The podcast by education leaders for education leaders

Not Just a Buzzword: Resilience in Education with Lindsay Prendergast & Piper Lee

Guest(s): Lindsay Prendergast and Piper Lee
Date: 05/05/2025
Run time: 30:16
Season 9, Episode 8

What does it truly mean to build resilience in education? Lindsay Prendergast and Piper Lee share insights from their groundbreaking book Habits of Resilient Educators and offer a passionate look into how habits can transform the personal and professional lives of educators. Having observed thousands of instructional rounds and professional learning sessions, they’ve identified key practices that help educators not just survive but thrive in challenging times. From grounding your work in purpose to setting healthy boundaries, Lindsay and Piper discuss how resilience is more than a buzzword; it’s a science. They also preview their upcoming book, Habits of Resilient Leaders, which explores how leaders can foster environments where wellbeing and balance are truly achievable. Whether you’re a teacher, leader, or lifelong learner, this conversation will leave you feeling empowered and better equipped to take on the challenges of education.

*Piper Nichols now goes by Piper Lee

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Episode Audio

Lindsay Prendergast

Lindsay Prendergast brings nearly two decades of experience in global education, where her roles have ranged from leadership coach to principal, consultant, and classroom teacher. As the Assistant Director of Strategy & Development with the Danielson Group, she collaborates with districts, schools, and educators to promote equitable teaching and learning through the Framework for Teaching. Lindsay’s work centers on leading systems change and advancing instructional leadership with practical and impactful insights. Recognized as an ASCD Emerging Leader and Champion in Education as well as an AAIE Fellow, Lindsay is an established thought leader who frequently shares her expertise on leadership development, growth-centered supervision, and assessment practices through ASCD, Learning Forward, Edutopia, AAIE, EARCOS, AMLE, Cognia, and more. She co-authored bestselling Habits of Resilient Educators: Strategies for Thriving During Times of Anxiety, Doubt, and Constant Change (Corwin, 2024), as well as dozens of articles and manuscripts in the field of education. Driven by a commitment to impactful change and global competence, Lindsay’s work empowers educators to navigate complex challenges, fostering environments where both teachers and students thrive.

Piper Lee

Piper Lee has more than twenty-five years of experience in education, including teaching, administration, instructional coaching, professional learning facilitation, and leadership coaching. Her passion for student and adult learning and improving effective teacher instruction and student success in learning ignited her pursuit of working as an instructional leadership coach nationally.

Over the course of her career, Piper has served students, families, teachers, leadership teams, and undergraduate and graduate students. Most recently, Piper has been supporting district leaders, principals, and educators in one of the largest school districts in the country. While partnering with educators across the country, Piper has learned and lives the philosophy that rigorous relationships help to create transformative schools and impact every aspect of our lives. Piper received her bachelor of arts degree in Elementary Education, her master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction, and her education leadership certification and licensure from Winona State University in
Minnesota.

Peter M. DeWitt

Peter DeWitt (Ed.D) is the founder and CEO of the Instructional Leadership Collective, and approaches everything with a learner's mindset. He was a K-5 teacher for 11 years and a principal for 8 years. For over 12 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. His 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 with Michael Nelson and they host Corwin’s Leaders Coaching Leaders podcast. 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, research, trauma and many other educational topics.

Peter is the author, co-author or contributor of numerous books and his articles have appeared in educational research journals at the state, national and international level. His books have been translated into numerous languages.

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, assistant executive director developing professional development for the state of Washington, and currently as the Thought Partner for the Instructional Leadership Collective.

Michael has received many state and national awards during his time as a principal and superintendent. As principal, his school 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.

Michael Nelson co-facilitates coaching, keynotes, and workshops with Peter DeWitt. Their first book “Leading with Intention” was released in May 2024.