Beyond the Roles: Voices in Education

Ramira Alamilla

Join host Ramira Alamilla as she connects with people who hold different roles in education, listening to their stories and perspectives, one voice at a time.

  1. 14 JUN

    Changing the "Operating System" in Education

    Some people effect change and improvement from within the educational system, and many of the guests on this podcast have been implementing reform in their own ways, through their individual efforts. Others seek change and reform from outside the system. This is the kind of reform David K. Richards effects, through Changemaker Education. With over 25 years of experience in education reform—as a teacher, principal, executive leader, coach, special education consultant, and school founder—David is passionate about changing the narrative of education by putting mind, body, and soul (MBS) at the heart of learning. He previously served as a founding leader with Summit Public Schools. He then became the Founder & CEO of Growth Public Schools, which are “learner- and heart-centered” charter schools in Sacramento, before launching Changemaker Education, which supports parents in finding microschools that best fit their students’ needs and also  supports potential founders of microschools. David is the host of the Changemaker EDU podcast, where he shares insights into the future of education, microschools leadership, and love-based learning. In this episode, David shares his story about what motivated him to give up a corporate banking job at 30 in order to start teaching at an urban school in Oakland, then later leave an executive job with Summit Public Schools to found the Growth Public Schools. At the heart of his schools are strong relationships with self and others and understanding your own inner greatness. Now he is applying this philosophy in his work with educators and parents around microschools, which, with their small size and personal approach, he anticipates could solve many of the systemic issues in education. References from episode: Finding your own North Star, by Martha Beck https://marthabeck.com/product/finding-your-own-north-star/ National Microschooling Center https://microschoolingcenter.org/ Changemaker Education changemakereducation.com

    31 min

  2. 5 ABR

    Seyyed Sharifi: Meeting the Needs of Nonverbal Students in Post High School Education

    Seyyed Sharifi is an educator at Hartvigsen School in Taylorsville, Utah, where he works in the Post High School program for 18-22 year olds with severe disabilities. Last year Seyyed was chosen from more than 2200 nominations for the Granite Education Foundation’s Excel Awards and he received the Granite School District Teacher of the Year in 2024. He continues to be recognized for his work: Seyyed was named a Finalist for the Utah Teacher of the Year in 2025, and recently was recognized as a University of Utah Outstanding Public Educator of the Year for 2025. Seyyed grew up in Utah, went to Kearns High School, and recently completed his Master’s degree of Education in Special Education with an emphasis on mild to moderate disabilities.  In this episode, Seyyed describes his philosophy of teaching, Connection over Everything, the importance of really seeing his students, and the unique approach he’s taking in his classroom to help his nonverbal students experience activities they might not otherwise and to communicate their needs. He shares the family history and the need for healing that led him to teaching. As he describes the challenges and rewards of teaching in the field of special education it becomes apparent how invaluable the work is for students and their families, how desperately the field needs more teachers, and how difficult it is to retain them.  For more about Seyyed and his award as Granite School District Teacher of the Year: https://www.taylorsvillecityjournal.com/2024/05/06/490799/hartvigsen-school-instructor-named-granite-school-district-teacher-of-the-year For more on Seyyed’s father’s book:  A Square Sky: A True Story of a Prisoner in Afghanistan, by Ahmad Sharifi

    23 min

  3. 22 MAR

    Ann Herrera Ward: Navigating Political Discussions in Polarized Environments

    One of the most challenging aspects of engaging in political discussions in a country with a bipartisan government has been the polarization of views, not only nationwide but in communiies, workplaces, neighborhoods, families, classrooms. Wisconsin is considered a “purple state,” where Democrat and Republican parties have similar levels of support among voters. This is the environment in which Ann Herrera Ward taught government in high school for twenty years. Ann earned her bachelor’s degree in political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before working in the U.S. House of Representatives for seven years. She then obtained her teaching license at Marquette University, where she also earned a master’s degree in instructional leadership. Ann was a government teacher at the high school level in Milwaukee for twenty years. While teaching, she worked on a doctorate degree in Curriculum and Instruction, completing her dissertation research on discussing politics in polarized environments in 2012. She went on to teach methodology and to guide and coach student teachers at Carroll University, Marquette University, and the University of Wisconsin Madison, before she retired two years ago. And she continues to finds way to share her passion for civic education, through teaching civics courses online for Wisconsin Virtual School. In this episode, Ann describes how she persisted in teaching political discussions in the polarized environment of a purple state. She taught mock elections for years in her AP Government and AP Political Science courses despite divisions among students, including during a rare gubernatorial recall election. She describes the methods she used with high school students and taught to student teachers that foster an open classroom climate where students can learn from structured academic controversies. And she provides a variety of resources where teachers, parents, and other adults can learn more about those methods and curricula and engage in potentially polarized discussions themselves. One of the worst things we can do for young future voters, she cautions, is to make them afraid to talk about controversies, which feels like timely advice for voters of every age. Find out more about the resources Ann mentioned regarding curriculum around structured academic controversy, which can also provide guidance for establishing discussion norms in polarized political environments: Deliberating on a Democracy, through Constitutional Rights Foundation: http://did.deliberating.org/about_us/index.html https://teachdemocracy.org/programs Street Law: https://streetlaw.org/ Facing History and Ourselves: https://www.facinghistory.org/ Choices, from Brown University https://www.choices.edu/ The Political Classroom, by Diana Hess and Diana McAvoy https://education.wisc.edu/news/the-political-classroom-holds-potential-to-reduce-partisan-divide/  News Literacy Project https://newslit.org/ Inquiry-based Social Studies (developed by teachers) https://www.inquired.org/  For adults: Living Room Conversations (community civics curriculum beyond high school) https://livingroomconversations.org/ Gubernatorial recall election Ann mentioned:  https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/06/05/154384654/live-blog-wisconsin-decides-governors-fate-in-recall-vote

    33 min

  4. 8 MAR

    Angie Johnson: What Is Possible with a Public Montessori Program

    Angie Johnson is one of the founding members and now the principal of the Mountain West Montessori Academy in South Jordan, Utah, which has served Kindergarten through 9th grade students as a tuition-free public charter school since 2013. The school’s mission is founded on Montessori philosophy and is to facilitate student-centered learning and intellectual curiosity through an individualized and interdisciplinary curriculum, hands-on experience, and community involvement.  In this episode Angie shares what drew her to the Montessori philosophy and to offering a more equitable public Montessori program. She discusses the key ways the system of Montessori differs from the traditional approach to education, and what is possible with its mastery-based learning model and choices within limits. She describes how the teachers can be experts and artists in interpreting diagnostics and offering a differentiated curriculum based on the materials and resources in a Montessori classroom. Angie addresses the challenges of balancing this educational method, which is founded on mixed-age classrooms and early childhood development, with the charter school random lottery system. She shares the rewards of seeing children grow and develop long-lasting habits through practicing executive function skills, learning to prioritize time and interests through choice, and practicing conflict resolution skills at different ages through the peace education program. Students in the middle school program complete a capstone project, an interest-based study, for an entire year, evidence of the groundwork of the previous years in keeping them engaged and developing self-efficacy. Find out more about the Montessori method: https://www.mwmacademy.org/montessori_method Check out Mountain West Montessori Academy’s podcast since 2019: Do you See? Topics include anxiety, interviews with students, gratitude, power struggles, conflict resolution, and many others! https://www.mwmacademy.org/podcast For more about the use of the Waseca Rainbow boxes Angie mentions in relation to literacy building:   https://mcguffeymontessori.com/spelling-with-the-rainbow-boxes-in-lower-elementary/

    38 min

  5. 22 FEB

    Mary Chris Finnigan: Director of Academics for Student-Athletes at the University of Utah

    In the last episode we heard about the mental health needs of college athletes and how they are met at a Division I university. In this episode we hear about how their academic needs are met. An outstanding former high school and college student-athlete herself, Mary Chris Finnigan combines a love of the energy of sports with an extensive background in academic counseling. She played college basketball at the University of California Santa Barbara. She served as the head girls’ basketball coach for her former high school for eight years, where she also worked as a guidance counselor and served as the Director of the Counseling Center for eight of her thirteen years there. Since July 2018 Mary Chris has been the Director of Academics for the Athletics department at the University of Utah, a public research university in Salt Lake City. In this role she and her staff support the 500 student-athletes at the University in becoming independent learners, while also ensuring they have a positive student-athlete experience. In addition to her administrative responsibilities, Mary Chris is the day-to-day academic advisor for the University’s baseball, golf, men’s basketball, volleyball and beach volleyball teams.  In this episode, Mary Chris describes the many aspects of her work and its challenges and rewards. She shares insights into the needs of student athletes on many different levels and what it means to have a positive student-athlete experience; the pressures of timely tracking of NCAA eligibility, complicated by recent changes in NIL; and the importance of building relationships from recruitment through degree completion.

    28 min

  6. 8 FEB

    Nic Collins: Counseling College Athletes and Advocating for Mental Health Awareness

    After 18 years working in corporate sales, Nic Collins decided to go back to school to pursue a graduate degree in counseling. He is now working in an internship for the athletics department at the University of South Carolina, where he is one of many resources on the Mental Health and Performance Team for student-athletes. Nic also advocates for mental health, writes, and is a talented musician, coach, and guest speaker. He is one of the two dynamic hosts of The Constant Quest podcast, which explores topics around personal growth and inspiration and how different people find them. In this episode, Nic shares about why he went back to school, why educating about mental health is important to him, how therapy is helpful for college athletes, and the challenges and rewards of his role offering one-on-one counseling for athletes at the University of South Carolina. Listen to Nic and Taylor’s The Constant Quest Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-constant-quest-podcast/id1661138894 https://open.spotify.com/show/46lJOsOUptOX0a2ani4ozr?si=d00510b8c5ad477c Find out more about mental health advocacy through the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and Mental Health Awareness Month (May) at https://www.nami.org/get-involved/awareness-events/mental-health-awareness-month/

    37 min

  7. 25 ENE

    Sydney Parks: The Transformative Effects of the Flipped Classroom Model

    Sydney Parks completed a Masters program in Ecological Economics with a Flipped Classroom model at the University of Edinburgh last year. Before completing this program in Scotland, Sydney had earned a Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego, and worked as a Synthetic Biology researcher in the biotechnology sector. In that work she encountered scientists who had an in-depth understanding of their subject area, confidence from that deep understanding, and fluidity in the way they could speak about it. She realized that the way she learned in school–taking in lectures with content determined by the teacher, memorizing facts, and competing and striving for good grades–a passive learning model, did not give her the same kind of confidence or fluency. When considering graduate programs, Sydney sought a more active learning experience, which led her to choose the University of Edinburgh's program because of its use of the flipped classroom. In this episode, Sydney shares how through this education model she unlearned former habits and beliefs about education and became a more inclusive and empathetic teacher and student with her peers. For more on the Flipped Classroom model: https://soeonline.american.edu/blog/flipped-classroom-pros-ands-cons/ For more on Ecological Economics at the University of Edinburgh: https://geosciences.ed.ac.uk/applicants/postgraduate-taught/ecological-economics https://economicpluralism.org/pluralist-courses/ecological-economics-sruc-the-university-of-edinburgh/ For more on active learning: https://cei.umn.edu/teaching-resources/active-learning

    32 min

  8. 11 ENE

    Dr. Bryan Hale: What's possible when looking at school culture through a wellness lens

    In addition to hearing from people who are currently inside the classroom, I enjoy meeting, and hearing the stories of, people who are using their experiences and skills to try to make the educational system better in some way. Dr. Bryan Hale's career in the educational system spans over 25 years. He has been a high school math teacher in Ohio, an assistant principal in North Carolina, and a Principal of a K-8 school and then a charter high school in the Chicagoland area, where he considered becoming a superintendent. His doctoral research on Holistic Wellness in Education and the six domains of wellness eventually led him to shift direction. Now he uses his research and experience as an educator to support school communities. He works with school leaders on building school culture through a wellness lens.  In this episode, Bryan shares about the challenges and rewards of his years in the educational system, as well as the student who was his inspiration to research the six domains of wellness: physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, and environmental. He discusses how helpful it can be for the intellectual wellness of a school environment to identify areas of (un)wellness for students and how those can impact learning. In his work with schools, through qualitative and quantitative data, Bryan helps adults identify the driving forces behind student behaviors. This can lead to increased awareness of student and educator needs. For more information about Bryan’s work, or to schedule a call or zoom chat, he can be reached at drbryanhale@united4students.com .

    32 min
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Join host Ramira Alamilla as she connects with people who hold different roles in education, listening to their stories and perspectives, one voice at a time.

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