Shared Leadership: It's not about your title; it's about your action.

<p>Woven throughout the podcast conversation with Mary Kay Gallagher, Superintendent of Northville Public Schools, is her inherent belief in the tremendous importance of collective work and shared leadership.<strong> </strong>She was hired in Northville as the Early Childhood Program Coordinator in 1985, and has held various district leadership positions, becoming Superintendent in 2011. </p><p><strong>Her leadership journey </strong></p><p>Mary Kay Gallagher was hired to begin a pilot early childhood program, "adding a full-day childcare program, along with expanding our after school programs, and involved in K-2 curriculum development.” As Moraine Elementary School Principal, she noted it was “a great opportunity to build leadership capacity across our teachers and students and become a National School of Character as a result of shared leadership.” As  Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Services, Mary Kay Gallagher “had the opportunity to move our district goals more in the direction of alignment with learning communities and Rick DuFour’s work, which continues to be a foundation.”  She noted as superintendent, “moving the district goal setting processes to focus on learning and growth mindset, in a five-year cycle so that long term continuous goal setting really centered around our vision and purpose” is a point of pride.</p><p><strong>A culture of learning, leadership and the focus on learner voice and agency</strong></p><p>“I think over the course of time in Northville, the growth in our culture of learning and leadership has been really instrumental, along with that focus on learner voice and agency which research bears out to be critical.  Our vision work in moving to build on a tradition of excellence along with that whole idea of opening a world of possibilities for and with our students is something that I’m really proud of, our work collectively.”</p><p>“Northville has had a longstanding commitment to a multi-tiered system of support (M.T.S.S.) providing intervention and support: bringing stud