Painting the Bigger Picture at the Yale Education Leadership Conference

This year’s Yale Education Leadership Conference looked beyond incremental change to envision what’s possible when we truly think big about the future of learning. Our theme—“Thinking Big: Where Bold Ideas Meet the Future of Education”—shaped a full day of programming that convened educators, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and students to examine how institutions can respond to rapid change, from the rise of AI in learning environments to persistent structural inequities that shape student outcomes long before they enter a classroom.

This event was especially meaningful to me because before SOM, I spent 10 years as a K–12 public school educator in some of the highest-need schools in Mississippi. Education has been the constant thread running through my professional life, shaping how I think about people, systems, and opportunity—and, in my final semester at SOM, motivating me to serve as a conference organizer.

The conference began with a keynote from Eli Luberoff and Pooja Shaw of the math tools suite Desmos. Setting the tone for the day, their presentation reflected on Desmos’s evolution from a company founded in a Yale dorm room to a platform reaching over 100 million learners worldwide. Eli and Pooja discussed how becoming a public benefit corporation has strengthened the company’s long-term commitment to equity and mission-driven decision-making, even as it continues to scale. The conversation also explored how Desmos is rethinking the core problems in math education, shifting success away from procedural speed toward deeper critical thinking and student engagement.

From there, the day unfolded through a series of panels, exploring topics from international education models to school designs that better support neurodiverse students. Between panels, the hallways and lunch tables became extensions of the program itself, where the exchange of ideas continued long after the microphones were turned off.

The day closed with a final keynote presentation by Dr. Warren Morgan, CEO of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. He spoke about leadership through adversity and resistance as an indicator of the impact of your work. Warren touched on leadership in crisis, the responsibility of leaders to initiate change (he has denied all pay raises for himself during a recent reconsolidation), and the obligation to make sacrifices today to support the better education of students tomorrow. Following the keynote, a networking reception pulled the threads of the day’s discussions back together into shared reflection.

Behind this one day of powerful learning were months of preparation, led by me and three other excellent and hard-working second-year leads: Henry Melzer ’26, Satoshi Suga ’26, and Kavi Saxena ’26. Supported by 12 amazing SOM students and their partners, as well as several undergraduate students from Yale’s education studies program, we brought this event to life while juggling the many other commitments of SOM.

As a lead organizer, I took on three conference roles: head of operations, head of marketing, and co-organizer of one panel. Operations meant managing a web of logistics—speaker travel, room assignments, and merchandise orders. Marketing meant thinking about the story of the conference and how to bring in different constituencies including New Haven educators and residents, students at Yale and other area universities, alumni, and professionals from across the education ecosystem.

The panel I helped design with SOM partner Jasmine Sheen demanded a different kind of effort. We had to choose a topic that mattered, identify voices who could challenge one another thoughtfully, and shape a vibrant conversation. We landed on a topic that is near and dear to my heart: “cradle to career” supports (such as access to housing, healthcare, and nutrition) that ensure educational equity for all students. Moderator Paul Reville brought his expertise from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to lead a conversation with Sarah Miller of the New Haven Board of Alders, Leslie Blatteau of the New Haven Federation of Teachers, and Jack Powers of the Beacon Center of Tennessee. One powerful idea that arose was the importance of local context, which dictates unique needs, resources, and pathways to success for each student.

Even as I pivot into HR after my MBA, that foundation has not shifted. It shows up in how I approach leadership, think about equity, and show up for others. This conference was a chance to stay close to a world that has shaped me deeply. On its surface, the Yale Education Leadership Conference is a single day of programming. But for those of us who planned and executed it, it was an opportunity to create the conditions for others to think, connect, and imagine differently. We were able to see the energy and excitement of educators across our local community and the wider country firsthand and meaningfully contribute to ideas that help move education forward.

For me, this day was personal. It was a way of bringing my decade of classroom experience into my next chapter—as well as an affirmation that the work of education in its many forms is not something I am done with yet.