Walk With Me - Liz Hofreuter

We’re back! Like we could stay away… Today, with a special bonus episode (we did promise do this from time to time), Liz walks through downtown Philly with none other than Zaretta Hammond, a self-described ‘boots on the ground’ teacher and best-selling author of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. To Liz, she’s a mentor, personal advocate, and thought partner. Zaretta speaks passionately...

*This walk was rereleased in December, 2025, with improved audio and in honor of the life and friendship of Barb Buchwach. --- Liz begins her journey on Walk With Me with her lifelong friend Barb Buchwach, who has faced pancreatic cancer with grace and resilience. In this candid conversation, they explore the lessons of prioritizing oneself, finding strength in community, and embracing life’s chal...

Welcome to Setting the PAIS! In this inaugural episode, we thought it would make sense to take a peek behind the PAIS curtain and meet the staff that makes this whole thing go. Liz Hofreuter, the new executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools, steps out with the staff to learn more about them in real time. They talk about professional histories, family life, and even...

Well, it didn't take long for Liz to find her next series. We have a new season, a new gig, and a whole new set of Walkers that we're calling Pace Setters...that'll make sense later. Check it out at Setting the PAIS on Spotify, Apple, and everywhere you get your podcasts. ----- It's a new day at the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools, and we're here to tell the sto...

What, did you think that was IT?! Cmon, you know us better than that. Today, Liz delivers an epilogue from the finish line. Not in the build-up or even beyond it, but at the line itself. Stopping and living in a mission well accomplished instead of just sprinting to the next big thing...though to be fair, that next thing is already underway. See you again soon. Keep walking. #WalkwithMe #WalkwithL...

As summer waned and we began looking at how (and when) we would wrap these walks, we kicked around a bunch of ideas to finish this project the 'right' way. Would we do something super meta or reverse roles or document the journey or try a crazy idea like...sitting instead of walking? Not to spoil anything, of course...some ideas are still good enough to try. But instead, we started concent...

There was a thought at the start of this project that maybe the setting would mean as much as the title. That the physical space would reflect the walker as much as the content. So walks took place in city centers, at sports arenas, in shopping malls for those who knew the ‘secret’ mall walker entrances. Our subseries, Meet Me on the Playground, was originally meant to meet school leaders on...you...

The home stretch continues to...stretch...the official Walk count for this project. Again, maybe it's the first season, maybe the first iteration, we're not completely sure. But considering this project seemed to begin with a bit of a blank slate, it's fitting to end with something similarly murky. It sure has worked for us so far! And, to be fair, it's not for lack of planning or...

*BONUS WALK WEEK!* That's right. Fifty schfifty. We're powering right through, though we do have an endpoint in mind. We're coming up on a calendar year since the very first release and we're closing things out with a similar cadence as we began. So, for the next couple of weeks, you'll have a couple of walks to enjoy. Then, in the weeks after that, we'll talk about what&#3...

It’s not every day you find someone that you’re able to joke, rant, and just be with, wholly, no matter how much time goes by between visits. Long, philosophical monologues followed by long silences and somehow longer laughs. A single word, ‘Yeah’, providing everything from ‘I agree’ to ‘I’m here’. It’s even rarer to find them in a highly professional setting. And rarer still to find that person a...

'...this is not going to be a presentation. This is going to be a class discussion...I'm a teacher and a coach at heart.' If you're hard pressed to choose whether Liz or our 50th (!!) Walker, Kermit Cook, said those words, no one would blame you. When education is in your bones, it spills out in all ways, at all times...no matter where your path leads. But it was Kermit who said those words, durin...

What improves the quality of one's life? It's easy to think it's the big accomplishments or the great achievements...the wins. But to Jane Fleming, those are just moments. Exciting, life-changing 'bragging rights', to be fair, but moments all the same. It's really about doing what you love, often in the service of others or the greater good. 'In the Nations Service and...

Some of these walks are just wonderful. You get rare insights into people you may have known for years. You hear stories both harrowing and heartfelt and everything in between. Origin stories and quiet struggles and altered perceptions and so many lessons learned along the way. And sometimes, you get a glimpse into 'the life'. An honest, raw, all-over-the-place look at the world of a leade...

We've talked about a lot of themes over the last 40 some odd walks, and yesterday we mentioned a newly emerging one with COVID, medicine, and the pandemic. But something that has permeated throughout many of these stories, particularly those centered around traumatic or difficult subjects, is isolation. Folks feeling as if, after so long, they become burdensome or disappointing. The questions,...

In a conversation with one of the most influential and successful educational minds in the region, one who has received millions of dollars for reimagining and upending the status quo, one whose goal upon entering her leadership position Carlow University was professional boundaries, you may not expect so much of the credit to be dispersed to a friend. Such is life when knowing Dr. Keely Baronak....

It's been years since the required reading days at Wheeling Country Day School and the thesis that would guide our general baseline with kids, and our general conversations with parents (from the book, The Blessings of a Skinned Knee, by Dr. Wendy Mogel): 'Try to see your child as a seed that came in a packet without a label. Your job is to provide the right environment and nutrients and t...

How often do we have real, long-form, interview-esque conversations with our friends? How often do we get to talk about the news of our lives when it's no longer the news of the day? When the pain or joy or perspective from a loss is seemingly supposed to be gone, or found? It's one of the beautiful things about this project. It may seem odd or uncomfortable or even out of place to be a fr...

Walking with Jane Werner is anything but linear. It's not just A to B, and there will always be stops along the way...most of the time to play. This was never truer than the day we joined her at the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, where she has tinkered since the early 1990s. We started in the MAKESHOP, and this space came to represent all the wonderful ways the Children's Museum, and its diverse...

We are back on the playground with another head of school, or in this case, Director of Schools, plural, for the Cranbrook Educational Community. Talking to Jeff, who not so long ago led the accreditation team for Wheeling Country Day School, was a glimpse both into the past and future. With a history as a regional education leader and affection for none other than Mr. Rogers (another unexpected t...

Today we talk Kaizen, good change. One percent better. It's a gentle and accessible philosophy that can be applied to nearly every aspect of personal and professional life, which is ironic, considering it was born out of the post-WWII capitalist boom. The difference between Kaizen and most other business philosophies, however, is its focus on modest, incremental improvements instead of splashy res...

As Liz mentions regularly, today's Walk is based around a topic she has long struggled to feel comfortable discussing unless around those who have experienced the same. It's also a story that, in large part, feels like the one we didn't know this project was building toward. So with that in mind, she walked with five others who share an invaluable bond that each wishes the other didn&#...

Gratitude...Compassion...Love...Patience...Self-Respect...Humility. Six words to recite each morning. Six words to live by from man who's lived a half dozen lives...a doctor, lawyer, ethics mediator, husband, father, Princeton man. He acknowledges that his words aren't necessarily your words, or even the right words, but in listening to his story you'll hear each one ringing true. This is the stor...

Sarah Tucker is a force. She's an impact maker to the highest degree. A dedicated public servant who has spent years navigating political minefields and coming out the other side as a trusted voice pushing for yeses in a room much more known for nos. When Dr. Tucker, the Chancellor of the Higher Education Policy Commission in West Virginia, finds a problem, particularly a problem for the stude...

When Ed Lando enters your orbit, whether as a trusted teenage safety net or a friend heading for a walk, he is locked in. He is presence in every sense of the word. He's looking you in the eye...direct, decisive, and warm. And he's ready to talk. Such was the man who walked for more than an hour, speaking to philosophies of business that more than doubled as philosophies of life and certai...

Last week we talked about not sweating the big stuff by accepting and appreciating the fact that life always moves on. The sun will come out tomorrow and all that. This week, we're talking about the small stuff. The first thing in the morning, easy but sometimes annoyingly tedious tasks that make the world the slightest bit more welcoming at night. You know, the stuff that makes 12 and a half...