Research-Practice Webinar, March 19 | Equitable School Leadership in California’s Diverse Rural Contexts

Jabari Mahiri (Professor and Faculty Director, BSE Leadership Programs; Chair, 21CSLA Leadership Board) is the author of  Deconstructing Race: Multicultural Education Beyond the Color-Bind, as well as host of podcast Equity Leadership Now!

Dr. Kristina A. Hesbol (she/her/hers) is an associate professor in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department at the University of Denver’s Morgridge College of Education. Her research agenda focuses on educational leadership and policy issues across two lines of inquiry. The first focuses on leading improvement to disrupt rural educational inequity, including the leader’s pivotal, systemic role in improving complex, intractable problems. The second examines networked improvement communities, particularly their capacity to accelerate improvement in rural and remote learning communities. As the Co-PI of a five-year Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Department of Education Grant, she examines the underrepresentation of minoritized gifted students in rural contexts across the state of Colorado. Her current research examines the behaviors and attitudes of "bright spot" rural educational leaders globally—those who lead schools in which traditionally marginalized students demonstrate improving learning outcomes. She is the Founding Director of the Center for Innovative Rural Collaboration for Leadership in Education (CIRCLE), a UCEA program center which serves as a national clearinghouse for rural practice-research partnerships, focused specifically on improving the preparation and practice of innovative educational leaders in rural contexts, thereby improving equitable learning opportunities for rural students across the country. Through CIRCLE, thought leader practitioners partner with rural researchers to resolve rural problems of practice through innovative leadership, from the classroom to the Board room, with implications for practice, research, and policy. She earned a B.A. in Education (DePauw University), an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction (National-Louis University), and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (Loyola University, Chicago). Throughout her nearly five-decade career as an educator, she has taught students in grades PK–10, served as a principal in three racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse schools, as a district’s Director of School Improvement, and as the Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources for a rurban district. She also worked as a North American Literacy Consultant for the Ministry of Education in New Zealand.

Rindy DeVoll (she/her) (Executive Team member, California Multi-Tiered System of Support) directs the CA Rural Ed Network through the Butte County Office of Education’s CA MTSS Department, leading efforts in amplifying the voices of rural educators, families and students. Rindy began her educational career as a bilingual teacher and continues to advocate for students and families that are underserved. She believes that CA MTSS implementation is the best path to effective and inclusive practices to ensure equity and access for all.