Ronderings Ron Rapatalo

Being able to step back and observe what is going on around us is often an undervalued skill!
Surabhi Lai is rooted in the belief that we can create a better future of work that is rooted in our humanity and collective belonging. Multi-passionate with a strong sense of curiosity, Surabhi uses empathy and strategy when she coaches job-seekers, entrepreneurs, and organizations to help them create a better work future. Surabhi is pursuing a PhD in Leadership and Change, where her research is focused on understanding the ecosystem of belonging in the workplace.
Fascinated by large group settings, Surabhi seeks out people who are not in a conversation with anyone and looks to introduce them to someone she knows. Surabhi will look to strike up a conversation at the bar or by the food table, becoming the connector at events, pursuing her goal of making people’s lives better, predominantly in the workplace.
We spend so much time in workplaces - how can we make them better, for us to be able to give our best?
Notes: 🍎 You can't navigate a big place like New York City without building your micro-communities. 3:04😇 Surabhi's connection with New York City: different people and languages. 5:29🗽 New Yorkers will move you out of their way, but also they will stop and help. 8:56👧🏽 Surabhi grew up in D.C. in a pretty diverse school. 13:13🍀 Surabhi was bridging spaces, doing some translation: being curious, and observing. 18:09🤓 Surabhi loves to be the connector at events: she is fascinated by large group settings. 23:35⚠️ Different social roles: the importance of name pronunciation. 27:55🤗 Her work is all about making people's work lives better. 31:54👉🏽 That laws and policies are written to incentivize businesses and organizations. 35:09🤯 If you don't feel good at work, then, you are not giving your best at work. 37:55📣 Efforts to diversify neighborhoods: we should all have a megaphone. 40:20💎 Surabhi's RONdering: how do we take all those megaphones to make it a movement? 44:12
Links:
Website: www.surabhilal.com
IG: @slcollabventures
LI: www.linkedin.com/in/surabhilal
SIPS & Leadership: www.surabhilal.com/sips-leadershipRapatalo Group: rapataloconsulting@gmail.com
Leverage Publishing: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com
Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/phenomeron
Instagram: www.instagram.com/phenomeron

Good leadership requires you to always be a student!
From humble beginnings in golf caddying to becoming New Mexico’s Deputy Secretary and Secretary of Education under Gov. Susana Martinez (R) from 2016-2019, Christopher Ruszkowski is a social studies teacher by trade, recently appointed Distinguished Policy Fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Having spent a year in South Africa, Christopher trained as a teacher, spending his first years first in and last out in the school, taking his responsibilities seriously, especially as a rookie. In his 20 years of working within education and education reform, Christopher has a wealth of experience in school systems, as well as figuring out how to develop expertise in all the moving pieces of the system. Believing that you must always remain a student, Christopher has worked under a mentor, working on being informed and gaining an understanding of why things are moving in the way that they are.
The early bird catches the worm - there is value in a hard day’s work!
Notes:🇺🇸 Christopher's family origin: first-generation American working-class story. 4:16🤓 The story of how Christopher got into golf caddying. 9:02🍀 His evolution from a caddy beginner to a trusted confidant and advisor. 13:43🧑‍🏫 The beginning journey with Teach For America: a transformative year in South Africa. 18:46🌍 Making the world a better place: he couldn't do it without some form of frontline service. 21:29🏫 Middle school experience: what went on in his classroom, was a microcosm of what was happening in the education sector. 25:41🎓 All the different education contexts Christopher was involved in. 29:15🎯 Always be a student to be good in a leadership position. 36:19🤯 There is such a dramatic difference in education in different cities today. 40:30👀 It often takes an outsider to see what's going on, but you need an insider to implement it. 46:31 💎 Christopher's RONdering:  it's still about the blue-collar day. 51:45
Links:
Connect: christophernicholasruszkowski@gmail.com Rapatalo Group: rapataloconsulting@gmail.com
Leverage Publishing: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com
Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/phenomeron
Instagram: www.instagram.com/phenomeron

Sharing our stories and spending time with each other can prolong our lives!

Bryan Setser is a seasoned executive edupreneur with three decades of results in K-12, higher education, non-profit, and for-profit organizations. His expertise equips leaders, teams, and organizations with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to be ready for any future. Having worked as a teacher, principal, and even as the inaugural Chief Quality Officer at the Baldrige Award-winning Iredell-Statesville district, Bryan has lent his expertise as a leader of solutions practices, operating as a partner and principal at 2Revolutions and RPK Group, collaborating with numerous higher education clients.
Bryan believes strongly in creating a culture of belonging, which can come through sports, music and movies, but also through social experiences and diversity. Bryan focuses on helping men build more empathy and compassion to themselves first and foremost. There is evidence that suggests being on athletic teams can help one’s body and mind; working as a team and looking out for each other allows for connections to build.

Today is the first day for whatever your purpose is - let’s reignite our purpose!
Notes:🤔 Reflecting on the different identities we have as men of different generations. 4:20😇 Bryan is a Wayfinder: he helps leaders, teams, and organizations navigate their paths. 9:11🎓 He had many different roles in education: curiosity drove him in all the roles. 13:35👉 One of Bryan's drivers is a fundamental distrust of the status quo. 16:51🎦 Finding out people's core values through music and movies. 20:23🥘 How food connects people and creates the social experience. 24:13🌸 All the successful people believe that we have a chance to turn things around. 31:09🎯 Creating a culture of belonging through diversity. 35:52💪 Thoughts on the future of masculinity. 42:42🥋 Sports can also help create leaders and understand team relationships. 47:19🍀 Bryan has been using new technologies since 1995: amplifying tech with humanity. 50:05🤖 The value of AI: how to make it meaningful. 53:39🥅 In our lives, AI will be mostly applicable in biomedicine. 1:01:17💎 Bryan’s RONdering: we're going to have to reignite around purpose. 1:04:10
Links:
Website: www.setsergroup.com
LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryansetser/
FB:https://www.facebook.com/SetserGroup
TW: https://twitter.com/setsergroup
IG: https://www.instagram.com/setsergroup/?hl=enRapatalo Group: rapataloconsulting@gmail.com
Leverage Publishing: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com
Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/phenomeron
Instagram: www.instagram.com/phenomeron

You can be both a happy human and a strong one!
Mike Montoya is the CEO and Founder of Stronger Consulting. A 30-year education sector veteran, Mike is an expert in helping organizations design, manage, and improve educational programs for young people. Mike’s identity as a member of the LGBTQ+ community and a person of color has shaped his entrepreneurial journey, as he educates non-profit organizations to act strategically on behalf of children.
Mike grew up feeling the stress in an ultra-conservative area, but found that he had adults in his life who would allow him to just be himself. Part of the reason Mike got into his career in education, was that he had people around him when he needed them; Mike’s goal is to support the successes of young people through similar things he experienced as a child.
We need people’s wellness and their identities being included - this is the foundation of everything!
Notes:👦 Mike grew up in conservative Colorado as a Catholic, gay kid. 2:34😇 His career choice was partly influenced by adults who helped him find safe spaces while growing up. 4:09✌🏾 The Youth Development space develops you as a whole human being. 8:17🥇 The Broad Center: a framework for what adults need to show up to lead inside school systems. 10:55🏫 K-12 education has shaped Mike's entrepreneurial journey of Stronger Consulting: the influence of his identity. 16:32🤯 People usually didn't believe that he is a person of color. 19:11🪅 Mike's parents helped him to assimilate: the importance of his connection to migrant workers from Mexico. 22:30🎯 Stronger Consulting’s approach is unique because of the diversity of its people. 26:32💎 Mike's RONdering: to achieve success for children, have we been skimming away a little bit of their humanity? 30:01💚 We need the foundation of love and wellness: people's well-being and their identities being included. 33:36
Links:
Website https://strongerconsulting.com/
Connect with Mike:  www.linkedin.com/in/mmscRapatalo Group: rapataloconsulting@gmail.com
Leverage Publishing: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com
Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/phenomeron
Instagram: www.instagram.com/phenomeron

How you internalize racism can destroy your sense of self.

Daniel Anello is a member of the Pahara-Aspen Education Fellowship Summer 2016 cohort and the Leadership Greater Chicago 2019 cohort. He was named to the inaugural class of Presidential Leadership Scholars and he is a Board member of Chicago Urban League and Cleveland Avenue Foundation for Education. He has served as Chief Executive Officer of Kids First Chicago since 2015, and he is supporting parent-led and data-informed change within Chicago’s public schools.

Today he shared how he grew up in a rural community in a family of educators and how his experiences with a racial identity formed him as a person. Personal and family struggles formed his opinion about the equity work we need, the importance of deliberative democracy, and the importance of engaging impacted communities while creating policies.

Daniel emphasizes the need for analytical and creative solutions in order to address the systemic issues in education that have lingered for decades. He thinks that empowering communities will provide strong pillars of change. There is a huge need for collective action to address systemic inequities and create a more just society.

He strongly advocates that Black and brown low-income communities are capable enough to make decisions for themselves and their communities around policies that affect them and especially well-informed parents should be more involved in the decision-making.
Notes:🧑🏾‍ MLK Jr.'s birthday: honoring his legacy and being a social justice warrior. 01:57🤩 Making sure that Black and brown communities in Chicago have the highest education at their fingertips. 02:54👩🏾‍🤝‍👨🏼 Brought up in an interracial family of teachers who moved to a rural area: family conversations about education and civil rights.04:04😓 His struggles with the schooling system and racial identities: getting a grip due to family issues. 07:20⚠️ The criminal justice system is not designed to rehabilitate, it's designed to destroy: his brother’s addiction story and legacy. 12:58👉🏾 Daniel struggled to fit in at investment banking internships and consulting gigs due to cultural differences. 19:01😇 He jumped into an entirely different environment: when Daniel’s life got more fulfilled with helping kids in the dorm than with business. 23:15🗣️ Kids for Chicago and getting focused on educational equity: giving voice to parents. 25:12✌🏾 Racial equity is essential for educational equity: paternalism is going to continue to hamper our ability to see the achievement gap eradicated. 31:25🎯 Community engagement and parental involvement in education and policy changes: engagement and projects for Chicago city. 36:56🥇 The golden rule of good servant leadership: being humble and finding answers through people who will be affected by policies. 🤓 Daniel wants to see a world where the utopia of racial equity allows us to see meritocracy. 45:14💎 RONdering: racial bias is very rooted: privilege doesn’t believe that Black and brown communities can take care of themselves. ⚡ Legacy of the Poor People's Campaign: “Power and privilege and racial inequity are the most dangerous work we do.” 51:57
Links:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kidsfirstchi/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kidsfirstchi/X: https://twitter.com/kidsfirstchi?lang=enSubstack: Danielanello.Substack.com
Rapatalo Group: rapataloconsulting@gmail.com
Leverage Publishing: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com
Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/phenomeron
Instagram: www.instagram.com/phenomeron

Be open to life and to things that come your way!

The oldest child of a Philippine immigrant family to the USA, Grace Cruz graduated from NYU and began a career in teaching. Grace currently works in consulting with the Centre for Powerful Public Schools in LA, intending to improve teaching and learning.

Grace’s Philippine values and culture have a massive impact on the way she lives life, including how she leads in education. With a focus on community as well as individual contributions, Grace believes that if you work as a team and value the contributions within it, you will not need to hire experts for practice, but you will have that expertise within the team.

Be intentional in how you choose to feel - the goal is to respond not to react.
Notes:👩🏻‍🏫 Grace went to NYU and teaching got her to many different roles. 2:48🤔 So much of the focus is going towards expecting students to collaborate in the classrooms. 8:41🇵🇭 Grace’s Philippine identity and values have a massive impact on the way she leads in education. 11:37🤩 Generosity is a big part of Philippine culture. 16:29👉🏻 What teaching looked like under the dictatorship in the Philippines. 18:08👨🏻‍🔬 Her parents were both chemical engineers which made coming to the US easy. 20:53😇 When Grace went back home, she realized that all her relatives knew so much about her. 27:09🤓 Ron learned about entrepreneurship from his parents who worked many jobs. 32:34🦸🏻‍♀️ Today, Grace is consulting with the Center for Powerful Public Schools in LA: trying to improve teaching and learning. 34:03🫥 It's really easy for Filipinos to be invisible: both Grace and Ron have last names that don’t point to their origin. 39:02💎 Grace’s RONdering: be open to life, be open to the things that come your way. 42:54🧠 ADHD is not necessarily a bad thing: kids with ADHD have their minds work so quickly. 47:25
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-cruz-3b254ab/
AI for Education: https://www.aiforeducation.io/
Rapatalo Group: rapataloconsulting@gmail.com
Leverage Publishing: www.leveragepublishinggroup.com
Connect with Ron: www.linkedin.com/in/rapatalo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/phenomeron
Instagram: www.instagram.com/phenomeron