Since the day I found out that I was selected for the fellowship, I connected with my personal coach. She asks me to take IDI’s test, and we went over my fellowship plan and IDI’s test results. She was a great guardian in steering me in the right direction to achieve my leadership goals. I was able to cut down on my in-kind/volunteer time and cut down from serving on other boards to focus on my leadership journey. My wife stops working to care for our children and me while I pursue this leadership journey.

I have learned a lot since I started taking classes at Harvard Kennedy School – Public Leadership Credentials courses. took classes to build and sustain my leadership goals in the hope of creating a more significant impact in my community soon.
Evidence for Decisions: From Descriptions to Decisions this course is essential to understanding the issues and making decisions. It will equip me with the methods and skills to help me understand the world from descriptions to decisions.
In this class, I have been learned to leverage descriptive evidence to understand issues better and make informed decisions.
Use analytical methods for complex problems-solving and weighting net benefits of decisions
Apply systematic methods to analyze choices and trad-offs of policy options.

Leadership and Ethics: Moral Leadership in personal practice – on this course, I am learning about redefining leadership as moral and applying the concepts and frameworks of moral leadership, including adaptive leadership, rights, and the good, moral foundations, interrogating personal and community values, normative frames and making moral trade-offs.

Effective leaders are constantly trying to understand how change can occur to impact the public good. In Leadership and Ethics, individuals can acquire the skills necessary to begin moral leadership practice to instill change that has a lasting impact on their community.
While many people believe leaders exude heroic behavior and give inspiring speeches, moral leadership is not, in fact, about taking charge and acting alone; moral leadership is about helping people define the problems they face, disagree productively, and make progress toward solutions. In Leadership and Ethics, you will learn that being a moral leader is not about always knowing what is right or how to solve problems. Instead, moral leaders acquire the skills to mobilize people and engage with those problems to find solutions.
These learning experiences have intersected with the work that I am doing in my community. As a chair of the Fargo Human Relations Commission, I can and will apply what I have learned in my daily duties.

As a Director of Equity and Inclusion with Moorhead Area Public Schools, I have been working on Moorhead Public Schools Equity Framework for what we want to achieve and I put it into the Strategic Plan as two sub-plans: 1) Advance Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (Equity Plan), and; 2) Diversity Action Plan (Diversity Plan).
Moorhead School District Equity Plan goals
Creating partnerships with local businesses and non-profit organizations.
Set specific ways to communicate with the community of color to increase their participation in the District’s activities.
Help build a racially diverse workforce and pipeline of BIPOC teachers.
Set a goal to ensure all venues are safe and accessible to all students.
Allocate resources such as time and find funds for organizations working alongside Moorhead Area Public Schools to advance racial equity.
Moorhead School District Diversity Plan goals
Provide IDI training to all faculty.
Ensure the School District workplace is a culture that fosters and celebrates all dimensions of diversity.
Work toward school district staff at all job classification levels reflective of the demographics of its school body.
Engage people to participate with the school district to shape decision-making, programs, and policy.
Conduct an equity audit that sets specific goals for minority contracts to access economic opportunities with the District, as allowed by state law.

As a person who wants to see a vibrant inclusive community, I want to build a community that recognizes, welcomes, and values the voices and perspectives of all residing there. My leadership goal – and passion – is to assist our children, individuals, groups, and organizations to work together in building this type of community and schools are not exceptional.
As a Peacemaker and community builder who will possess the knowledge and skills needed to build a better community or a better leadership, it will help me develop school-based communities that have skills and resources to support our students.