Meaningful change is built on a foundation of curiosity, research, and data-informed best practices. ​

​As a student voice scholar with a PhD in Leadership and Change, I stay current with academic literature and research. As an educational consultant and podcast host, I stay connected with the top voices in this space. And, as a person, I’m never not with a book I’m reading! 

I describe my curricular approach as Dr. Gholdy Muhammad's HILL Model meets Harvard's DKP, and my responsive coaching approach as  Street Data meets Zaretta Hammond’s cognitive apprenticeship meets PLC at Work®. 

I draw on a long line of thinkers, researchers, and educators — my intellectual ancestors & contemporaries — who have been championing justice and equity in education for decades. Research and educators informing my work include: 

• Establishing deep listening and criticality in our practices (Muhammad, 2020) 
• Developing “justice-oriented citizens” (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004). 
• Learning from and amplifying the voices of students at the margins using “street data” (Safir & Dugan, 2021). 
• Recognizing storytelling is a key component of civics (Mirra & Garcia, 2023)
• Grounding coaching in equity, student voice, and a culture of “cognitive apprenticeship” (Zaretta Hammond, 2025). 
• Infusing student discussion, inquiry, and criticality into lessons (drawing on the work of Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Matthew Kay, Gholnecsar Muhammad, and others)

​“Narratives remind us that despite our differences, we are inextricably linked…we can support students to recognize both the power that dominant stories have to influence our assumptions about the world and the possibilities opened up by counter-storytelling to disrupt the status quo and create new plotlines for the future.”
​
​(Mirra & Garcia, 2023, p. 79)