This time around, Anette interviews Mark Nair, entrepreneur, innovator, and chair of Business Systems and Emerging Technology at Amarillo College where he teaches economics and technology. You may remember Episode #20, where Mark interviewed Anette about running in the primaries. This discussion focuses on teaching college students economics and Swift coding, the move to online learning, even before COVID-19, and the intersection of education, economics, innovation, and the future.
Read MoreAnette visits with Ann Beeson, CEO of Every Texan. While Anette currently serves on the board, she has worked with this organization for years, though it now has a new name! Learn more about the skills and passion friend and fellow native Texan Ann Beeson brings to the state in this discussion. Ann Beeson is CEO of Every Texan, formerly known as the Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP). Ann embraces creative strategies to champion policy changes that improve people’s lives. A renowned social justice lawyer, former philanthropy executive, and frequent public speaker, Beeson joined Every Texan in 2013.
Read MoreAnette visits with Todd McLees about the future of work, lifelong learning, education, and more. They met when Todd presented at the Amarillo College General Assembly in January, and, boy, has the world changed since then! Yet Todd's insight and examples on disruption are even more relevant and important now, in light of COVID-19's impact on society, learning, and work, than ever before.
Read MoreListen to Anette's conversation with Maria Xenidou, one of her podcast coaches, fellow podcaster, and now friend. Maria and Anette connected over their shared interest in education, lifelong learning, and on how the future of education may evolve. After twenty years of her international corporate career in product development, technology, innovation, and marketing, Maria advises enterprises on their growth strategy through marketing, innovation, mergers and acquisitions. She is also the host of Impact Learning, a podcast that guides students and professionals to design their learning journey and build the life they want. Together with her guests, Maria explores the future of learning through the stories of those who are disrupting how we learn, live and work today and in the future.
Read MoreWhen you have a podcast, and it's Mother's Day, what's more natural than asking your boys to be the guests? I'm fortunate to have three wonderful sons, and on this episode you'll hear their opinions on part of their education journey, and the importance of education not just in their life, but in the larger society, as they see it. I hope you enjoy this have as much as I did! Thanks to Walker, Darwin, and Everett, who currently live in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, and Wichita, Kansas, respectively. Wonderful young gents!
Read MoreDr. John Horn, a long-time educator, talks educational leadership, values, and so much more with Anette and her co-host, David Anderson. Anette met John through his work with both the Schlechty Center and the Visioning Institute, and has always valued his expertise and wisdom. A former superintendent in both Allen and Mesquite, John brings a wealth of wisdom and perspective to the importance of educational leadership, and how to keep growing as a leader.
Read MoreIn this episode, Anette visits with Kate Rogers, Vice-President of Outreach and Community Engagement for the Charles Butt Foundation. Anette first met Kate through her volunteer work with the H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards initiative, and is excited to share Kate's varied experiences and knowledge about education. Be sure and take note of the #TeachersCan campaign, and get involved!
Read MoreSPECIAL EDITION: A timely and informative episode with Dr. J. Taylor Carlisle, Infectious Disease specialist and Anette's husband, discussing the history of pandemics in humans through the ages. Trained at Baylor Medical School for his M.D., with his specialty training for I.D. at Tulane Medical School, Taylor has practiced his profession in Amarillo for 32 years at the Amarillo Diagnostic Clinic. Enjoy and learn more than you may want to know about the history of a number of diseases.
Read MoreAnette visits with Chandra Kring Villanueva on school finance in Texas, focusing on the recently released paper on HB3. As complicated as it is, Chandra knows her school finance, and helps explain it here. As Program Director of the Economic Opportunity Team, Chandra oversees the Center for Public Policy and Priority's work on education, workforce development and job quality. She joined CPPP in 2010 and focused on school finance and education policy ranging from early education to higher education access and success.
Read MoreSpecial Edition for COVID-19: Hear from Dr. Kevin Brown, executive director of the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA), about how school districts and educators across Texas are stepping up to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic. How do over 1000 districts pivot to continue providing education to the 5.4 millions students in Texas public schools in just a week or two? By loving the work and the students they serve, according to Kevin.
Read MoreSpecial Edition for COVID-19: Hear how Amarillo College is responding to the challenges that the Coronavirus pandemic has thrown at us and everyone else. A great team that continues to grow our Culture of Caring at AC, led by our president, Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart. Keep on educating our students, all!
Read MoreWhile Jeff Webster's love of music may have brought him to Texas, we are fortunate he chose to stay and share his expertise on data analysis as Director of Research for the Trellis Company. Anette and Jeff have interacted on a number of projects over the years. and you'll get to hear about those and lots more of the work Jeff leads. There are loads of great resources on the Trellis Foundation website, including the main study covered, "Studying on Empty," focused on food insecurity among college students and more. Jeff Webster has overseen numerous studies on college affordability, student debt burden, and student success. His area pioneered the use of predictive modeling to improve student loan default prevention efforts, evaluated a state financial education program, assessed the efficacy of federal student loan counseling, and administers the Student Financial Wellness Survey. Jeff has presented to many groups including the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, the federal Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, and the Financial Literacy and Education Commission. Jeff loves roots music and formerly was a freelance music writer for the Austin American-Statesman. He once performed folk songs – in Hungarian -- in the second largest concert hall in Budapest, Hungary.
Read MoreWith a degree in jazz guitar and years of experience both playing and teaching, Bret Boyer understands the importance of the arts in education. Bret is Anette's ukulele instructor, and their lessons most often happen via FaceTime, as he lives in Austin. Anette and Bret discuss his knowledge of many kinds of music, as well as his background in playing and teaching various instruments. Bret tries to adapt his lessons to fit the student's personal interests, to better engage them. Anette shares the challenges that some of the varying approaches Bret uses challenge her in a way that mirrors the challenges many of our youth face on a daily basis in our schools. Enjoy this slightly different though very relevant episode! And enjoy listening to Bret play!
Read MoreDyron Howell, founder and director of Snack Pak 4 Kids, talks with Anette about how they meet the nutritional needs for tens of thousands of children across the Panhandle and the country. Dyron, a registered pharmacist, in the corporate world for his work life, has spent part of that time developing this concept with the help of community, corporate, and student partners. Now retired from the pharmaceutical industry, Dyron uses his knowledge to build a system to meet the nutritional needs of many low-income individuals, not just students. He shares their methodology in this episode and on their website, https://www.sp4k.org.
Read MorePastor Anthony Harris of St. John Baptist Church in Amarillo is a passionate education advocate and community leader working to improve the lives of young people in our community. Friends since they met, Anthony and Anette discuss the ways he is working to create more opportunities for our area youth.
Read MoreLong-time educator, Karla Weatherly, has gone from kindergarten teacher at Bivins Elementary to the head of the Texas Panhandle P-16 Council at ESC Region 16 since she met Anette as the kindergarten teacher of Anette's oldest son, Walker. Karla has worn a variety of educator hats in this time, and has never strayed far from her early childhood beginnings. Now she connects those to college completion through her work on the P-16 council, and here shares her expertise across all educational levels. Thanks, Karla! Learn about becoming a teacher, or filling out the FAFSA! Karla covers it all!
Read MoreShanna Peeples, the 2015 National Teacher of the Year, took the road less travelled on the way to her classroom. She worked as a disc jockey, medical assistant, and journalist before teaching, as she says, chose her.
Shanna taught middle and high school English in low-income schools in Amarillo, Texas for 14 years at Palo Duro High School. Currently, Shanna is an Equity and Access Fellow in residency at the Council of Chief State School Officers to complete a doctorate in Education Leadership at Harvard Graduate School of Education. At Harvard, she was a Teaching Fellow and is part of two teams: one, an education startup for STEM learning, the other, a leadership consultancy.
Her book, Think Like Socrates: Invite Wonder and Empathy Into the Classroom, was chosen by the National Education Association Foundation and PDK International for their membership.
Read MoreWhen you have a guest host like Mark Nair, hang on! Mark and I talk about my primary runs for the Texas House, SBOE, about Panhandle Twenty/20, and much more! While he wanted me to entitle this episode "The Burning Pants of Democracy," I stuck with a less flashy title. Thanks for guest-hosting, Mark! Mark is the chair of Business Systems and Emerging Technology at Amarillo College where he teaches economics and technology.
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