As Hispanic Heritage Month continues, we highlight Alejandra Nava, who serves as the Program Administrator for Career Pathways at MESD. Alejandra shares her personal journey and participation in the Multnomah Grow Your Own program (MGYO), a joint endeavor focused on fostering pathways for future educators to enhance the local educational workforce. Gain insight into MGYO's accomplishments, the importance of this collaborative project, and Alejandra's efforts in supporting aspiring educators. Don't miss out on this discussion!

In episode 1 of the new season 3 of Leaders Build Leaders, Dr. Coakley interviews Principal Todd Nicholson, who gives us an inside look at recovery school Rivercrest Academy. Todd shares about his personal journey and about how Rivercrest came to be, what a day looks like, and why it's important.

Learn more about the Rivercrest Academy at rivercrestacademy.multnomahesd.org

In this episode of Leaders Build Leaders, Dr. Coakley interviews Katy Tibbs, who has been an educator, a teacher librarian, and currently Digital Learning & AI Integration Specialist at Multnomah Education Service District. Dr. Coakley and Katy discussed artificial intelligence - how to start using it, its potential impact on education, and resources to learn more, including MESD's upcoming collaboration for the 2025 AI Empowered Education conference.



Learn more about the conference at https://aiempowerededu2025.sched.com

In this episode of Leaders Build Leaders, Dr. Coakley interviews Michael Lopes Serrao, who has been Superintendent of Parkrose School District since 2018 after working for the district since 2002. Dr. Coakley and Superintendent Lopes Serrao speak about their influencers, about the power of curiosity, and about what the future of education might look like.

In this special episode of Leaders Build Leaders, Dr. Coakley takes the podcast on the road to the AESA Conference in Orlando to interview Dr. Joan H. Wade. With over 30 years in public education, Dr. Wade brings a wealth of experience as a library media specialist, technology coordinator, and distance learning director in Wisconsin school districts. She also served as a Wisconsin State Representative from 1998 to 2001 and has been the Executive Director of the Association of Educational Service Agencies (AESA) since 2016.

In this episode, Dr. Coakley sits down with Clackamas Education Service District Superintendent Larry Didway for a one-on-one conversation about leadership styles, balancing work and life, building and sustaining infrastructure to support staff growth, and helping students develop the resilience and adaptability they need for the future.

In this premiere episode of Season Two, Dr. Coakley speaks with Dr. Krista Parent, Director of Executive Leadership at Coalition of School Administrators (COSA ).They explore professional development opportunities and equity-forward options for future educational leaders.

For the last episode of this season, Dr. Coakley met with Clackamas Education Service District Superintendent Larry Didway and NW Regional Education Service District Superintendent Dan Goldman to discuss the implications and future of artificial intelligence in education.