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The podcast by education leaders for education leaders

Are Our Leaders Ready?

Guest(s): Vince Bustamante and Tim Cusack
Date: 09/11/2023
Run time: 29:35
Season 6, Episode 2

Schools need leaders, but fewer and fewer are entering into the position. And far too few are thriving once they are in the role. Two reasons: a mismatch of expectations and a lack of clarity about what the job entails. These signal that it is time to take a hard look at how we prepare aspiring leaders. Tim Cusack and Bustamante have surveyed the landscape, and share their findings in their latest book, Leader Ready. They propose four pathways to get budding leaders to bloom, including standards-based support, guided practice with mentors and mastery experiences.


Episode Audio

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Episode Video

Vince Bustamante Photo

Vince Bustamante

Vince Bustamante, EdD, is a Calgary-based instructional coach, curriculum content developer, and author. Vince specializes in working with teachers, leadership teams, schools, and school districts in implementing high impact strategies and systems. With a strong background in implementation, assessment, and deep learning, he is passionate about understanding and evaluating teachers' impact. Having worked with schools and school districts across North America and internationally, he brings a wide variety of experience and perspectives when looking at school improvement, pedagogical and leadership development, and implementation of high impact strategies across school environments. Vince’s doctoral research focused on the sustainable implementation of professional learning across school districts and the impact of long-term school partnerships.

Vince has co-authored two bestselling books with Corwin Press: Great Teaching by Design and The Assessment Playbook for Distance and Blended Learning. His other title, Leader Ready: Four Pathways to Prepare Aspiring School Leaders, is also available from Corwin Press. You can find more information about Vince at www.vincebustamante.com.

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Tim Cusack Photo

Tim Cusack

Timothy P. Cusack, EdD, has more than thirty-two years of experience as a classroom teacher, assistant principal, principal, and superintendent. Having taught in rural boards in northern and southern Alberta, Tim also has ten years of experience as school leader (K-12) and eight years of experience as a system leader of a large urban board in Edmonton. Tim currently serves as the Dean of Education of Concordia University of Edmonton (CUE), where he leads a teacher preparation program (After Degree in Education) and a Master of Education in Educational Leadership program. His doctoral research focuses on new teacher preparation, teacher mentorship, and leadership development. His dissertation (University of Portland 2020), which centered on preparing aspiring school leaders, evolved into his first book with Corwin—Leader Ready: Four Pathways to Prepare Aspiring School Leaders (2023).

Tim has worked with school jurisdictions across Canada and the United States in sharing his passion for leadership development and teacher mentorship. His service to public education has been recognized through the Council of School Leadership Distinguished Leadership Award (2014) and the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal (2023).

Tim also serves as a Naval Warfare Officer in the Royal Canadian Navy and brings a wealth of leadership experience, having served now for over thirty-five years, including tours as both an Executive and Commanding Officer. His experience in K-12 education, post-secondary leadership, and military leadership add richness and depth to his work as an educational consultant and author. More information about Tim may be found at www.timothycusack.com.


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Peter M. DeWitt Photo

Peter M. DeWitt

Peter DeWitt (Ed.D) is the founder and CEO of the Instructional Leadership Collective. He was a K-5 teacher for 11 years and a principal for 8 years. For the last 10 years, he has been facilitating professional learning nationally, and internationally, based on the content of many of his best-selling educational books. 

 

DeWitt's professional learning relationships are a monthly hybrid approach that includes both coaching and the facilitating workshops on instructional leadership and collective efficacy. 

Additionally, in the Summer of 2021, DeWitt created a year long on-demand, asynchronous coaching course through Thinkific where he has created a community of learners that include k-12 educators in leadership positions. 

 

DeWitt's work has been adopted at the state level, university level, and he works with numerous school districts, school boards, regional networks, ministries of education around North America, Australia, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the U.K.

 

Peter writes the Finding Common Ground column for Education Week, which has been in circulation since 2011. In 2020 DeWitt co-created Education Week's A Seat At the Table where he moderates conversations with experts around the topics of race, gender, sexual orientation, research, trauma and many other educational topics. 

 

Additionally, DeWitt is the Series Editor for the Connected Educator Series (Corwin Press) and the Impact Series (Corwin Press) that include books by Viviane Robinson, Andy Hargreaves, Pasi Sahlberg, Yong Zhao and Michael Fullan.

 

He is the 2013 School Administrators Association of New York State's (SAANYS) Outstanding Educator of the Year, and the 2015 Education Blogger of the Year (Academy of Education Arts & Sciences), and sits on numerous advisory boards. 

Peter is the author, co-author or contributor of numerous books. Click on title to purchase. They include:
Dignity for All: Safeguarding LGBT Students (Corwin Press. 2012).



Flipping Leadership Doesn't Mean Reinventing the Wheel (Corwin Press. 2014)



Collaborative Leadership: 6 Influences That Matter Most (Corwin Press/Learning Forward).



School Climate: Leading With Collective Teacher Efficacy (Corwin Press/ Ontario Principals Council. 2017).

Coach It Further: Using the Art of Coaching to Improve School Leadership (Corwin Press. 2018). 



Instructional Leadership: Creating Practice Out Of Theory (Corwin Press. 2020).



Collective Leader Efficacy: Strengthening the Impact of Instructional Leadership Teams (Corwin Press. Learning Forward. 2021).



De-implementation: Creating the Space to Focus on What Works (Corwin Press. 2022). 



Leading with Intention - Developing self-awareness to fostering an unreasonable human interconnectedness to impact the school community (co-authored with Michael Nelson. Corwin Press. 2024).



Peter's articles have appeared in educational research journals at the state, national and international level. His books have been translated into numerous languages. 

Some of the organizations Peter has worked with are the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), Learning Forward, National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), University of Oklahoma, Cognition Education (New Zealand), Australian Council for Educational Leaders (ACEL), Victoria Department of Education (Australia), University of Rotterdam (Netherlands), Washington Association of School Administrators (WASA), Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA), the National Education Association (NEA), New Brunswick Teacher's Association (Canada), the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), Education Scotland (Scotland), Glasgow City Council (Scotland), Kuwait Technical College (Kuwait) the National Association of School Psychologists, ASCD, l’Association des directions et directions adjointes des écoles franco-ontariennes (ADFO), the Catholic Principals’ Council of Ontario (CPCO), and the Ontario Principals’ Council (OPC), National School Climate Center, GLSEN, PBS, NPR, BAM Radio Network, ABC, and NBC's Education Nation.

Learn more about bringing Peter DeWitt to your school or district at petermdewitt.com

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Michael Nelson Photo

Michael Nelson

There is no more noble profession than that of an educator was what Michael Nelson’s mom said almost every day while he was growing up. For almost 40 years, Michael has been an educator. His mom would be pleased.  

 

Even though Michael still considers “teacher” as his primary title, he has served in roles of principal, district instructional leader, superintendent, and currently as assistant executive director developing programs and initiatives for superintendents and district leaders in the state of Washington.  


One foundational leadership value in which Michael leads is the development of a kind, compassionate, and empathetic culture rooted in belonging and equity. He describes his leadership work as building human connectedness, recognizing you must always model what you lead as you build teams of individuals supporting students in their learning. The Muckleshoot Indian Tribe awarded him with their official blanket for building a collaborative partnership between the Tribe and school district, the highest honor of the Tribe and the first non-Tribal member to receive this blanket.


Michael has received many state and national awards during his time as a principal and superintendent. As a principal, he was acknowledged by Pacific Lutheran University as its Outstanding Recent Alumni in 1997. At the same  time, the school he was leading as principal received the National Blue Ribbon Award from the United States Department of Education.   


As a superintendent, he was named Washington state’s 2019 Superintendent of the Year. During his tenure as superintendent, Michael was elected President of the Washington Association of School Administrators (WASA) by his peers.  


While WASA President, he was one of two superintendents in the nation selected to participate in the Embark Program facilitated by the United States Navy. He spent time on the USS Ronald Reagan learning from all levels of the men and women serving on this aircraft carrier. He also has received the Washington State Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development Educating the Whole Child Award.  

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Featured Publication
Leader Ready
Four Pathways to Prepare Aspiring School Leaders

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