The Stronger Podcast

Mike Montoya
  • 5.0 (4)
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The Stronger Podcast is where the real conversations behind education and nonprofit leadership come alive. Each episode spotlights executives, founders, and purpose-driven leaders who are shaping schools, organizations, and communities across the country. These are the people on the front lines, opening school doors, building new models, and creating opportunities for kids every single day. Leaders share their journeys, the challenges they are navigating right now, and the mission that drives them. It is the kind of candid, heart-level exchange you would normally only hear after hours at a conference. Listeners can expect stories of impact, resilience, vulnerability, and vision. Sometimes inspiring, sometimes raw, always real. This podcast is not about selling products or ideologies. It is about connection. By amplifying the voices of those doing the work, the goal is to build community, spread powerful ideas, and ultimately fuel the larger mission of creating opportunity for millions of children. If you care about education, leadership, and what it takes to build change from the ground up, this is your front-porch seat to the conversation.

  1. 6d ago

    Charter School Boards Should Keep Their Noses In and Fingers Out: Rebuilding a School the Community Co-Owns with Dr. Tara Raines

    Dr. Tara Raines chairs the board of a Las Vegas charter school that just separated from its New York management network, and she is rebuilding it around the rule she keeps for herself: noses in, fingers out. In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Tara, board chair of DPAC Nevada and Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Ballmer Institute for Children's Behavioral Health, to talk about giving a school back to the community that built it. The campus sits in the historic Westside, Las Vegas's historically Black neighborhood. It opened in 2001 as Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, and people still light up at the name. Tara met a parent who chose the school because a taxi driver told her it was the best place in Las Vegas for Black children. A New York charter management organization took over operations in 2017, and Tara is direct about what the distance cost. Today the elementary school is performing badly enough that the state has raised closure, which she calls criminal for the school serving the highest proportion of Black children in Nevada. She and Mike get into why she wanted an executive director who has run an organization rather than a school, and why the principals carry the instructional work. Tara also walks through her research on how schools route children into the justice system, and the new bachelor's level profession she is helping states license so kids get support before they hit a diagnostic threshold. Tune in to hear why a schoolyard fight that ended in a three day suspension in 1987 can end in an arrest today, and what Tara says that costs a childhood.   Chapters: 🎓 01:44 Meet Dr. Tara Raines: special education teacher turned school psychologist 🏫 05:50 The taxi driver who still recommends this school on the historic Westside 🗽 07:17 Local governance went away when a New York network took over 🌱 09:10 An independent school built around what families actually want 👀 12:27 Noses in, fingers out: what a board member is actually for 💼 13:33 A leader who runs organizations, not one who has run schools 🤝 17:28 The board chair wants a peer, not someone taking directives 🏛️ 23:53 The campus becomes co owned by the community again 🔥 28:51 Campfires in a candle factory: what happens when police work in schools 🌊 30:46 Going upstream so kids do not have to hit a diagnostic threshold 💚 35:28 Get the adults healthy before asking them to show up for kids 🛠️ 40:28 Do not show up to glorify the problem, bring solutions Links: Email: tcraines@uoregon.edu Reach out to Dr. Tara Raines to talk about board governance through a school separation, or about the bachelor's level behavioral health credential she is helping states stand up.   Connect with Mike: www.linkedin.com/in/mmsc Stronger Consulting: strongerconsulting.com Publish a Book That Matters:  booksthatmatter.org Start a Podcast That Matters:  podcastsmatter.com Go from Expert to Thought Leader: geniusdiscovery.org  For more great podcasts like this one, visit https://podcaststhatmatter.org Stay strong.

    Charter School Boards Should Keep Their Noses In and Fingers Out: Rebuilding a School the Community Co-Owns with Dr. Tara Raines

  2. Aug 6

    Education Leaders Don't Last Twenty Years Anymore: Lead Yourself Before You Lead Others with Bill Kurtz

    Education leader Bill Kurtz spent twenty years building DSST Public Schools into one of Denver's top performing charter networks, then spent nine months learning how not to be it. His warning to the sector: we are not getting twenty year leaders anymore, and it is not because they do not want to stay.  In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Bill, founding CEO of DSST Public Schools and now a coach and advisor to CEOs across sectors, to talk about building something for two decades and then handing it off well.  Bill traces the path from Wall Street to a small Catholic grammar school in the South Bronx, where he taught social studies and coached the boys basketball team to an undefeated city title. His banker colleagues thought he had lost his mind. Six years as principal of Link Community School in Newark followed, then a newspaper ad for the founding head of the Denver School of Science and Technology.  He and Mike get into why DSST was built on values rather than compliance, and what Bill believes that gives graduates entering an economy being reshaped by AI. Bill is also direct about the identity trap of founding something. You become DSST and DSST becomes you, and he started unwinding that before he ever left.  Tune in to hear Bill's distinction between self worth and self confidence, and why he thinks the education sector keeps betting on the wrong one.    Chapters: 🎒 01:21 Meet Bill Kurtz: founding DSST in a Denver ready for change 🔬 07:58 STEM leaders, not the assistants serving the innovators 🧭 12:36 Why a values driven school matters more in the age of AI 🏦 19:12 Leaving Wall Street for a K-8 in the South Bronx 🗞️ 25:10 A newspaper ad and three months to founding DSST 🪞 28:36 Becoming DSST, and the nine months it took to decompress 🧠 38:26 Lead yourself to lead others, and why twenty year leaders stopped happening ⚖️ 44:46 Self worth is not self confidence Links: Substack: Lead Yourself to Lead Others LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/bill-kurtz-1173796b Email: wrkurtz01@gmail.com Reach out to Bill Kurtz to talk about founding, succession, and leading yourself well enough to stay in the work for twenty years.   Connect with Mike: www.linkedin.com/in/mmsc Stronger Consulting: strongerconsulting.com Publish a Book That Matters:  booksthatmatter.org Start a Podcast That Matters:  podcastsmatter.com Go from Expert to Thought Leader: geniusdiscovery.org  For more great podcasts like this one, visit https://podcaststhatmatter.org Stay strong.

    Education Leaders Don't Last Twenty Years Anymore: Lead Yourself Before You Lead Others with Bill Kurtz

  3. Jul 30

    Washington Thought It Was Different: What It Takes to Grow Great Charter Schools Anywhere with Julie Kennedy

    Charter schools have been legal in Washington for just over a decade, and Excellent Schools Washington founder Julie Kennedy has a blunt read on why the start was rocky. The sector decided Washington was different from everywhere else, and then hit every headwind other states had already worked through. In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Julie, Executive Director of Excellent Schools Washington, to talk about twenty five years of building schools and leaders, and what a ten year old sector needs to do next. Julie grew up in Bellingham, attending the same schools her parents and grandparents did. She was a fourth grade Mathlete converting base ten to base six in her head before falling asleep. Her cousins walked into the same buildings through different entrances and got a different message about whether they were worth investing in. She was rejected by Teach For America in an early round and landed at North Star Academy in Newark through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, as a long term sub and homework helper. She stayed at Uncommon Schools for more than a decade, helping grow the New York region to fifteen middle and high schools. Julie now runs Excellent Schools Washington as an investor, pooling philanthropic dollars and backing schools and founders who can grow. She and Mike get into what leaders opening a second campus always get wrong about scaling culture, and why good enough has cost Washington students decades. Tune in to hear about the four month policy paper Julie wrote in graduate school and the family funeral that landed on the day she presented it.   Chapters: 🌲 01:46 Meet Julie Kennedy: fourth grade Mathlete, third generation Bellingham student 🚪 04:27 Same schools, different entrances: what a building tells a kid 🙃 07:51 Rejected by Teach For America, then placed at North Star by luck 🎁 12:24 Building the muscle to hear one hundred percent of the feedback 🧩 22:29 The second campus mistake nine out of ten leaders make 💰 25:31 A mini Charter School Growth Fund for Washington state 🧭 27:51 Washington decided it was different: how good enough became the bar 🌱 37:27 152 Uncommon alumni now work at the schools that taught them 🪑 40:57 What Brett Peiser asked a 22 year old candidate in a hallway ⚖️ 47:28 The tension between strategy and urgency, and giving yourself grace Links: Website: www.excellentschoolswa.org LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/julie-trott-kennedy Explore Excellent Schools Washington's work and connect with Julie on LinkedIn to follow a charter sector that is only ten years old. Her ask on this episode was direct: talented people with a high bar for what students can achieve, and an open invitation to come see Washington in July.    Connect with Mike: www.linkedin.com/in/mmsc Stronger Consulting: strongerconsulting.com Publish a Book That Matters:  booksthatmatter.org Start a Podcast That Matters:  podcastsmatter.com Go from Expert to Thought Leader: geniusdiscovery.org  For more great podcasts like this one, visit https://podcaststhatmatter.org Stay strong.

    Washington Thought It Was Different: What It Takes to Grow Great Charter Schools Anywhere with Julie Kennedy

  4. Jul 23

    Not Everything That Ends Is a Failure: Career Pivots, Growth Mindset, and Redefining Fulfillment with Tess Vigil

    Tess Vigil has had her role reduced or eliminated four times, and she will tell you none of it was failure. It was clarity. From a Los Angeles dress company to culturally responsive education to AI enablement in healthcare, her career is a case study in letting go of what looks impressive to chase what actually feels purposeful. In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Tess, who leads change management and organizational effectiveness in patient education at DaVita, to talk about why a career is less a ladder than a rock wall, and what it takes to keep making moves around the obstacles. Tess grew up a faculty kid at a Denver prep school, studied social psychology at Columbia in Carol Dweck's classroom two years before Mindset was published, and built her whole approach to coaching on the power of "yet." She traces the pivots that followed: teaching middle school English with Teach For America, running a locally produced clothing line she now calls her favorite failure, coaching young teachers, culturally responsive work at Denver Public Schools, national talent consulting, and finally a leap into healthcare tech. Mike and Tess get into why direct feedback is a muscle most workplaces never train, why a conflict-free relationship is probably not a deep one, and why the healthcare system leaves the same families under-resourced that the education system does. They also talk about coaching, mentorship, and building a whole team of support rather than leaning on one person to be everything. Tune in to hear why Tess believes that letting go of something that isn't making you thrive isn't failure, it's the clearest thing you can do.   Chapters: 👋 01:19 Meet Tess Vigil: faculty kid, educator, and serial career pivoter 🏫 02:19 Growing up at the school her parents taught at, and an early lesson in wealth 🧠 05:35 Studying with Carol Dweck at Columbia, two years before Mindset 💪 07:59 Growth mindset is not grit, and the quiet power of "yet" 🗣️ 09:11 Direct feedback is a muscle most workplaces never train 🧵 18:05 My favorite failure: the dress company and what letting go taught her 🧗 24:01 From culturally responsive education to four roles reduced or eliminated 🏥 25:59 The pivot to DaVita and the equity gaps hiding inside healthcare 🤝 35:59 Everybody needs a coach, and why your partner should not be one 🧭 44:21 A life well led: fulfilled and purposeful over what looks good on LinkedIn Links: Website: Tess Vigil | Executive Coach & Creative LinkedIn: Tess Vigil  Connect with Mike: www.linkedin.com/in/mmsc Stronger Consulting: strongerconsulting.com Publish a Book That Matters:  booksthatmatter.org Start a Podcast That Matters:  podcastsmatter.com Go from Expert to Thought Leader: geniusdiscovery.org  For more great podcasts like this one, visit https://podcaststhatmatter.org Stay strong.

    Not Everything That Ends Is a Failure: Career Pivots, Growth Mindset, and Redefining Fulfillment with Tess Vigil

  5. Jul 16

    People Already Know What They Need: Behavioral Health Systems, Agency, and the Softening That Leaders Resist with Denise Jensen

    Ten percent of Utah's children were using roughly ninety percent of the state's behavioral health funding, and no one system owned them. In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Denise Jensen, LMSW, Partner and Lead Operating Officer at Stronger Consulting, and the founding director of Utah's children's system of care. Denise grew up as the oddball in a family of seven kids in a conservative Idaho Mormon household, where the mother stayed home and the father went to work. She questioned that from childhood, made a lot of her family angry, and built her own path anyway. That questioning became a career: therapist, then state system builder, then the person leading client delivery across a national consulting firm. She walks Mike through what a system of care actually is. The kids arriving through corrections, courts, child welfare, disability, and schools, all with nowhere to land. The judges, school districts, Medicaid administrators, and parents she pulled into the same room. The state hospital she asked to loosen its own admission criteria. She also earned Utah's Governor's Award of Excellence for tearing apart substance use treatment payment models so people in recovery could choose their own care instead of being told what recovery had to look like. The second half turns to leadership. Denise makes the case that leaders, and women leaders in particular, are still armored up in a professionalism handed to them by people who are no longer in the room. Her word for the alternative is softening, and she is specific about what it buys an organization. Listen in for why she believes every person already knows what they need, and what leaders owe them once they admit it.   Chapters:  🎙️ 00:27 Denise Jensen on leaving a conservative Idaho childhood to build systems 🚪 03:37 The oddball in a family of seven who made people mad 👩‍👧 06:09 Refusing to let motherhood be her only identity 🎭 10:47 You cannot be one person, so you wear many hats 🧩 11:58 Ten percent of kids, ninety percent of the funding 🏛️ 12:39 Getting judges, schools, and Medicaid into the same room 🏆 16:47 The Governor's Award for letting people choose their own recovery 🗝️ 19:34 Everybody already knows what they need 🪓 24:54 Scalpel, hammer, and sometimes chainsaw 🔁 29:31 Retention beats replacement, and the cost is momentum 🛡️ 31:19 The armor women leaders are still told to wear 🌿 35:29 Softening creates psychological safety, and safety keeps teams 🧭 37:57 Find your community and know your value 💡 42:51 You do not control everything, and that is okay Links: LinkedIn:  Denise Jensen | LinkedInCompany LinkedIn: Stronger ConsultingWebsite: Stronger Consulting  Connect with Mike: www.linkedin.com/in/mmsc Stronger Consulting: strongerconsulting.com Publish a Book That Matters:  booksthatmatter.org Start a Podcast That Matters:  podcastsmatter.com Go from Expert to Thought Leader: geniusdiscovery.org  For more great podcasts like this one, visit https://podcaststhatmatter.org Stay strong.

    People Already Know What They Need: Behavioral Health Systems, Agency, and the Softening That Leaders Resist with Denise Jensen

  6. Jul 9

    A Turtle Carries Home on Its Back: First-Generation Leadership and Student Success in Higher Ed with Dr. Aidé Acosta

    Dr. Aidé Acosta went from a first-generation college student navigating higher education without a map to the Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students at National Louis University. Her guiding line comes from her Sinaloan roots: like a turtle, she carries home on her back, and she has built her career making sure students never have to leave theirs behind. In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Dr. Acosta, VP for Student Affairs and Dean of Students at National Louis University in Chicago, to talk about what it takes to build a genuinely student-centered institution across every campus and learning modality. Aidé traces the arc from a childhood shaped by migration and family sacrifice to Southwestern College, UC Riverside, and a doctorate at the University of Illinois. She explains why so much of her work is about naming the invisible rules of higher education, the ones first-generation students are expected to already know, and why belonging is not a nice-to-have but the actual mechanism of student success. They get into social mobility as multigenerational impact, why access without support is an empty promise, and how an institution keeps its mission consistent when students arrive through wildly different doors. Aidé is candid about carrying her community into every room she enters and what she wants her own child to inherit from that. Tune in to hear why Aidé believes the deepest work in higher education is helping students succeed without asking them to leave home behind.   Chapters: 🐢 01:37 Meet Dr. Aidé Acosta: first-generation student turned dean of students 🌎 02:28 Why she carries home on her back like a turtle 🎶 02:50 Sinaloan roots, migration, and the family that made the path 🎓 08:14 Southwestern College to UC Riverside: learning the rules no one taught her 🔍 26:41 Naming the invisible rules first-generation students are expected to know 🤝 30:05 Why belonging is the mechanism of student success, not a nice-to-have 🌱 34:59 Access without support is an empty promise 🏛️ 40:18 Keeping one mission consistent across every campus and modality 💛 44:11 Social mobility as multigenerational impact and what she wants her child to inherit Links: Website: nationallouisu | Linktree LinkedIn: Aidé Acosta, Ph.D.Company's LinkedIn: National Louis University   Connect with Mike: www.linkedin.com/in/mmsc Stronger Consulting: strongerconsulting.com Publish a Book That Matters:  booksthatmatter.org Start a Podcast That Matters:  podcastsmatter.com Go from Expert to Thought Leader: geniusdiscovery.org  For more great podcasts like this one, visit https://podcaststhatmatter.org Stay strong.

    A Turtle Carries Home on Its Back: First-Generation Leadership and Student Success in Higher Ed with Dr. Aidé Acosta

  7. Jul 3

    Keep Your Eye on the Ball: 27 Years on a School Board and the Discipline of Not Getting Distracted with Bobby Blount

    Bobby Blount has served on the Northside ISD school board for 27 years, and he has spent every one of them refusing to get distracted from the one thing that matters: whether kids actually have a shot. In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Bobby Blount, a Northside Independent School District trustee, President of the Texas Caucus of Black School Board Members, and a department head at MITRE who was working in cybersecurity before the word "cyber" meant anything. Bobby grew up a military kid who attended ten different schools before he finished high school, including years in Mississippi during integration and a stretch in Utah where he was one of the only Black students for miles. He traces how those experiences turned into a single conviction: he had opportunities others did not, and his job was to reach back and create more of them. He shares the programs he is most proud of, from a third-grade reading competition that logged 11 million minutes across 105 schools to a solar race car event he built in 1996 that now reaches thousands of elementary students. He is candid about how politicized school boards have become, and why the work of running them takes people who know how to stay focused when everyone around them is yelling. Listen in for a conversation about vision, institutionalizing the things you build so they outlast you, and the discipline of keeping your eye on the ball. Chapters:👋 01:27 Meet Bobby Blount: 27 years on a school board and a summit asking which way is up 🌍 05:29 Ten schools before high school: growing up a military kid through integration and isolation 🎓 08:34 From the Air Force Academy to doing cyber before anyone called it cyber 💡 11:30 The DJ, the roller coaster, and the day bored kids finally leaned in 📖 14:18 A reading competition with 10,000 third graders and 11 million minutes read 💃 15:49 Dancing with the Stars as a fundraiser, fifteen years running 🎯 17:23 Moving the needle: why onesie-twosie wins are not enough 🏛️ 18:48 Why school board seats became a target and what keeps the focus on kids 🔬 23:08 STEM labs, magnet programs, and AI in elementary school 🤝 31:34 Inside the UP Partnership and the Future Ready 70 percent goal ⚾ 35:46 Keep your eye on the ball: the manager's line Bobby never forgot 🌱 36:32 Vision, focus, and institutionalizing the things you build so they outlast you ⚽ 38:48 Coaching five soccer teams and what it teaches about leadership 🧭 42:27 Parting advice: try everything, work with everyone, and master one thing 🎧 44:38 Find more podcasts that matter at www.podcaststhatmatter.org Links:Bobby Blount on Ballotpedia: ballotpedia.org/Bobby_Blount San Antonio Area African American Community Fund: saaaacf.org Northside ISD Board of Trustees: nisd.net/board/members Reach out to Bobby to learn more about his work building career pathways for kids, from third-grade reading competitions to solar race cars to the Future Ready vision in San Antonio. Connect with Mike: www.linkedin.com/in/mmsc Stronger Consulting: strongerconsulting.com Publish a Book That Matters: booksthatmatter.org Start a Podcast That Matters: podcastsmatter.com Go from Expert to Thought Leader: geniusdiscovery.org For more great podcasts like this one, visit https://podcaststhatmatter.org Stay strong.

    Keep Your Eye on the Ball: 27 Years on a School Board and the Discipline of Not Getting Distracted with Bobby Blount

  8. Jun 25

    The Hidden Power of Relational Intelligence in Building High-Performing Teams with Dr. Jennifer Brown

    Relational intelligence may be the one advantage humans keep as AI gets smarter, and Dr. Jennifer Brown has spent 25 years proving it builds stronger teams. A regional superintendent at the KIPP Foundation, she coaches CEOs and executive directors on what really makes a team work. In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Dr. Jennifer Brown, Regional Superintendent at the KIPP Foundation, to talk about the people skill that has shaped her entire career and why she believes it will outlast the robots. Jen grew up as the daughter of a soldier, moving constantly and learning early how to read a room, adapt, and build trust fast. She traces that thread from a high school teacher cadet class to teaching eighth grade English, to district turnaround work, to leading KIPP Jacksonville, and now to coaching former CEOs as part of a four-person regional superintendent team she compares to an Olympic dream team. Along the way she names the thing leaders kept seeing in her: relational intelligence. She breaks down the difference between teamwork and what she calls "teamship," the discipline of how a team actually functions, and the trust, selflessness, and energy that separate a real team from a group of talented individuals. Jen also gets honest about her decision to step back and center her family, why she believes there is no balance, only trade-offs, and what it takes to open more doors for women in school leadership. Tune in to hear why the most human skill you have might be the most strategic one you own.   Chapters: 🎖️ [01:54] Daughter of a soldier: growing up everywhere and calling no place home 🍬 [06:19] The Now and Later moment and the adaptability military kids learn early ⚖️ [09:16] From dreaming of LA Law to discovering she did not want to be a lawyer 🍎 [11:31] The teacher cadet class and the two teachers who changed her path 📚 [16:31] First teaching job, an hour of onboarding, and the hidden society of a school 📈 [22:02] Getting tapped for leadership and her first taste of school turnaround work 🤝 [25:11] Relational intelligence: the skill people kept naming in her 🧭 [27:05] Teamship over teamwork: the discipline of how a team actually functions 💬 [36:42] The Fantastic Four, hard moments, and the trust that builds a real team 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 [40:04] Choosing family: why she is stepping back and what comes next ♀️ [44:14] No balance, only trade-offs: opening doors for women in school leadership Links: LinkedIn: Dr. Jennifer Brown  Website: The Pamoja Team Connect with Dr. Jennifer Brown to follow her thinking on relational intelligence, teamship, and what it takes to build high-performing teams, and to catch her weekly leadership series, What's in Brown's Bag.   Connect with Mike: www.linkedin.com/in/mmsc Stronger Consulting: strongerconsulting.com Publish a Book That Matters:  booksthatmatter.org Start a Podcast That Matters:  podcastsmatter.com Go from Expert to Thought Leader: geniusdiscovery.org  For more great podcasts like this one, visit https://podcaststhatmatter.org Stay strong.

    The Hidden Power of Relational Intelligence in Building High-Performing Teams with Dr. Jennifer Brown
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

The Stronger Podcast is where the real conversations behind education and nonprofit leadership come alive. Each episode spotlights executives, founders, and purpose-driven leaders who are shaping schools, organizations, and communities across the country. These are the people on the front lines, opening school doors, building new models, and creating opportunities for kids every single day. Leaders share their journeys, the challenges they are navigating right now, and the mission that drives them. It is the kind of candid, heart-level exchange you would normally only hear after hours at a conference. Listeners can expect stories of impact, resilience, vulnerability, and vision. Sometimes inspiring, sometimes raw, always real. This podcast is not about selling products or ideologies. It is about connection. By amplifying the voices of those doing the work, the goal is to build community, spread powerful ideas, and ultimately fuel the larger mission of creating opportunity for millions of children. If you care about education, leadership, and what it takes to build change from the ground up, this is your front-porch seat to the conversation.

Information

  • Creator
    Mike Montoya
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    41
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Mike Montoya
  • Show Website
    The Stronger Podcast