The Authority Podcast — Expert Insights and Fresh Ideas for Education Leaders

Sahil Bloom is an inspirational writer and content creator who reaches millions of people every week through his bi-weekly newsletter, “The Curiosity Chronicle,” and related social media content. Sahil is a successful entrepreneur, owner of SRB Holdings, and the managing partner of SRB Ventures, an early-stage investment fund. His first book, The Five Types of Wealth: A Transformative Guide to Des...

In this bonus episode, originally recorded for Transformative Principal, Jethro Jones speaks with Eric Sheninger and Nicki Slaugh about their book Personalize: Meeting the Needs of All Learners . Hear about: The power of Quest Academy Retain teachers, retain students - how to keep kids there.  Free public school Teenagers weren’t engaged.  PD time every Friday Mastery Minutes Beginning of day, tra...

Adam Barney is an Energy Coach who has helped hundreds of emerging and executive leaders unlock their goals, build vitality, and strengthen accountability for long-term transformation.  With over two decades of experience in leadership positions at companies like Microsoft, Digitas, and Akamai Technologies, Adam brings a wealth of knowledge to his coaching practice. He believes optimism and autono...

In this episode, simulcast on The Authority and Sideline Sessions , I speak with Matt Doherty, a nationally recognized motivational speaker, executive coach, and former head coach of the University of North Carolina men’s basketball team.  As a starter on the 1982 National Championship team at UNC, with his teammate Michael Jordan, Matt began his leadership journey under the legendary Dean Smith....

In this episode, one of our Best of 2024, internationally known authority on educational leadership Michael Fullan joins the show.  Michael’s work has influenced countless education leaders at all levels. The former Dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and Professor Emeritus of the University of Toronto, he is co-leader of the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning global initiative, s...

My guests today are Dr. Kathy Perez and Dr. Margaret Coughlan.  Kathy is a professor emerita at Saint Mary’s College of California. She has extensive teaching experience as a general and special educator, literacy and ESL coach, administrator, and curriculum- and staff-development coordinator. Margaret is a classroom teacher, district leader, researcher, and adjunct faculty at Saint Mary’s College...

I still can't believe it's the year 2025. Can you? But since it is, we can enjoy revisiting some of our top episodes from 2024. Today, I'm sharing my conversation with Lacey Robinson. Lacey is president and CEO of UnboundEd. A former teacher, principal, and professional development specialist who has focused on literacy, equity, and school leadership for more than 25 years, her life’s work aims to...

Today I’m pleased to speak with Dr. Hayley Watson, a Clinical Psychologist who holds a PhD in school bullying interventions, along with four further degrees in the field of mental health. She has been creating and delivering programs for youth and practitioners across the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia for the past 20 years. Hayley is the founder and CEO of Open Parachute, a Tier 1 K-12 curricu...

Damon Lembi is a two-time bestselling author, the host of The Learn-It-All Podcast, and CEO of Learnit – a live learning platform that has upskilled over 2 million people. He also was a Division-I college baseball player who was drafted to play professionally and draws from this experience to bring an athlete’s perspective to leadership. Through his journey, he has gained invaluable insights into...

Ryan Steuer is an author, podcaster, and thought leader who specializes in project-based learning. He’s a curious visionary who is a former engineer at a Fortune 50 company and former 8th grade English teacher who now leads Magnify Learning - a PBL professional development company that customizes every PBL training. In this episode, we talk about his book PBL Simplified: 6 Steps to Move Project Ba...

Thank you all for your support and listenership of The Authority this year. I'm pleased this week to share one of our top episodes of 2024, with guest Micah Miner. Micah is the District Instructional Technology & Social Studies Coordinator at Maywood-Melrose Park-Broadview School District 89 in Illinois. He was an Excellence in Equity Award winner from the American Consortium for Equity in Edu...

Dr. Alan Nelson is a leadership development specialist, trainer, speaker, and Lecturer of Management at the Naval Postgraduate School. Alan founded KidLead Academy , the world’s first online course to train parents how to develop their child’s leadership potential. He also founded LeadYoung Training Systems , designing organizational leadership curricula for 3-23-year-olds.  He is the author of 40...

Ricky Robertson is an educator, author, and consultant who works with schools, school districts, education service districts, and state departments of education across the country to develop systems of support that foster achievement, well-being, and resilience among staff and students. Much of his recent work focuses on creating workplace conditions that allow educators to thrive, including his n...

Welcome back as we continue our special series on literacy, presented in partnership between the Be Podcast Network and Reading Is Fundamental. To hear more from this series, you can revisit our September episodes from National Literacy Month.  Today’s guests, Kourtney Hake and Paige Timmerman, are a pair of English teachers. Kourtney has been teaching English at various levels since 2014 and curr...

This week I'm happy to bring you a Best Of episode, the conversation I had with Dee Ann Turner late last year. Dee Ann was a 33-year veteran of Chick-fil-A, Inc. Prior to retirement, she was Vice President, Talent and Vice President, Sustainability for the company.  Selected as the company’s first female officer in 2001, she was instrumental in building and growing Chick-fil-A’s well-known culture...

Dr. Chad Dumas is a Solution Tree PLC at Work®, Assessment, and Priority Schools associate and international consultant, presenter, and award-winning researcher whose primary focus is collaborating to develop capacity for continuous improvement.  With a quarter century of successful leadership experience, Chad has led significant improvements for both students and staff.  His latest book is Let’s...

As we get to mid-November, this week’s episode addresses a timely topic: getting real about the social and emotional demands felt by educators.  My guest is Danna Thomas, a former Baltimore City Public School teacher. Danna is the founder of Happy Teacher Revolution: a global initiative to support the mental health and wellness of educators. The organization has supported thousands of teachers acr...

Welcome back as we continue our special series on literacy, presented in partnership between the Be Podcast Network and Reading Is Fundamental. To hear more from this series, you can revisit our September episodes from National Literacy Month.  Today’s guest, Dr. Norene Bunt, is an author and former teacher, principal, curriculum coordinator, school improvement strategist, and superintendent. She...

Kyle Wagner is the founder and Learning Experience Designer for Transform Educational Consulting Limited, an organization that empowers forward thinking schools and educators to create globally, socially and emotionally aware citizens through project-based experiences and 12 shifts for student-centered environments. In this episode, we chat about Kyle’s book, Where Is the Teacher? The 12 Shifts fo...

Rhonda J. Roos, PhD is an educational consultant coaching principals, district leaders, and administrative teams in the complex and ever-challenging work of leading schools.  She is a former assistant superintendent in New Albany, Indiana where she led curricular improvement, aligning those efforts with the district’s progress in becoming a professional learning community. Rhonda joins the show to...

Aaron Hansen is a professional learning communities (PLC), response to intervention (RTI) and student empowerment expert and a highly sought-after international speaker, strategic consultant, coach and author.  He has been featured on CNN, ABC, FOX News, and the BBC, as an innovator and thought leader in U.S. education. As a principal of a turnaround middle school, Aaron has lived the work to awar...

It’s a pleasure to welcome returning guest Mark Miller back to The Authority.  Mark is a Wall Street Journal and international best-selling author, communicator, and the former Vice President of High Performance Leadership at Chick-fil-A. Today, Mark serves as the Co-Founder of Lead Every Day, an extension of his life-inspired mission to encourage and equip leaders with the tools they need to be s...

Welcome to our National Literacy Month series of podcasts, presented in partnership between the Be Podcast Network and Reading Is Fundamental. The month of September may be done, but we’re continuing the series with more conversations this fall.  Today, Karen Gazith joins the show. Karen received her PhD in Education and Counselling Psychology from McGill University and has taught at McGill for ov...

Welcome to our National Literacy Month series of podcasts, presented in partnership between the Be Podcast Network and Reading Is Fundamental.  Today’s guests, Margarita Espino Calderón and Lisa Tartaglia, are co-authors of Cultivating Competence in English Learners: Integrating Social-Emotional Learning With Language and Literacy . Dr. Calderón, born and raised in Juárez, is a Professor Emerita/S...

Joel Backon is the editor-in-chief of Educate AI Magazine , a new platform dedicated to supporting those who seek to enhance learning through artificial intelligence. The Be Podcast Network is collaborating with Educate AI to share podcasts and other content advancing educators’ understanding of AI tools and trends.  I’m proud to be a contributing editor and columnist for Educate AI. You can read...