Flip-ed

Mike Chalupa and LaShawn Gardner-Bowser
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  • EDUCATION

If you could flip just one thing to help our schools and public education thrive, what would it be?     We know that the structure of schools and education were built nearly a century ago, based on a factory model - but the world is a profoundly transformed place.        There are people and practices right now - across our nation - that are thinking about school in our transformed world.    They are trying innovative and bold ideas that can potentially inspire others to be bold and innovative - even in a schooling system that may not always welcome change.    In this podcast, we are working to find and elevate those ideas that could make all the difference for our children, families and schools.   Join us to hear from educators with an idea, a vision, a revolutionary thought that could flip a switch and change schools for our changed world. Podcast hosts, LaShawn Bowser and Mike Chalupa.   Technical Director, Justin Eames.    Flip-Ed is brought to you by the City Neighbors Foundation, located in Baltimore MD.  Check out our work in K-12 education at www.cityneighborsfoundation.org

Episodes

  1. Senator Cory V. McCray, The Power of Internships

    FEB 14

    Senator Cory V. McCray, The Power of Internships

    Cory V. McCray is a proud son of Baltimore, a journeyman electrician, author of The Apprenticeship That Saved My Life, and a Maryland State Senator. His journey from electrical apprentice to public servant reflects the transformative power of skilled trades, mentorship, and second chances. As an author and legislator, McCray understands the responsibility of preserving legacy while building pathways for future generations, ensuring that stories of struggle and triumph continue to shape Baltimore’s future.

    26 min
  2. Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, Genius and Joy

    JAN 31

    Dr. Gholdy Muhammad, Genius and Joy

    Dr. Gholdy Muhammad is the John Corbally Endowed Professor of Literacy, Language, and Culture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has previously served as a classroom teacher, literacy specialist, school district administrator, curriculum director, and school board president. She studies Black historical excellence in education, intending to reframe curriculum and instruction today. Dr. Muhammad’s scholarship has appeared in leading academic journals and books. She has also received numerous national awards and is the author of the best-selling books Cultivating Genius and Unearthing Joy. She also co-authored the book Black Girls’ Literacies. Her Culturally and Historically Responsive Education Model has been adopted across thousands of U.S. schools and districts across Canada. In 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025, she was named among the top 1% Edu-Scholar Public Influencers due to her impact on policy and practice. She has led a federal grant with the United States Department of Education to study culturally and historically responsive literacy in STEM classrooms. In the fall of 2026, her first curriculum, entitled Genius and Joy, will be available to schools and educators.

    25 min
  3. Jonathan Johnson, The $50 Study

    JAN 21

    Jonathan Johnson, The $50 Study

    Jonathan Johnson is the Founder and CEO of Rooted School Foundation, where he leads The $50 Study—the largest randomized controlled trial of unconditional cash transfers to high school students ever conducted in the U.S.  A first-generation college graduate from California, Jonathan became an educator to give other young people the same chance at economic mobility he fought for. After founding high schools in New Orleans and Indianapolis, he launched The $50 Study in response to pandemic-era attendance challenges. The program provides students $50 weekly for 40 weeks with no strings attached. Results from the two-year RCT show students attended 1.23 more days of school per semester and demonstrated a 15% savings rate—three times the national adult average.

    32 min
  4. Damion Cooper, The Hearts and Minds of Young Black Boys

    05/31/2025

    Damion Cooper, The Hearts and Minds of Young Black Boys

    What if we intentionally and robustly invested in nurturing the hearts and souls of young Black boys in Baltimore City and everywhere?    Listen to Damion Cooper’s compelling story which grounded his work at Project Pneuma, and consider ways that we could rethink schools to focus on hearts and minds work as well as the academic work. Damion Cooper uses his life’s experiences to teach lessons of forgiveness, self-control, discipline, and redemption via mentorship.  His own experiences inspired him to create Project Pneuma; a holistic program focused on social emotional learning, forgiveness and curbing impulse actions from trauma due to Adverse Childhood Experiences in young African American males by teaching them yoga, mindfulness, breathing techniques, conflict resolution/de-escalation, and martial arts.   Project Pneuma also partners with the Baltimore City Police Department so that the young men and new officers can build bonds of trust, respect, and cultural competencies.    Damion  is a 2014 BMe Leadership Award Recipient, 2016 Maryland Out of School Time (MOST) Emerging Leader, 2017 Presidential Volunteer Service Recipient, 2017 Champion of Courage Recipient, 2017 Warnock Foundation Social Innovation Fellow, and 2018 Kings Landing Women’s Association MLK Man of the Year. Damion was awarded the 2019 Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry (MFP) Anti-Stigma Advocacy Prize for his op-ed, “Surviving a gunshot, one man’s story” in the October 18, 2018, Baltimore Sun. Damion is also the NFL and Baltimore Ravens 2023 Inspire Change Changemaker Recipient and FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award Recipient.  Damion holds degrees from Coppin State University (BS, Business Management & Marketing) and the United Baptist College & Seminary (Th.M., Theology) and is a 2018 graduate of The Leadership: a program of the Greater Baltimore Committee.

    36 min
  5. Aleta Margolis, Instigators of Thought

    05/17/2025

    Aleta Margolis, Instigators of Thought

    Aleta Margolis is the founder and president of Center for Inspired Teaching, a nonprofit that has spent nearly three decades investing in teachers as the leverage point for change in the education system. At Inspired Teaching, she helps teachers redesign their roles in the classroom. Instead of merely delivering a curriculum, Inspired Teachers are Instigators of Thought, who fuel students’ curiosity and innate desire to learn. Aleta is a former elementary and middle school teacher, teacher for court-involved youth, and professor of education at American University. She is the creator of the award-winning Hooray For Monday article series and teaching tool and is an Ashoka Fellow committed to investing in teachers.

    30 min
  6. Dr. Lisa Carey, Teachers and Pediatricians Unite!

    05/03/2025

    Dr. Lisa Carey, Teachers and Pediatricians Unite!

    Dr. Lisa Carey is an education specialist, teacher educator, researcher, and author focused on the intersection between K12 schooling and pediatric medicine.  Prior to her current roles, she was a special educator in Maryland Public Schools focused on inclusive programming. Lisa co-founded the Hospital Education Liaison Program (HELP) at Kennedy Krieger to support communication between healthcare teams and school teams surrounding the needs of individual children.      Lisa is also co-author of the new book, Supporting Student Executive Functions:   Insights and Strategies for Educators.

    29 min
  7. Dr. Lisa Williams, Children as Creators, Innovators, Problem-Solvers

    04/05/2025

    Dr. Lisa Williams, Children as Creators, Innovators, Problem-Solvers

    Dr. Lisa Williams is a national expert on topics of equity and access in public education. She has served as Chief Equity Officer for the Fairfax County Schools as well as Executive Director for Equity and Cultural Proficiency in the Baltimore County Schools. In total, she has worked on issues of equity and access in public institutions for over 15 years.  She has provided guidance for school boards, public and private schools as well as school systems and non-profits in the areas of racial equity, gender equity in STEM, leading for equity, school transformation, and culturally responsive practices. Dr. Williams has served as a Subject Matter Expert with the United States Department of Education Department of Career, Technical, and Adult Education division related to equitable access in STEM/CTE. She has also served as a board member for Restorative Response Baltimore, an organization that provides guidance and support for Restorative Practices and Community Conferences to decrease violence and create inclusive environments across the Baltimore Metropolitan Area.   Dr. Williams has held the position of teacher, mentor, university professor, and Title I director over her career in education. She has bachelors’ degrees in biology and psychology, an MA in psychology, and a doctorate in Urban Educational Leadership with an emphasis in social policy.  She has presented at the local, state, national and international level on topics related to improving outcomes for marginalized student populations. Her dissertation study examined Response to Intervention (RtI) and the performance of students attending Title I schools.          She is co-author of two books, When Treating all the Kids the Same is the Real Problem:  Educational Leadership and the 21st Century Dilemma of Difference and Humanity Over Comfort:  How You Confront Systemic Racism Head On both published by Corwin Press.  Her most recent publication, “We don’t make history, we are made by history:  The call for education as an instrument of social justice. This historical and determinative role of schools in advancing race equity” was published in 2023 in the anthology, Zufunft Bildungschancen, in collaboration with University of Cologne.

    32 min
  8. Stefan Redding Lallinger, Integrating Our Schools

    03/22/2025

    Stefan Redding Lallinger, Integrating Our Schools

    Stefan Redding Lallinger is a father to three daughters and a former teacher and principal. He's worked in schools and districts in New Orleans and New York City and is currently the executive director of an innovative think tank called Next100. He lives in Mt. Washington in Baltimore and serves on the Baltimore City School Board.

    32 min
  9. Vanessa Lopez, The Purpose of School

    03/08/2025

    Vanessa Lopez, The Purpose of School

    Vanessa López is the twenty-fourth grandchild of Tulia Vasquez López, the only daughter of Rosa Digna López, big little sister to Ramon Reynoldo Vargas and proud mother of Aszana LilaRosa López-Bell. She was born and bred on the streets of New York City back when White folks didn't ride the A train past 59th Street. Vanessa has papers from Purchase College, State University of New York and the Maryland Institute College of Art. She contemplates and writes about race, urban education, the body and art. Vanessa’s musings can be found in the pages of Moleskin journals, Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society, Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy and the Art Education Journal. She makes things that grow and die.

    34 min
  10. Dr. Kaleb Rashad, Authentic Learning

    02/08/2025

    Dr. Kaleb Rashad, Authentic Learning

    Dr. Kaleb Rashad is the Co-Founder & Creative Director at the Center for Love & Justice located within the High Tech High Graduate School of Education (HTH GSE). Kaleb works with community leaders in the US/Canada, Spain, and Hong Kong to create new schools and redesign existing schools focused on advancing equity through anti-racist project-based learning. As an instructor at the GSE, Kaleb teaches courses on creativity, innovation and community-based liberatory design. Prior to his work at the GSE, Kaleb served as the Director of the Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High (San Diego); and before High Tech High, Kaleb worked as a principal and teacher in more traditional settings. Kaleb holds a BA in Human Development, two Master’s Degrees, and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership focusing on relational trust and organizational change. Kaleb currently supports individual schools, districts and mosaic networks nationally and internationally experimenting at the intersection of leadership, equity and design. He also works alongside the disruptors of inequity at Stanford’s K12 Lab, IDEO’s Teacher’s Guild, School Retool, & Leadership + Design. When not spreading joyzistance (that is: the state of resisting regression to the mean with a spirit of ancestral joy), Kaleb enjoys hiking, camping, and surfing with his two boys, live blues and jazz, soul food, performance art and reading the classics. You can always see what he’s up to on…TWITTER: @kalebrashad. www.kalebrashad.com

    34 min
  11. Dr. Simone Gibson, Centering Reading

    01/23/2025

    Dr. Simone Gibson, Centering Reading

    Dr. Simone Gibson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Morgan State University, a Historically Black University located in Baltimore, MD. Additionally, she holds the position of Co-Director for the Maryland Initiative for Literacy and Equity (Mile). As a literacy specialist, Dr. Gibson concentrates her research and training efforts on preparing both pre-service and in-service teachers to implement culturally humble practices in literacy instruction that are grounded in evidence-based methodologies.

    31 min
  12. Shane Safir, Street Data

    01/23/2025

    Shane Safir, Street Data

    Shane Safir has worked at every level of the education system, from the classroom to the boardroom, for 25 years. In 2003, after teaching in San Francisco and Oakland and organizing in the community to launch a new school, Safir became the founding co-principal of June Jordan School for Equity (JJSE), an innovative national model identified by leading scholar Linda Darling-Hammond as "supporting the success of low-income students of color."  Since 2008, Safir has provided equity-centered leadership coaching, strategic planning, and professional learning support for schools, districts, and organizations across the U.S., Canada, and beyond. She facilitates workshops on listening leadership, becoming a warm demander for equity, and the Street Data model for school transformation, among other content. She is the author of The Listening Leader: Creating the Conditions for Equitable School Transformation (Jossey-Bass: 2017) and the bestselling Street Data: A Next-Generation Model for Equity, Pedagogy, and School Transformation (Corwin, 2021), coauthored with Dr. Jamila Dugan.

    26 min
  • 12 Episodes

About

If you could flip just one thing to help our schools and public education thrive, what would it be?     We know that the structure of schools and education were built nearly a century ago, based on a factory model - but the world is a profoundly transformed place.        There are people and practices right now - across our nation - that are thinking about school in our transformed world.    They are trying innovative and bold ideas that can potentially inspire others to be bold and innovative - even in a schooling system that may not always welcome change.    In this podcast, we are working to find and elevate those ideas that could make all the difference for our children, families and schools.   Join us to hear from educators with an idea, a vision, a revolutionary thought that could flip a switch and change schools for our changed world. Podcast hosts, LaShawn Bowser and Mike Chalupa.   Technical Director, Justin Eames.    Flip-Ed is brought to you by the City Neighbors Foundation, located in Baltimore MD.  Check out our work in K-12 education at www.cityneighborsfoundation.org

Information

  • Creator
    Mike Chalupa and LaShawn Gardner-Bowser
  • Episodes
    12
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Flip-ed
  • Show Website
    Flip-ed