Education leader Lanira Murphy has had people write her off as too joyful to be serious. She leads network-wide academics anyway, with karaoke in the PD and a firm belief that Black education leaders should never have to lead as someone else.
In this episode of Ronderings, Ron sits down with Lanira Murphy, Senior Director of Academics and former California State Assembly candidate, to talk about joy as a leadership practice and why the field still needs a real plan for developing Black educators.
Her story starts with her mother in Shreveport, Louisiana, whose school was desegregated when she was in eleventh grade. The Black schools closed and the Black teachers were fired, a loss Lanira says education has never recovered from. Her mother made sure her children would graduate. Lanira became the first in her family to finish college, then nearly applied to graduate school without asking her professor for a recommendation. The professor would not allow it, and told her to always give people the opportunity to participate in her life.
Ron and Lanira dig into what her Assembly run, where she earned more than 60,000 votes against an incumbent, taught her about voice and motivation, and why adults in professional development deserve the same dynamic learning environments we want for kids. She is candid about the double bind Black women leaders face: too angry reads one way, too joyful reads as not serious. Her answer is to show up as herself anyway.
Tune in to hear Lanira's Rondering on the power people underestimate in themselves, and why she believes the most powerful movements in American history came from young people.
Chapters:
- 🏫 03:54 Lanira Murphy on how desegregation taught her mother what education is worth
- 🙌🏾 06:23 Always give people the opportunity to participate in your life
- 🗳️ 11:57 Why she walked away from politics and chose Teach For America
- 🌱 16:30 Pouring into Black education leaders after a lost generation
- 😄 19:30 Joyful leadership means making sure people feel seen
- 🎤 22:54 Adults don't play enough, and educators burn out without it
- ⚖️ 28:01 The double bind of leading as a joyful Black woman
- 🗣️ 34:43 What politics teaches school leaders about voice and the power of story
- ⚡ 47:19 Lanira's Rondering: Marianne Williamson on being powerful beyond measure
Links:
Lanira calls herself an open book: if she has a resource that's working, it's yours. Reach out to her on LinkedIn to keep the conversation going on joyful academic leadership and developing the next generation of Black education leaders.
Episode 113
