What happens when a school has plenty of good ideas, but no clear way to connect them? In this episode of Voices for Excellence, Dr. Michael Conner is joined by Dr. Matthew Friedman, a former superintendent whose experience across seven districts has shaped a conviction: leaders need to lead the system, not the tool.

Friedman recalls asking a teacher which of the district’s initiatives mattered most. Her answer, “Whichever one you’re here to see,” sparked a rethink of how those initiatives fitted together. From there, the conversation explores what it takes to turn disconnected efforts into lasting change, from building leadership capacity to introducing AI with purpose, human judgment, data protection and adult learning at the center.

They also discuss career-connected learning and why Friedman would replace a fixed five-year plan with a clear north star, 90-day cycles and honest quarterly check-ins. Listen for a practical, thoughtful conversation about preparing young people for a changing world without losing the wonder, courage and belonging that help them thrive.

If this conversation gives you a new perspective on leading change, share it with a colleague and follow Voices for Excellence so you never miss an episode.

What if students spent less of the school day waiting for directions and more of it learning how to direct themselves?

Erika Twani wants educators to ask that question. Her own calculation puts a student’s time in school at 16,800 hours. The more important question, she says, is what students are doing with those hours.

In this episode of Voices for Excellence, Dr. Michael Conner welcomes Erika Twani, CEO of the Learning One to One Foundation, TEDx speaker, and author of Becoming Einstein’s Teacher and The Einstein Mindset, to explore what student agency can look like in practice.

A visit to a rural school, where teachers had invested in the agency of a blind student, helped shape the work she would go on to build: the Relational Learning Framework. For leaders looking to give students more ownership of their learning, this conversation offers a place to start.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• How six steps and four levels of autonomy can help students take greater ownership of their learning
• Why Twani says meaningful change starts in classrooms rather than waiting for policy
• What a Michael Phelps story from the 2008 Olympics reveals about teachers as life coaches
• What educators need to understand about AI and the changing job market

Listen for a practical vision of student agency. Stay for Twani’s poem “What If,” her answer to Conner’s signature song question, and a reminder to keep your love of learning.

Connect with Erika Twani: et@erikatwani.com | learning1to1.org | erikatwani.com

What does it take to lead with conviction when fear, politics, and constant change are shaping education?

In this episode of Voices for Excellence, Dr. Michael Conner sits down with veteran superintendent, executive coach, and founder of 2EDUK8, LLC, Dr. L. Oliver Robinson. Drawing on more than two decades as a superintendent, Dr. Robinson shares a practical philosophy for building stronger leaders, more coherent systems, and better outcomes for every student.

Together, they explore how education leaders can identify their North Star, turn challenges into opportunities, and avoid making decisions from a place of fear. Dr. Robinson also explains why successful systems depend on conviction, thoughtful leadership, and the courage to act with purpose, even when the path forward is difficult.

The conversation also examines representation in education, the responsibility to create opportunities for every child, and the role AI can play as a “co-intelligence” tool. Rather than using technology simply to produce more, Dr. Robinson challenges leaders to use it to improve quality, strengthen decision-making, and prepare their organizations for what comes next.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• How to systematize success across an organization
• Why every leader needs a clearly defined North Star
• The three qualities Dr. Robinson believes effective leaders must cultivate
• How representation can strengthen students’ sense of possibility
• Why AI should help educators create better work—not just more work
• What decades of leadership taught him about culture, conviction, and change

Dr. Robinson leaves listeners with three essential words for the future of educational leadership: credibility, competence, and convincing.

What if preparing students for the future means changing not only the tools in the classroom, but the way education thinks about leadership, learning, and change?

Dr Jeanene Stettner-Dutt joins Dr Michael Conner for a timely conversation about leading schools through uncertainty without losing sight of the people at their centre. With experience spanning the classroom, principalship, curriculum leadership, and the superintendency, Jeanene brings a practitioner’s perspective to the pressures facing education, from the rise of AI to the changing expectations of Generation Alpha.

This is a conversation for leaders who know that simply keeping an organisation functioning is no longer enough. Jeanene challenges educators to think more intentionally, design learning that feels relevant, and create cultures capable of adapting before change becomes a crisis.

If you are asking how schools can embrace progress responsibly while continuing to put students first, this episode offers a grounded and hopeful place to begin.

Why do women make up most of the education workforce, yet remain dramatically underrepresented in the superintendent’s chair?

In this episode of Voices for Excellence, Dr. Michael T. Conner welcomes Dr. Donna Wright, 2020 Tennessee Superintendent of the Year and Lead Superintendent for the AASA National Women’s Leadership Consortium, for a candid conversation about crisis leadership, sponsorship, and the structural barriers shaping who gets to lead school systems.

Drawing on more than 40 years in education, Dr. Wright shares what it took to guide Wilson County Schools through an F3 tornado that destroyed two campuses, and then through the COVID shutdown just two weeks later. Her experience reveals a model of leadership grounded in presence, courage, adaptability, and trust.

The conversation also confronts a persistent imbalance: women represent 76% of teachers and 54% of principals, but only 27% of superintendents. Dr. Wright challenges the familiar explanations of pipeline, promotion, and persistence, arguing that they are symptoms of a deeper system that keeps women present without propelling them forward.

Together, Dr. Conner and Dr. Wright explore why sponsorship matters, how leaders are “tapped” for advancement, and what ethical, inventive leadership will require as education moves toward AC2035.

Tune in for a powerful discussion about leading through crisis, changing the architecture of opportunity, and creating a future in which talent, not access to the right networks, determines who gets to lead.

What does it look like when rural education leads, not waits?

Dr. Michael Conner welcomes Dr. Melissa Sadorf, executive director of the National Rural Education Association (NREA), the oldest national education organization in the country, founded in 1907. In her first year leading NREA, Dr. Sadorf is rolling out the organisation's first-ever five-year strategic plan, and reframing what rural schools are truly capable of.

In this conversation, you'll hear why the rural superintendent's many roles aren't a weakness, but a structural advantage. Dr. Sadorf shares four approaches for building lasting capacity without new money, explains how competitive federal AI grants quietly manufacture the very gap they claim to solve, and lays out what a formula-based fix could look like.

She also introduces NREA's National Rural Principal Fellowship, preparing up to 30 leaders beginning at this year's NFARE conference.

Most leaders are trained in strategy, systems, and skills. Almost none are taught to deal with themselves first.

In this episode of Voices for Excellence, Dr. Michael Conner is joined by Dr. Antoinette Gutierrez, educational leader, consultant, author, and founder of the CALSA Coachella Valley chapter, for a deeply personal and deeply practical conversation about what it means to lead from a place of wholeness.

Dr. Gutierrez's new book, Healing for Leadership: How Emotionally Intelligent Leaders Build Safe, Resilient Teams, makes the case that real leadership begins with the interior work most of us are never taught to do. She has spent her career at the intersection of emotional intelligence, equity, and school leadership, and she brings that depth to every moment of this conversation.

What unfolds is not a call for softer leadership. It is a call for harder leadership, the kind that demands enough self-awareness to hold steady space for others, enough courage to hold the line with love, and enough honesty to ask the questions most leaders avoid. Dr. Conner and Dr. Gutierrez also turn their attention to the generation coming up behind us: Generation Alpha and Generation Beta, the first true AI natives, and the most volatile generation on record for mental health. What does healing leadership look like when the students we are serving are growing up in a world we barely understand?

Every so often, a conversation cuts through the noise and gets to the heart of what education leadership demands right now. This is one of those conversations.

In this episode, Dr. Michael T. Conner is joined by Dr. Rick Fernandez, former superintendent, former high school principal, Chief Growth Officer at BlueKit Software, and co-host of the Boyz of EdTech podcast, for a powerful discussion on leadership, data, competition, and the future of learning.

Dr. Fernandez brings a grounded, unfiltered perspective on the realities facing school districts today. From the pressure of school choice and vouchers to the blind spots hidden inside district data, he challenges leaders to think more honestly about what their systems know, what they assume, and what families are really asking for.

This is not a surface-level conversation about trends. It is a call for sharper thinking, stronger systems, and a deeper commitment to preparing students for a future already being reshaped by artificial intelligence. Dr. Conner and Dr. Fernandez move with urgency, humor, and candor through the kinds of questions education leaders cannot afford to avoid.

If you are a superintendent, principal, district leader, educator, or anyone invested in the future of public education, this episode will push your thinking and leave you with plenty to sit with.

Dr. Fernandez’s challenge for the next generation comes down to three words: curiosity, consistency, and entrepreneurship.