Shows
Beyond the Roles: Voices in EducationChanging the "Operating System" in EducationSome people effect change and improvement from within the educational system, and many of the guests on this podcast have been implementing reform in their own ways, through their individual efforts. Others seek change and reform from outside the system. This is the kind of reform David K. Richards effects, through Changemaker Education. With over 25 years of experience in education reform—as a teacher, principal, executive leader, coach, special education consultant, and school founder—David is passionate about changing the narrative of education by putting mind, body, and soul (MBS) at the heart of learning. He previously serv...2025-06-1430 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationSeyyed Sharifi: Meeting the Needs of Nonverbal Students in Post High School EducationSeyyed Sharifi is an educator at Hartvigsen School in Taylorsville, Utah, where he works in the Post High School program for 18-22 year olds with severe disabilities. Last year Seyyed was chosen from more than 2200 nominations for the Granite Education Foundation’s Excel Awards and he received the Granite School District Teacher of the Year in 2024. He continues to be recognized for his work: Seyyed was named a Finalist for the Utah Teacher of the Year in 2025, and recently was recognized as a University of Utah Outstanding Public Educator of the Year for 2025. Seyyed grew up in Utah, went to...2025-04-0523 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationAnn Herrera Ward: Navigating Political Discussions in Polarized EnvironmentsOne of the most challenging aspects of engaging in political discussions in a country with a bipartisan government has been the polarization of views, not only nationwide but in communiies, workplaces, neighborhoods, families, classrooms. Wisconsin is considered a “purple state,” where Democrat and Republican parties have similar levels of support among voters. This is the environment in which Ann Herrera Ward taught government in high school for twenty years. Ann earned her bachelor’s degree in political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before working in the U.S. House of Representatives for seven years. She then obtained her teachi...2025-03-2233 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationAngie Johnson: What Is Possible with a Public Montessori ProgramAngie Johnson is one of the founding members and now the principal of the Mountain West Montessori Academy in South Jordan, Utah, which has served Kindergarten through 9th grade students as a tuition-free public charter school since 2013. The school’s mission is founded on Montessori philosophy and is to facilitate student-centered learning and intellectual curiosity through an individualized and interdisciplinary curriculum, hands-on experience, and community involvement. In this episode Angie shares what drew her to the Montessori philosophy and to offering a more equitable public Montessori program. She discusses the key ways the system of Montessori differs fro...2025-03-0838 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationMary Chris Finnigan: Director of Academics for Student-Athletes at the University of UtahIn the last episode we heard about the mental health needs of college athletes and how they are met at a Division I university. In this episode we hear about how their academic needs are met. An outstanding former high school and college student-athlete herself, Mary Chris Finnigan combines a love of the energy of sports with an extensive background in academic counseling. She played college basketball at the University of California Santa Barbara. She served as the head girls’ basketball coach for her former high school for eight years, where she also worked as a guidance counselor and se...2025-02-2227 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationNic Collins: Counseling College Athletes and Advocating for Mental Health AwarenessAfter 18 years working in corporate sales, Nic Collins decided to go back to school to pursue a graduate degree in counseling. He is now working in an internship for the athletics department at the University of South Carolina, where he is one of many resources on the Mental Health and Performance Team for student-athletes. Nic also advocates for mental health, writes, and is a talented musician, coach, and guest speaker. He is one of the two dynamic hosts of The Constant Quest podcast, which explores topics around personal growth and inspiration and how different people find them. ...2025-02-0836 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationSydney Parks: The Transformative Effects of the Flipped Classroom ModelSydney Parks completed a Masters program in Ecological Economics with a Flipped Classroom model at the University of Edinburgh last year. Before completing this program in Scotland, Sydney had earned a Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego, and worked as a Synthetic Biology researcher in the biotechnology sector. In that work she encountered scientists who had an in-depth understanding of their subject area, confidence from that deep understanding, and fluidity in the way they could speak about it. She realized that the way she learned in school–taking in lectures with content determined by...2025-01-2531 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationDr. Bryan Hale: What's possible when looking at school culture through a wellness lensIn addition to hearing from people who are currently inside the classroom, I enjoy meeting, and hearing the stories of, people who are using their experiences and skills to try to make the educational system better in some way. Dr. Bryan Hale's career in the educational system spans over 25 years. He has been a high school math teacher in Ohio, an assistant principal in North Carolina, and a Principal of a K-8 school and then a charter high school in the Chicagoland area, where he considered becoming a superintendent. His doctoral research on Holistic Wellness in Education and the...2025-01-1132 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationAmanda Wolff: UHSAA Girls' Cross-Country Coach of the Year 2024We’re ending Season 2 with insights from a statewide-recognized coach of the year. Amanda Wolff is an English teacher and the Head Coach of both the Girls’ and Boys’ Cross-Country and Track programs at Cyprus High School, a Title I school in the Granite School District in Salt Lake City, Utah. Under her leadership over the past five years, the team has grown from 55 participating athletes to 130. The Girls’ Cross-Country team took Regionals last year, and the team placed 6th overall in the State. The Girls’ Track and Field team took Regionals for the first time since 1978! Amanda was named the...2024-12-0726 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationRachel Bartholomew: Impacting Student Learning through Instructional Coaching for EducatorsRachel Bartholomew is currently an instructional coach for both an elementary school and a Title I junior high school in the Granite School District in Salt Lake City, Utah. Before that Rachel taught reading for 20 years in all three levels of school: elementary, middle school/junior high, and high school, and in three different states: North Carolina, Washington state, and Utah. Rachel also coached volleyball, basketball, and track and field at the junior high level for 10 years. In this episode, Rachel shares about what has kept her going through 20+ years as an educator. She discusses how instructional c...2024-11-2339 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationJimmy D. Hart Presents the R.A.I. (Respect/Affirmation/Inclusion) FrameworkJimmy D. Hart, Chief Empowerment Officer of Hart Global Industries is an author, coach, speaker and trainer. He has been involved in education for 31 years, in roles ranging from teacher and coach, to site administrator, middle school and high school principal, and district administrator. Now he uses his extensive experience to help school districts put the R.A.I. framework, which stands for Respect, Affirmation, and Inclusion, into practice. He offers leadership training and coaching for adults, and is committed to facilitating consistent and equitable access to resources and interventions for all students, regardless of their background or circumstances. ...2024-11-0936 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationHailey Anderson: Providing and Fighting for Safe SpacesHailey Anderson is a registered nurse at the University of Utah hospital. She is a parent of three kids in the Salt Lake City School District and a fierce advocate for their human rights. I reached out to Rainbow Club of SLC after hearing about it from an educator at Bonneville Elementary School in the Salt Lake City School District. Hailey helped start an Equity Committee at Bonneville about four years ago, and then, in partnership with one of the elementary teachers, helped start Rainbow Club of SLC there. As described on their website, Rainbow Club “is a safe su...2024-10-2624 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationCoach Dru Jones: "It's about the love that you give to another person"Coach Dru Jones is a special education teacher in English and biology, the Head football coach, and the Head Unified Sports Coach at Viewmont High School in the Davis School District in Utah. He has been teaching since 2008 and was recognized recently as the Davis School District’s Teacher of the Year. He was also named one of the finalists for the 2025 Utah Teacher of the Year. In this episode Coach Dru shares about the challenges he faced throughout his own education, and how that motivated him to break the cycle and be the first on his fa...2024-10-1234 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationCarrie Miller: From Meeting Resistance to Building Relationships and the Challenges and Rewards of Educational ConsultingFind out more about the role of an educational consultant through this conversation with Carrie Miller, who is a Vice President for MGT of America in their Education Solutions Group, on the team for Academic Transformation. Carrie was an educator in a number of roles for 12 years, from an English and French teacher, to a Dean of Students, to a Director of Admissions, at various school settings, including rural, urban, Title I, and independent schools in the Pacific Northwest and Colorado. Since 2015 she has been working in management consulting. In 2022 she earned her doctorate of education (EdD) from Johns...2024-09-2835 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationCourtney Hattan: Supporting Students' Needs through Research on ReadingDr. Courtney Hattan is an assistant professor in the science of reading with the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s School of Education. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Maryland and her reading specialist degree from Johns Hopkins University. She has seen many facets of the educational system, having started out as a language arts and social studies teacher at the elementary and middle school levels. Hattan’s work centers on equitable and evidence-based instruction that supports students in activating and building their background knowledge during reading. She was the 2019 recipient of the...2024-09-1441 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationDonda Hartsfield: Facilitating our Connection with NatureDonda Hartsfield has been an outdoor specialist for a Montessori school in Salt Lake City for the last 16 years. She has worked with children ages 3 through 12, and over the years has developed an outdoor curriculum for each age grouping (3-6, 6-9, 9-12). In recent years she has expanded her outreach and has facilitated a connection with nature for high school students and adults as well, through her work with Tree Utah and through her own nature journaling on her website: beecurious.bio. In this episode Donda discusses the many hats she wears, the challenges and rewards of...2024-08-3135 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationRebekah Cummings: From Librarian to Running for State Office and Living the "Antidote to Despair"Rebekah Cummings is a candidate for Lt. Governor of Utah, running on Brian King’s ticket for Governor in November. She brings a unique perspective to another facet of the educational system through her experiences as a librarian, educator, and advocate. In this episode, Rebekah shares about the progression of her involvement in local advocacy to state politics, and the rewards and challenges of advocacy work. She provides an insider perspective of the history of book banning legislation in the state of Utah. She describes the value of assuming good intentions in other people, and the importance of...2024-08-1040 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationIrene Gardea: Continuing to Inspire Students after 15 Years of Teaching, and What Keeps Her Coming BackIrene Gardea is a Speech and Debate teacher at Horizon High School in the outskirts of El Paso, Texas. This is her 16th year in education and her 4th year at Horizon, a public school in the Clint School District. She is also the Speech and Debate Coach and the team brought home its 5th consecutive 1st place team award this year. The team also went to the National Debate Tournament this summer, where some placed in the top 60 in their events. Irene was nominated by her students and recognized as a National High School Speech and...2024-07-2730 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationDr. Lori Desautels: the Applied Educational Neuroscience FrameworkDr. Lori Desautels joins Beyond the Roles to discuss the Tier I framework she created that integrates neuroscience, our understanding of the nervous system and its states, trauma, self-regulation, connection, and co-regulation within the context of education. Applied Educational Neuroscience (AEN) is applicable and potentially life-changing for every individual in the educational system, including children, adolescents, educators, administrators, and parents. In episode 9 we heard about the application of AEN at a TItle I elementary school in the Salt Lake City school district. Jenn Haak shared how she provided a workshop for interested teachers throughout the year after...2024-07-1333 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationThemes and Questions Emerging from Season 1Beyond the Roles host Ramira Alamilla revisits the goals of the podcast, which are to get a sense of the needs of various individuals within the educational system while providing a forum where those individuals can share their stories and experiences. The first season presents an array of varied perspectives of the educational system, revealing awe-inspiring everyday people who are making a difference with their unique combinations of skills, strengths and motivations. In this episode, Ramira shares some patterns and questions that have emerged for her from their stories. The connections made with each guest have been...2024-06-2912 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationMegan Lopez: How We Can Leverage Data to Improve What We Do in Schools for Better Outcomes for StudentsMegan Lopez was a Language Arts and English Language Learner (ELL) teacher for 13 years and for the past 7 years has worn many hats at the Utah State Board of Education (USBE) in the Assessment and Accountability department. In her roles, she oversees the development of all the state tests for Secondary Language Arts (6th - 10th grades). In the state’s English Language Proficiency assessments she oversees screeners identifying English learners, and their growth and proficiency testing, and recently collaborated with colleagues in rewriting Utah's Title III law (for immigrants, refugees, and multilingual learners) to better do that. Her Pr...2024-06-1551 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationHayes Greenfield: The Inspiration Behind the Creative Sound Play CurriculumHayes Greenfield, an award-winning jazz musician, notable film composer, and innovative educator joins the podcast to discuss his background and his latest sound curriculum. Hayes began working as a teaching artist in public and private K-12 schools. Over the last 30 years, he has created and implemented various curricula for K-12 students and professional development workshops for New York City teachers of children with disabilities. He developed a pre-K program for PNC Bank’s “Grow Up Great Initiative,” has consulted with Head Start programs, and started the Jazz-A-Ma-Tazz school assembly program that has reached over 300,000 young people. His upcomi...2024-06-0143 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationJenn Haak: Focusing on Teacher and Student Needs with the Science of the Brain, the Nervous System, and the Impact of TraumaJennifer Haak is a school counselor at Meadowlark Elementary, a Title I school in the Salt Lake City School District here in Utah. She has a graduate certification in Applied Educational Neuroscience (AEN) and is currently working towards a Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership. Learning to ask the question, "What experiences does this individual (colleague/student) need?" through the AEN framework empowered Jenn to understand and heal from her own traumatic encounter with a student in fight or flight that resulted in multiple injuries for Jenn and in her hospitalization, before moving to Utah. Af...2024-05-1139 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationKelli Brown: The Disconnect between the Idea of Teaching and the Reality for New TeachersThrough sharing her experiences in teaching, Kelli Brown provides valuable insights into why some teachers may be leaving the profession. Right after college and the completion of her teacher certification, Kelli became an assistant and then an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher at an inner city public high school in Columbia, South Carolina. Only two and a half years later, she felt overwhelmed and burned out, and was relieved to leave the profession to start a family, which did not seem possible while teaching. She is one of a third of new teachers who quit their j...2024-04-2747 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationKellen Akiyama: Making Connections with Students and HistoryKellen Akiyama is a high school English and history teacher in Southern Oregon who proposed and implemented an African-American Studies course for history credit at his school a few years ago and was recently nominated for Oregon Teacher of the Year by the Oregon Department of Education. In this episode he shares the story of getting the course approved in a historically conservative town, some historical context of that town, and his own philosophy about teaching and connecting history to the lives of his students. He talks about his influences and motivations, the importance of relationships in teaching, and...2024-04-1349 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationCindy Parks: The Vision of a Neurodivergent Educator"Who I am as a human really informs my practice as an educator...and my path to education." Cindy Parks is a neurodivergent learner, a scholar, researcher, parent, advanced stage breast care survivor, and community advocate for inclusion and executive function skills education. After many years of working in preschools and as an advocate for her children, she went back to school for an early childhood credential at the age of 35, which she finished up while battling advanced stage breast cancer. Soon after, she decided to extend her reach and influence by enrolling in the Master's/Ph.D. program...2024-03-3031 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationYevgeny Pevzner: Never AssumeYevgeny Pevzner is a science and STEM teacher at Kearns Junior High in the Granite School District in Salt Lake City, Utah. In this episode, Yev shares some of the biggest challenges he faces now after 26 years of teaching. Last fall he was featured on our local FOX News station in a story about his commitment to making sure his students have snacks in the classroom if they are hungry, which also explains why he was dubbed the “Pop Tart King” by one of his former students. His own educational background both in the Soviet Union and in Utah afte...2024-03-1630 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationBobbi Morgan: The Web of Support for Children's Mental Health through School Social WorkEver wondered what our current school system is doing to meet the mental health needs of young students? Find out what school-based mental health looks like. In this conversation, Bobbi Morgan, a school social worker in the Salt Lake City School District in Utah, describes the tools teachers, counselors and social workers use in school settings in order to provide students with a web of support for trauma and its impacts, helping students develop coping skills and increased well being. Tier I Interventions: Classroom and Schoolwide presentations description and Tier 3 Intervention: Individual Therapy (6:55) National Center f...2024-03-0243 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationJeremy Chatterton: Using Data and Coaching to Improve High School Reading Test ScoresJeremy Chatterton is the principal of a large public high school in the Salt Lake City school district here in Utah. He brings what he's learned from his experiences as a basketball coach, middle school and high school math teacher, assistant principal, and elementary school principal to his vision for setting the tone and a positive culture as a high school principal. His persistence in the face of setbacks and his drive to continually improve have shaped his approach to his current role. He shares some great insights about how important it is to support teachers, the usefulness of...2024-02-1736 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationKristin Allred: Why Some Teachers StayKristin Allred is a first-grade teacher in the Salt Lake City School District in Utah with over 20 years of experience. In this episode Kristin shares some of the challenges facing teachers today, why she considered leaving after the pandemic as many teachers have, and why she chose to stay. She also talks about the rewards of teaching and why she loves teaching first grade. She gives an invaluable long-term perspective on how the teaching profession and students have changed over the last 20+ years, and how much her school district is doing right now to support the evolving needs of...2024-02-0436 minBeyond the Roles: Voices in EducationIntroducing Beyond the Roles: Voices in EducationHost Ramira Alamilla introduces the podcast and shares her own perspective and intentions for the podcast before opening up future episodes to hear the stories and voices of people in different roles in the educational system: teachers, counselors, administrators, and eventually students and parents.2024-02-0309 min
The Constant Quest Podcast#24 - Year 1 of TCQP in Review. Guest Highlights. Reflection & PlanningWow! Happy 1 year anniversary to The Constant Quest Podcast! In this episode, Tine and Taylor reflect on the past year both personally and about their experiences with the podcast. They talk about the power of just getting started, from recording Episode 0 with an iPhone from a couple of notes scratched out with a crayon to what all has transpired in 1 year's time. They also highlight each of the 13 guests that have been on the show this year, each offering personal takeaways from those incredible conversations. Please follow and interact with our guests at their links below...2023-12-181h 42The Constant Quest Podcast#22 - Ramira Alamilla. Can We Adapt Our Education System To Allow Every Student Share Their Unique Gifts? Art, The Power of Telling Your Story, ExpansionTine and Taylor are joined by their friend Ramira Alamilla. Ramira has had an extensive career in education in several different capacities, including teaching, career counseling, and administration in Montessori school. In this episode they discuss some challenges and inequities of the current education model and how they might stifle creativity, individuality, and self-confidence. This is a comprehensive conversation that also explores Ramira's reconnecting with art after setting it aside for several years, how telling your story can be such a valuable exercise, and understanding that regardless of age we are not behind where we are "supposed" to be in...2023-11-091h 35