Tricia Noyola is a charter school leader, Regional Superintendent at the KIPP Foundation, and former CEO of Rocky Mountain Prep who builds schools as love letters to the communities they serve. 

In this episode of The Stronger Podcast, Mike Montoya sits down with Tricia to talk about bold leadership, identity, and what it really means to build schools that serve their communities. 

Tricia traces her path from the Rio Grande Valley to a college experience that exposed the inequity gap she had never fully seen, to becoming a first-time principal of the lowest performing school in her network with no formal training and no intention of ever being a leader. She shares what mentor JoAnn Gama saw in her when she could not see it herself, and how she and her team turned that school into the highest performing elementary in the community. 

The conversation sharpens around two ideas Tricia keeps returning to: boldness means asking what if it does work out and acting on that answer, and the idea that 'high expectations and love for kids are opposites' is one of the most damaging false binaries in education today. 

Tune in to hear why accountability and care are not a choice, and what happens when leaders stop pretending they are. 

Chapters:

00:54 🎙️ Want a podcast just like this one? Check out www.podcastsmatter.com 

01:09 🌵 Growing up on the Texas-Mexico border where culture was bright and identity was fluid 

05:06 🏡 Native Texan roots: life before the border that felt like a border 

08:39 🎬 The Selena moment and what border identity actually looks like from the inside 

16:05 🎓 Getting to college and seeing the inequity gap for the first time 

19:32 📚 Find support for writing your impact-driven book at www.booksthatmatter.org 

19:53 🏫 JoAnn Gama's bet: principal of the lowest performing school in the network 

21:30 📉 Year one was a disaster and why that became the most important lesson 

29:24 🔥 The boldness principle: what if it does work out? 

31:36 🌟 If you are a leader or changemaker looking for support, check out www.geniusdiscovery.org 

37:29 💌 My school is a love letter to the community 

39:02 ⚖️ Accountability is not a dirty word: rejecting the false binary in education 

45:07 🎧 Find more podcasts that matter at www.podcaststhatmatter.org 

Links:

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/tricianoyola 

KIPP Foundation: www.kipp.org 

Connect with Tricia on LinkedIn and follow her work at the KIPP Foundation to see what bold, community-centered leadership looks like in practice. 

Connect with Mike: www.linkedin.com/in/mmsc

Stronger Consulting: strongerconsulting.com

Publish a Book That Matters:  booksthatmatter.org

Start a Podcast That Matters:  podcastsmatter.com

Go from Expert to Thought Leader: geniusdiscovery.org 

For more great podcasts like this one, visit https://podcaststhatmatter.org

Stay strong.