LM Feb 2024

Professional Development Two years later, I’m grateful I said yes. Our podcast has exploded with so many listeners, great interviews and guests from all over the country, we hosted a first ever UL in-person event, and we recently published our first book, Unsupervised Leadership: Celebrating and Elevating Fun, Fab, and Fierce Females , available for purchase on Ama zon. At last glance, our book ranked #1 on New Releases for Administration and continues to climb the charts in all other areas, too! We are here for all of it! Our goal with the book was to provide practical, tangible, entertaining and REAL ways of assessing yourself as a leader, while helping you build your confidence, face your fears and elevate others around you. We infuse our own ideas into the stories of people who joined us in Season One of the pod. Our hope is that readers will find the stories valuable and realize the importance of elevating leaders everywhere…every day, we can choose whether or not we elevate and celebrate each other, and this book calls upon us all to do just that. To close, there will likely be more to say about my time at IASA as I get closer to returning to the superintendency on July 1 but, in the meantime, thank you to all of our members for your support, and thank you for elevating and celebrat ing others in our field. Cheers to you!

Dr. Courtney Orzel IASA Associate Director of Professional Development

Two Years Later: Grateful I Said Yes to Launching Unsupervised Leadership My first thought when Kate Koch approached me about start ing a podcast in February 2022 was, “You’re crazy—there is no way I have time for this, and I don’t even listen to pod casts.” IASA PD opportunities were expanding exponentially with new workshops, academies and networking experiences being offered, and all I could think is—there is just no way. Even with all of that, a podcast sounded intriguing. Kate and I were colleagues, and pursuing the idea allowed us to carve out time to talk about education while also pulling in some of our favorite people as guests to join us in our conversa tions…and we could discuss our favorite drinks, of course. Through the pod, we highlight leaders all over the coun try—some are men, most are women, some work in other industries, and we have a Sparkle Spotlight with our Sparkle Sister, Dr. Bhavna Sharma-Lewis, who gives us quick self-re flections each week. We try to embed real talk with energetic and fun guests who leave us all reflecting on ourselves and our work as leaders.

IASA Offering Initial and Retraining Academies for Principal and Teacher Evaluation, Student Growth Need Evaluator Credits?

If you or anyone in your district is in need of evaluator training to fulfill state requirements, IASA has you covered. Multiple sessions are being offered in FY 2024 beginning in July. All sessions will be held virtually. info•register

20 LM February 2024