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Over my 17 years as a youth worker, site director, social worker, recreation inclusion specialist and now a school district coordinator I’ve managed and supported staff across almost every youth-serving environment imaginable. Early in my leadership career, I realized something critical: traditional management frameworks rely heavily on authority and compliance. But in high-stress, high-relational fields like education, childcare, and summer camps, leading purely through auth

Over the past 17 years, my work with youth has spanned almost every environment imaginable—from swim instructor, camp counselor, site director, and tutor, to school social worker, afterschool support specialist to now district leadership. Across those years, I’ve worked directly with thousands of kids. And while I have my own share of hobbies and interests, I certainly didn't share common ground with every single one of those thousands of young people. Early on, I realized th

Early in my career as a school social worker, district social worker, and inclusion specialist supporting over 15 different programs, I was the person on call for crisis behavior response. When a student was highly escalated, the walkie-talkie clicked on, and I was expected to step into the room or onto the playground and diffuse the situation immediately. More often than not, I was able to do it. But when a situation resolved calmly, the feedback from onlookers was almost al