Ed-Leadership Spotlight: Kinnari Patel-Smyth
Check out our interview with Kinnari Patel-Smyth, KIPP Metro Atlanta Executive Director and KIPP Foundation President.
Tell us how you got into education and how you got where you are now?
"I always played school and doctor as a child. I think it had to do with my child bossiness and being the middle child in a big family. I had to make a voice for myself in a big household. At school, I wanted to be the teacher and always looked up to my teachers. As I grew older, I learned more about education and the impact that schools have. And most importantly, I do this for my mom and those like my mom. Many decisions were made for or at my mom as she grew up. I got into education to ensure that all people, regardless of race or gender, can always have their voices heard. It is important to me to ensure that these voices are empowered and amplified, and I believe that education plays a significant role.”
Growing up, when I was in high school I volunteered and worked at summer camps and always found great joy working with little kids. I realized I was pretty good at it, but still entered college not knowing what I was going to major in as a first generation college student. At the time I decided to major in Social Work. My family was very unfamiliar with my major, other than the fact that it didn’t bring in much money. I went in knowing that I wanted to work with people, but after my first social work class I realized that it wasn't what I wanted. It wasn’t what I expected it to be like. I wanted to work with people and gain the skills and resources to do so. So, my counselor told me to take a methods class and Intro to Education course, and it was there where I found myself coming into the adult version of myself. I ran to all of my education courses. The university I went to, Salisbury State University, was actually a former teachers college for women, so their Education program was great. My undergrad degree was in Elementary Education, and from there I taught traditional Elementary School. I went to Fort Worth, Texas where they’d ring a cowbell and you had to run to arenas to interview with principals, pretty wild! I took the first job offer that I received. I taught kindergarten for a year in Fort Worth and loved it, but I wanted to get back to my village, because being alone in a new place, especially as a teacher was hard. So I came to Atlanta, and taught in Mableton for six years as a Kindergarten, 1st grade and 2nd grade teacher, co-teaching bilingual. It was where I learned leadership skills, by running their after-school and summer program.
I wanted to expand my impact, and had my first chance in a charter school in New York in 2006 as an Assistant Principal or Dean. I then went on to apply for and get accepted into New Leaders for New Schools, where I learned how to become a principal. I was in cohort five and I loved that program because I'm a hands-on learner. In this program I learned 4 days a week, and had class 1 day a week with a summer intersession. I was partnered with a brilliant principal I was able to shadow. I went on to be a principal for the next 6 year, before expanding my impact in New York and coaching principals on their Journey.
And then I wanted to be near family once more, so I came back to Atlanta where they were looking for a Chief Academic Officer, and I stepped into that role in 2012 and did that for 2 years before coming into this Executive Director Role.
What do love most about education in Atlanta?
I was here for 6 years, left for ten years and came back and in that time so much changed. Atlanta has the opportunity to be the nation's capital of excellence with brown and black children. I’ve never seen a place with a workforce that looks like children that they are working with, day in and day out. New York was very different in a sense that we still got the work done, but there was a missing piece around the talent pipeline and really having community principals and schools. What I love about Atlanta is that our team and our people look like our kids. Young people get to look up to them and connect with them. There is also so much history here, we are on the ground of greatness. Atlanta is a Civil Rights city and a central place where action occurs, it makes me excited to do the work everyday. It even makes me consider decisions early on in my career, and what I would do this time around. The talent pipeline is big enough here, Atlanta has the right designers, we just have to be brave enough to do the work.
What's challenging about education in Atlanta?
I think there's still a deep history in the south and we’re still stuck there. Resources are not allocated with excellent strategies to keep communities vibrant. While our teachers and students look alike, there's still no collective voice via age, socioeconomic levels and gender. I believe in a more unified and collective us, and that the shift is coming. It's challenging here at times, because we're still stuck in those old ways and we haven’t bucked up against some of those systems to break through, dismantle and redesign them. If we all did our part with excellence, and then collaborate we could get so much more accomplished. A quote that I often reflect upon is “Crumble the walls and let my heart do what it is mine to do”- Morgan Harper Nichols.
Tell us about your new role and what you're most excited about?
“KIPP operates in 55 communities in about 28 regions. We’re the largest network of charter schools in the country. What is most exciting to me is to galvanize every one of those regional strengths and broadcast them from coast to coast, so that we can learn and learn fast. Mostly to keep our promises sacred to our students. I’m super excited about the collaborative nature of this role. I'm excited to study success frameworks and replicate that. When I think about this next decade, there's a real opportunity for connections and collaboration. There's also a real opportunity to go after a few things with excellence. Like ‘What should be the same for all of KIPP?’ regardless of where you go, and ‘What should be honored and community driven and different for all KIPPs?’. It’s defining that and getting clarity on who does what.
If serving more students is in our future then let’s do that, if serving our current 113K students with excellence is in our future then lets do that. Just leveraging all of that beauty, I think about my new job as working with executive directors and their regional teams to be in community and working with the network facing team to really make sure our strategy and our work streams are what our schools need. Instead of doing what we like, doing what we need.
It’s like being a superintendent of a school district with fewer decision rights. I don’t actually manage any of these regional executive directors, so it will be through the power of connection and collaboration and just the spirit of community that we’ll get the work done. There’s no formal authority, so it’s all about communicating and learning together.”
What do you want all kids to know right now?
“We will get out of this, and when we do we must be whole, healthy people. Our team, our family, our community needs to know that we are there for them. We are caring about their mental wellness and health, and we love them. When I think about basic needs, we just need to come out of this thing with one foot in front of the other, healed in some way. There’s a lot of trauma going on right now, not seeing and being with your community. What’s important as we approach another year of this, is that this connection and bond continues to get stronger and doesn't waiver and whither away. Once our doors open again, that’s what will get our kids running back to school. To see their teachers, friends, and take their favorite class. We’ll do the work, but are we fed, well rested, cared for and loved? I can't wait to get back to asking “How are you doing?”, because in the midst of a health pandemic and political warfare, it doesn't seem right to ask how you are doing right now. We are carrying a lot and may need to ask, ‘what can I do to help and support you?’, instead.”
How can our followers stay in touch with you?
Click HERE to learn more about KIPP Metro-Atlanta