Educator Forever

Rob Heller is a successful entrepreneur, youth development innovator, and founder of the Boost Program, a comprehensive personal development curriculum designed to equip teens and young adults with the essential life, social, and mental health skills that traditional education overlooks. Drawing from a century of personal development wisdom—distilling the teachings of Dale Carnegie, Napoleon Hill,...

Julianna Burmesch is a former principal, speech pathologist, brain development trainer, and parent educator. She is also the author of Life with Less of Me, a memoir about the connection between trauma and long-term physical and mental health. Julianna and I discuss her education journey and her studies in communication disorders. We also go through her book, talking about the long terms effects o...

Kurtis Hewson is an author and the co-founder of Jigsaw Learning, a consultancy that teaches educators its Collaborative Response frameworks. With over a decade of experience as an administrator, Kurtis has championed the call for collaborative structures in schools to ensure success for all students. In this episode, Kurtis and I discuss the creation of the Collaborative Response frameworks and h...

Dr. Abby Emerson is a former fifth-grade teacher and now an assistant professor of childhood education at Hunter College at the City University of New York. She is the author of the book, From Anti-Racism to Abolition: Professional Learning for Liberating Schools, which is a book coming out this fall for educators who are curious about how to better use professional development to work towards rac...

Matt Wilkins is a former middle school teacher, scientist, and founder of Galactic Polymath Education Studio. He has spent the last 10 years trying to translate cutting-edge research into engaging videos, and fun, standards-aligned lessons that a non-specialist can teach. In our discussion, Wilkins notes his work focuses on translating cutting-edge research into accessible lessons for K-12 classro...

Dr. Niki Elliott is a clinical professor and director of the Center for Embodied Equity and Neurodiversity at the University of San Diego. A leading voice in neurodiversity and trauma-informed education, she has trained thousands of teachers, school counselors, and helping professionals worldwide to better support children with learning differences, mental health diagnoses, trauma histories, and b...

Josh Davidson is the creator and co-founder of Night Zookeeper, an award-winning online learning program that helps children fall in love with reading, writing, and creativity through games and storytelling. Josh is passionate about giving kids the confidence to see themselves as writers and creators, and he speaks regularly about the power of play, stories, and co-created worlds in education. Jos...

I have spent decades — decades — studying how people learn. I've read the research, I've built the frameworks, I'm literally getting a graduate degree in learning design from Johns Hopkins right now. And I still catch myself thinking: I need to know more before I'm ready to start. Ironic, right? Someone who studies learning... afraid to learn out loud. But here's what's wild: that fear? That "not...

If you've been thinking about starting an education business, it can feel really overwhelming knowing how to start, and most people really only see businesses when they're polished and successful. And it can feel intimidating, because we see these really well put together businesses that feel streamlined, and we don't see the messiness that goes into creating them. And so today I want to normalize...

Monika Robinson is an Educator Wellbeing Coach with 17 years of experience across school systems. Her career includes roles as an elementary teacher, instructional coach, nonprofit director, and consultant giving her a deep understanding of the challenges educators face and what it takes to thrive in demanding environments. In our conversation, Monika and I talk about educator wellness and how she...

Will Staton began his career as a high school history teacher, and has worked as a teacher, Dean and administrator in Memphis, New York City and Washington, DC. Most recently, Will worked as an independent nonprofit consultant. Now he is now running for Congress as an independent in central New York, where he lives in Syracuse with his wife and two daughters. In our talk, Will and I discuss his jo...

Brett "Mr. Eco" Edwards is the founder and Chief Eco Officer of the Eco Hero show. He created Mr. Eco in college and has brought the brand to life since 2014. He is an environmentalist, an educator, an entrepreneur, a Grammy-voting member, a YouTuber and a philanthropist. Brett and I talk about how he created the Eco Hero show and his climate change activism. He talks about the shows’s growing suc...

Brittanie Bates is a curriculum developer, educator, principal and parent, who's redefining what's possible in global online education. As founding academic head and principal of the global online school, Crimson Global Academy's U.S. diploma pathway, she has built an online learning model that proves digital education is a powerful catalyst for breaking down barriers and unleashing student potent...

Rob Scheer is the founder and CEO of Comfort Cases, an international nonprofit dedicated to bringing dignity and hope to youth in foster care. His and the organization’s mission is clear: to eliminate the heartbreaking and dehumanizing practice of children being handed a trash bag to carry their belongings when entering the foster care system. Since founding Comfort Cases in 2013, Rob and his team...

Hillary Summerbell is the founder and CEO of Summerbell, a literacy technology company redefining how visual dyslexics engage with text. A fourth-generation Washingtonian and lifelong creative, Hillary brings a designer’s eye and an inventor’s persistence to the world of EdTech. After a career in interior design and entrepreneurship, Hillary built on the academic research of positional arc reading...

Pia Dandiya is a first-generation American educator running for Congress in the district where she was born and raised to fight for kids and expand opportunity for every Floridian. She began her career as a teacher in low-income schools and went on to become one of the youngest high school principals in the country, founding a school where every graduate earned college admission despite most stude...

Today I’m doing a solo episode! I haven't done a solo podcast episode in a while, but I thought I'd come in and talk to you all about what I'm seeing in the world of curriculum development. I've been working in this field for almost 20 years, which is wild. But I've really seen some shifts and some things that have stayed the same. And so as you think about maybe considering curriculum development...

Mickey Fitch-Collins is a leadership development facilitator, coach and podcast host who turns research into real world impact. With a doctorate in leadership in higher education and a background spanning academia, Ed Tech and corporate learning, she helps organizations unlock the potential of their people, especially their middle managers. In this episode, Mickey told me about how she went from p...

Leah Ruesink is an early literacy coach and adjunct professor based in Michigan. She supports K–3 teachers in implementing research-aligned reading instruction and provides science-backed literacy guidance to educators, coaches, and families. Through her work in schools, writing, and online, Leah helps bridge the gap between literacy research and everyday classroom practice. In this episode, Leah...

Dr Erin Sponaugle has been teaching for 23 years. She’s a national board certified teacher and a former West Virginia Teacher of the Year. She’s also the author of two children's books and recently published Teachaholic, a book about overcoming teacher burnout based on her own experience. Erin is also the host of the Next Chapter for Teachers podcast. In this episode, we talk to Erin about her edu...

Kendell Hunter is a former special education teacher and reading specialist with a master’s degree in education and more than a decade of experience across K–12 schools and edtech. She is the Director of Marketing at Otus, where she has spent nearly seven years helping districts turn assessment and student data into meaningful, actionable insights. Kendell and I discuss how and she moved from teac...

Dr. Coral P.S. Hoh is a clinical linguist and the founder of Dysolve AI, a technology platform designed to support students with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences. With a PhD in linguistics, her work focuses on applying research and artificial intelligence to improve how dyslexia is identified and supported at scale. In this episode, Coral and I discuss how she began studying...

Emily Read Daniels is a former school counselor, a proud soccer mom, and the author and creator of The Regulated Classroom©. Through her work as a trauma specialist, she’s become internationally recognized in her field and as a trainer in the trauma-informed schools movement. Emily and I spend the episode talking about the the overemphasis on data in education. We discuss the need for schools to f...

Lisa Riegel is the creator of the NeuroWell Framework and the 8C Commitment Framework, which are brain-based approaches to engagement and change. She holds a PhD from Ohio State in policy and leadership and is a former educator and school reform specialist turned leadership strategist. She is known for turning neuroscience into practical tools that help people gain happiness, health, and more succ...

A lifelong educator with extensive experience in challenging students inside and outside the classroom, Nicholas Bradford started his restorative justice education in 2009 working in therapeutic settings. Having worked with hundreds of schools and districts, he has built a robust program that delivers a comprehensive Restorative Justice framework Nicholas and I talk about how he began teaching res...