Valery Dragon has worked over a decade in the Washington DC area as an ELL specialist, language teacher, and instructional coach, before leading a PK-8 school as a principal. Both New Leaders and RELAY trained, she then transitioned to a national organization as a managing director of instructional support to focus on leadership actions and practices. In this role, Valery crafted development for district/network leaders through targeted cycles of improvements anchored in operationalizing instructional improvement plans, auditing systems and structures through the lens of internal coherence and equity, as well as modeling and developing coaching practices anchored in content-specific pedagogy. As Vice President, Program Design, Valery contributes to the design of our leadership programs. It is Valery’s belief that fidelity to our mission will empower partners and school leaders to own their input in school-based outcomes, and will allow them to intentionally launch their influence as change agents in hopes that their affirmed identities and leveraged leadership position them to build a strong coalition for change.
