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

Rob Feirsen and Seth Weitzman combine more than five decades of experience in principal, assistant superintendent for curriculum, and superintendent offices. Their book, From Conflict to Collaboration: A School Leader's Guide to Unleashing Conflict's Problem-Solving Power , draws on knowledge from the fields of education, engineering, psychology and business to offer an on-the-job guide for presen...

Today we're introducing you to the Speaking and Communicating Podcast, the newest member of the Be Podcast Network! The podcast is a platform for sharing expertise on how to improve communication skills, both personally and professionally. Soft skills in the workplace are crucial for job promotions, C-suite and entrepreneurship. Developing and mastering them also improves the quality of your perso...

Today’s guest, Leslie Josel, is an award-winning ADHD-academic and parenting coach. She founded Order Out of Chaos®, a virtual company whose mission is to help parents guide their students to success in learning and in life, and has been listed by Global Gurus for the past 7 years as one of the top 20 Time Management experts globally.  Leslie’s book, How to Do it Now Because it’s Not Going Away: A...

Michelle Sera is a Certified Freedom Formula Facilitator and Certified Happiness Coach. She’s the founder of ElevatedMind, a company focused on helping people manifest their greatest self and highest potential. Her book, The 7-Minute Shift , helps readers get out of their own way and manifest their greatest selves. Ross and Michelle discuss: What does a happiness shift have to do with professional...

Dawn M. Barclay is an award-winning author who has spent a career working in different aspects of the travel industry. Her book, Traveling Different: Vacation Strategies for Parents of the Anxious, the Inflexible, and the Neurodiverse , helps parents — including those whose children have Autism Spectrum Disorder and/or mood or distraction disorders — soothe their child’s travel anxieties.    Dawn...

We’ve got a great guest for the week of Independence Day! David Fleming is a senior writer at ESPN who has been one of the industry’s most prolific, versatile, and imaginative longform writers over the last three decades at Sports Illustrated, ESPN The Magazine, and ESPN. He has reported on everything from the Super Bowl and Steph Curry to the Musical Chairs World Championship and the NFL’s obsess...

DC Glenn is an American musician, film actor, and voice-over artist. He is known as one half of the 90’s rap group Tag Team, who created the multi-platinum classic stadium anthem “Whoomp! There It Is." Tag Team was also part of the award-winning GEICO commercial, Scoop There It Is! In this special episode of The Authority, DC and Ross discuss: DC’s career in music and beyond How Tag Team came toge...

Jennifer L.W. Fink is an award-winning freelance journalist whose work has been published by the New York Times, Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report, FOX News, Parents, Parade, and more.  She is a mom of four boys, the creator of BuildingBoys.net, cohost of the podcast On Boys, and author of the new book Building Boys: Raising Great Guys in a World that Misunderstands Males .  In this conv...

Richard Gerver is a sought-after speaker, bestselling author, and world-renowned thinker on human leadership and human transformation.  His career began in education, first as a teacher and then as a school principal, when he turned the fortunes of a failing school and its pupils around in just two years. Since the success of his first book, focusing on his experience in frontline education, Richa...

Carol Ann Tomlinson is one of the most admired, accomplished, and influential authors and leaders in education. Today, we’re honored to have her on The Authority! Carol is the William Clay Parrish, Jr. Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia’s School of Education and Human Development; author or co-author of over 300 books, book chapters, articles, and other educational materials for K-12...

In today's bonus episode, we're sharing a panel discussion I hosted for #SameHere Schools Month, focused on mental health awareness in education. All sessions from #SameHere Schools, originally recorded as Twitter Spaces, are being published by the Be Podcast Network. For more content like this, listen and subscribe here .  This session looks at the multiple definitions of community and its import...

Carlo Mahfouz is a Renaissance man. An intrapreneur and product development executive in the healthcare ed-tech space with a deep understanding of technology, he works developing products to help improve patients’ outcomes and driving change in organizations, teams, and individuals.   In this episode, we discuss Carlo’s book, Reality Check: In Pursuit of the Right Questions .    The conversation i...

Today, we're pleased to share an episode originally recorded for Big Ideas in Small Windows with host Mike Gaskell. In Mike's interview with best-selling education author Todd Whitaker (1.5 million books sold and counting), you'll hear about topics ranging from imposter syndrome to "shifting the monkey" back where it belongs (toward difficult people). Whitaker is author of dozens of books, includi...

Dr. Jennifer Forristal, founder and CEO of The Umbrella Project, joins The Authority to discuss her book, The Umbrella Effect , available from Lioncrest Publishing.    Ross and Jennifer discuss: In life, there’s a 100% chance of rain. How can kids proactively develop the skills to handle it? Learning to use our own umbrella: Working toward being able to share ours and asking others to share theirs...

Justin Baeder is Director of The Principal Center, where he helps leaders in K-12 organizations build capacity for instructional leadership, and Heather Bell-Williams is an experienced teacher, school administrator and consultant, with over 30 years of expertise to bring to her role as Coach and Consultant.    Baeder and Bell-Williams are co-authors of Mapping Professional Practice: How to Develop...

Michelle Blanchet and Brian Deters are our guests on this episode, discussing their timely book Preventing Polarization: 50 Strategies for Teaching Kids About Empathy, Responsibility, and Political Responsibility .    Ross, Michelle and Brian discuss:   ●      “Social-emotional learning meets civic engagement” and how to teach it when even SEL is viewed as polarizing  ●      The meaning of empathy...

Today, we're bringing you an episode with The Authority host Ross Romano on the other side of the microphone. He was recently interviewed on Higher Ed Storytelling University, right here on the Be Podcast Network.  Hosted by video producer and storytelling coach John Azoni, Higher Ed Storytelling University provides quick-win practical advice schools can put to use in your marketing right away. Th...

Scott McLeod, Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Colorado - Denver, is the guest on this episode of The Authority. His book, co-authored with Jayson W. Richardson and Justin Bathon, is Leadership for Deeper Learning . It’s published by Routledge Eye on Education.   In the interview, Scott and Ross discuss:   ●      The definition of “deeper learning.” ●      How Scott and his...

In this episode, we're bringing you a conversation from SEEing to Lead, hosted by Dr. Chris Jones, right here on the Be Podcast Network.     As a Digital Learning Coach in Walpole, Massachusetts, Jed Stefanowicz provides job-embedded professional development and instructional coaching for academic technology. Through conferences, workshops, and coaching, Jed aims to engage and build staff/student...

Andrea DeWitt joins The Authority to discuss her new book, Name, Claim & Reframe: Your Path to a Well-Lived Life , which was named the Top Motivational Book of 2023 by NBC’s Today Show. Ross and Andrea discuss: “This book is filled with inspiration and wisdom about how to take control of your life.” – Emily Giffin The importance of discovering your core values What happens when we’re triggered...

In this episode, we're sharing an interview from The Cybertraps Podcast, available here on the Be Podcast Network.  You'll hear from Gregg Behr, co-author of When You Wonder, You're Learning: Mister Rogers' Enduring Lessons for Raising Creative, Curious, Caring Kids .  Some notes and resources from the episode: whenyouwonder.org Origin story - Gregg and philanthropy Grable Foundation Translating l...

AJ Crabill joins The Authority for a timely episode focused on school boards and district leadership. His book is Great on Their Behalf: Why School Boards Fail, How Yours Can Become Effective .   Ross and AJ discuss:   ●      The purpose of the public education system ●      The non-negotiables of school boards ●      “Student outcomes don’t change until adult behaviors change” ●      The 3 ways b...

Daniel Bauer is the Chief Ruckus Maker at Better Leaders Better Schools (BLBS). On this episode, we talk about his book, Mastermind: Unlocking Talent Within Every School Leader , co-published by Corwin and the National School Superintendents Association (AASA).   Danny and Ross discuss:   ●      Danny’s mission “to connect, grow, and mentor every school leader who wants to level up.” ●      What i...

In this episode, we’re bringing you a conversation from Tell Me This, part of the Be Podcast Network.  In this combined episode, which was originally published in two parts on the Tell Me This feed, hosts Carey Borkoski and Brianne Roos, along with guest Kate McMahon, discuss Susan Cain’s latest book, Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole. Listeners may also be familiar with Cain’s pre...

Elizabeth Jorgensen returns as a guest for this episode along with her mom and co-author Nancy to discuss the middle-grade and young adult biography, Gwen Jorgensen: USA’s First Olympic Gold Medal Triathlete , which they wrote in collaboration with Gwen.   Elizabeth, Nancy, and Ross discuss: How the book is designed to be used with students in the classroom What makes a hero and why kids need hero...