Search for a command to run...
Abstract Superintendents across the US South have incredible potential to increase equity and opportunity for students and families, and within the communities they serve. At the same time, they face major challenges. Modern pushback on equity work, combined with historical and structural inequities present throughout the country but particularly pronounced with their own specific character in the southern US, present enormous opportunity to bring about positive change but also grave threats if that change is not achieved. In this chapter, we will address the power of district leaders to work transformatively to advance equity through a case study of the work of Dr. Valerie Bridges, a Black female superintendent in eastern North Carolina. At the beginning of her tenure as superintendent of the Edgecombe County Public Schools (ECPS), Dr. Bridges participated in the Southern Education Foundation’s (SEF) Racial Equity Leadership Network (RELN), an 18‑month cohort-based fellowship for district executive leaders committed to addressing persistent disparities and improving their equity leadership in practice. We will follow Dr. Bridges’ work to build relationships, engage her local community, and increase equity within a context of school turnaround, funding and staffing challenges, and eventually the COVID‑19 pandemic, culminating in her recognition as North Carolina Superintendent of the Year in 2022. We will also address her positionality as a woman of color and the district’s first female superintendent. We will conclude by discussing lessons learned and the ways in which Dr. Bridges’ work highlights the transformative power of the superintendency.