishments are designing and implementing a schoolwide multi-tiered system of supports from the ground up, creating a unified and data-driven system to guarantee students have timely, targeted academic and behavioral support. “She didn’t simply manage a process,” Dornan said. “She built the infrastructure, trained staff, and established sustainable systems that will outlast her and continue to strengthen outcomes for our students.”

Of that work, Ross said, “Something I have learned is that the success and impact of MTSS in a school is driven by adult behaviors. The opportunity I have had to engage with teachers and staff, who are entirely invested in early prevention and quality intervention support is what I am most proud of.”

Ross has also kept one foot in the classroom as an administrator, serving as a teacher coach to help build capacity for Tier 1 instruction, improving classroom culture, and responding more effectively to student needs. 

“I believe that if I expect teachers to put themselves in their students' shoes, I have a responsibility to lead by example by continuing to prioritize time in the classroom and stepping in when support is needed,” Ross said. 

Ross advises other rising administrators not just to keep one foot in the classroom, but to be sure they know their boundaries as well. “Boundaries don’t mean you care less or are not working hard,” she said. “In order to take care of others, you must take care of yourself first.” 

“Leadership is not about creating a legacy that is attached to one person. It is about creating a leadership legacy that continues long after that person is gone.”

That tenet is at the core of Tracie Swilley’s approach to building leadership pipelines in South Carolina’s nearly 2,300-student Fairfield County School District. If an initiative, practice or system depends solely on her, she said, then she hasn’t built capacity — she’s only made herself indispensable. 

“My goal is to develop others who can carry the work forward, improve it, and eventually make it their own,” Swilley said.

Inspired by mentors who invested in, challenged, opened doors, and helped her see possibilities for herself that she didn’t always see, she now pours that same energy into helping others advance in their own careers. “I still have mentors today, and because someone poured into me, I feel a responsibility to pour into others,” said Swilley, who was also the 2025 National Principal of the Year.

“The true measure of our leadership is not how much we accomplish while we are in the room,” she said. “It is what continues to happen when we are no longer in the room. Our greatest leadership legacy should be the leaders we develop who make the work better than we found it.”

Swilley previously led an impressive school turnaround as former principal of Fairfield Central High School. Under her watch from 2013 to 2025, the school saw math proficiency for Black students jump from 46% to 74%, reading proficiency rise from 60% to 76%, and graduation rates hit a record 90.1%.

As assistant principal of Mountain Vista Community School in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Aaron Vandewarker led a turnaround effort of the K-8 school's special education department. Through intentional systems-building, clear expectations and a focus on instructional coherence, he has ensured that students with disabilities were making significant growth in their individualized goals.

"I'm definitely passionate about special education," said Vandewarker, who spent 10 years of his 22-year career as a special education teacher.

Vandewarker has led the expansion of a comprehensive student support system. Those supports include the development of an applied behavior analysis clinic, the creation of a student success center focused on social-emotional well-being, and enhanced collaboration among administrators, teachers and support staff to support students' needs.

Additionally, he played a key role in rapidly scaling the 580-student school's career and technical education program from one pathway to 11 in just one year. Vandewarker was also instrumental in securing a three-year early literacy grant that assisted with curriculum enhancements, goal setting for reading progress and the hiring of reading interventionists.

Principal Nicole Paxton says she values Vandewarker's input in school decisions. "He is a trusted, honest voice who is not afraid to challenge thinking while always keeping the best interests of students and staff at the center," Paxton said. "He is, quite simply, the kindest person in our building, and that kindness translates into trust, stability, and growth for our entire community."

Before Francesca Ver Ploegh's work as assistant superintendent of magnet schools for Albuquerque Public Schools, New Mexico's largest school district operated 15 magnet school programs. Under her leadership, that number has nearly doubled to 27 — serving over 9,000 students, or a 10% increase since 2023.

Among the new programs is an International High School, which includes students from 27 countries who speak various languages. The school touts English language development, hands-on learning, positive community culture, community-based learning, and college and career guidance as core parts of its model. 

"People at my school speak tons of different languages, and I feel like that's so special because nobody wants to dim the light of their culture,"said Ira, a 10th grader at APS International High School, in a statement on the district's website.

Ver Ploegh said the new magnet school was "designed to respond to the changing needs of our Albuquerque community." 

"Leadership recognized it was an opportunity to create a specialized learning environment for students who were new to Albuquerque and often navigating new schools, cultures, languages, and educational systems," she said. "By bringing together innovative programming, multilingual supports, and a globally focused curriculum, we expanded access to a high-quality magnet option that celebrated students’ diverse backgrounds while preparing them to thrive in their new community.”

At the district's Engineering the Future Program at Valley High School, a STEM magnet pathway, Ver Ploegh contributed to a 20% increase in female student enrollment in advanced engineering courses over the last three years. This growth followed after Ver Ploegh intentionally doubled down on recruitment and support structures to make high-level STEM careers more accessible to historically underrepresented populations. She's also expanded transportation services to improve equitable access to the district's magnet schools.

Overall, the district under Ver Ploegh's leadership has experienced a 15% increase in CTE pathway participation, received $20 million through federal Magnet School Assistance Program grants, and has been able to coach and retain 17 magnet school principals.

Paige Zumberge’s leadership on curriculum in the 168,000-student Houston ISD comes down to a simple belief: “Teachers should be able to focus their time and energy on instruction, not on searching for, creating or piecing together instructional materials,” she told K-12 Dive.

“If we expect excellent instruction in every classroom, we have a responsibility at the system level to provide teachers with strong, coherent instructional materials that are aligned to the standards, appropriately rigorous and ready to use,” said Zumberge. “That allows teachers to spend their time doing what only they can do — understanding their students, anticipating misconceptions, responding to student thinking, and delivering great instruction.”

Since 2023, Houston ISD has been under the conservatorship of the state of Texas. That takeover status has necessitated systemic change, which Zumberge said requires thinking about curriculum implementation alongside the entire instructional system — including the master schedule, interventions, staffing, professional development and student supports. The district recently reported several years of steady improvement.

“When those systems are intentionally designed around what students need, curriculum becomes more than what happens during a single class period — it becomes part of a coordinated approach to ensuring students get the right instruction and support throughout their day,” said Zumberge.

The “stronger and more usable” a district can make its curriculum, and the more intentionally systems are aligned around it, she said, “the more capacity we give teachers to focus on the actual craft of teaching, and the more effectively we can respond to the needs of every student.”