Bold By Choice Podcast

Before Epicenter had dashboards, scorecards, automated workflows, or AI, there was paper.

A lot of paper.

In this episode of the Bold by Choice Podcast, Vashaunta Harris sits down with Stephanie McKean and Meghann Russell to trace the origin story of Epicenter—from filing cabinets, fax machines, and manually indexed documents to a platform supporting organizations across the country.

The story begins nearly 25 years ago at Central Michigan University, where Meghann took a student job scanning and organizing charter school documents. At the time, she had no idea that work would become the beginning of a decades-long journey—or that those early efforts to make information more accessible would eventually help shape what Epicenter is today.

Stephanie joins the story a few years later, when Corporate Computer was working with CMU to develop the Authorizer Oversight Information System, or AOIS. In those early days, schools were still faxing large stacks of compliance documents, staff were manually reviewing and indexing files, and critical institutional knowledge could easily disappear when people changed roles.

The turning point came when CMU recognized that the work needed a better system—one capable of organizing recurring compliance requirements, receiving documents electronically, showing school status, and helping authorizers identify issues more efficiently. What began as a solution to a very specific operational problem became the foundation for something much larger.

What authorizing looked like before modern digital systems

How filing cabinets, fax machines, and manual indexing shaped the earliest version of Epicenter

Why CMU and Corporate Computer began building AOIS

How the system evolved from document management into a broader authorizing platform

Why user challenges and feedback drove each new stage of development

How Epicenter grew from AOIS to Accountability Insight and eventually to Epicenter

Why preserving institutional knowledge became an important part of the platform

How Epicenter expanded to support applications, site visits, performance reporting, renewals, corrective action, and more

Why the team describes Epicenter as “high tech, high touch”

How AI is becoming part of the next chapter

Why the core goal has remained the same: reduce administrative burden so people can spend more time on meaningful work

One of the most important themes in the conversation is that Epicenter did not begin as software looking for a market. It began with people close enough to the work to see a real problem and keep solving the next one.

As Epicenter grew, so did the problems it was designed to solve. What began as a way to organize documents became a way to manage more of the charter school lifecycle—from applications and oversight to performance, renewal, and ongoing support. Even as the technology continues to evolve, Stephanie says the fundamental question remains the same: How can we make people’s work easier and more efficient so they can focus on the work that matters most?

And through all of that growth, the human side has remained central.

As Stephanie explains, Epicenter is “high tech, high touch.” The technology helps organizations centralize information, automate recurring work, and create visibility. The people behind it bring experience, relationships, and support that help partners solve problems and strengthen their work.

Looking ahead, the conversation turns toward what Epicenter may make possible over the next 25 years—from putting more compliance work on autopilot to preserving institutional knowledge and giving leaders more time to focus on students, schools, and communities.

The Bold by Choice Podcast, powered by the National Charter Schools Institute, shares the people, ideas, and stories helping leaders advance excellence and expand what is possible for students.

Subscribe, share this episode, and discover how one paper problem became a platform built to keep solving what comes next.

In honor of Ted Kolderie’s birthday, we’re returning to one of our favorite conversations from the Bold by Choice archive.

Originally released as Season 2, Episode 2, this special replay explores the life, ideas, and lasting influence of one of chartering’s most important systems thinkers.

Ted Kolderie challenged leaders to look beyond individual schools and rethink the structure of public education itself. His work helped frame chartering not simply as a type of school, but as a strategy for creating a more adaptive, innovative, and self-improving public education system.

As Ted famously argued, meaningful change requires more than improving what already exists. It requires leaders willing to challenge the givens, redesign systems, and create space for people closest to students to try something different.

In this conversation, Vashaunta Harris and Jim Goenner, Ph.D. are joined by Ember Reichgott Junge and Don Cooper, with archival clips featuring Ted in his own words. Together, they revisit the ideas that helped shape the chartering movement and ask what those ideas mean for leaders today.

Why Ted saw chartering as a verb, not a type of school

How chartering was designed as a strategy for broader systems change

Why “challenging the givens” remains essential to innovation

The difference between improving an existing structure and redesigning it

Why teacher leadership and professional autonomy mattered deeply to Ted

How teacher-powered schools challenged the traditional “boss-worker” model

What the “big boat/little boat” analogy teaches us about innovation

Why Ted believed innovation means creating room for people to try

How leaders can balance autonomy, accountability, and responsible risk

Why a self-improving education system must be able to learn, adapt, and change

One of Ted’s strongest challenges remains strikingly relevant:

“I think there’s no future in a permission-based system.”

Ted believed innovation requires giving people room to act, experiment, learn, and improve—while managing risk thoughtfully rather than eliminating experimentation altogether.

His legacy also reminds us that the charter idea was never meant to be simply about creating more schools. It was about creating the conditions for new possibilities—empowering educators, expanding options for families, and helping the larger public education system learn and improve.

As we celebrate Ted Kolderie, we invite you to consider one of the questions at the heart of his work:

What are we accepting today that we should be willing to challenge and redesign?

The Bold by Choice Podcast, powered by the National Charter Schools Institute, explores the people, ideas, and choices that continue to shape the future of public education.

Explore Ted Kolderie’s original writings, interviews, and oral histories through the National Charter Schools Founders Library, and join us in carrying his ideas forward.

Subscribe, share this special replay, and keep challenging the givens.

What do today’s students need from us if we are serious about preparing them for tomorrow?

In this episode of the Bold by Choice Podcast, Jim Goenner, Ph.D. turns the tables and interviews co-host Vashaunta Harris about her CharterFolk article, “Designing Forward: What Today’s Students Will Need Tomorrow,” which received a Brian’s Voice Award.

The conversation begins with a leadership practice that shapes much of Vashaunta’s work: listening. She explains how conversations with school leaders, board members, authorizers, families, and students can reveal patterns and signals that traditional data alone may miss—and why strong leaders have to pay attention to both.

From there, Jim and Vashaunta explore a central challenge facing education today:

This is not a moment for louder arguments. It is a moment for design.

While adults debate policy, technology, school choice, funding, and the future of the charter movement, students are walking into classrooms every day. As Vashaunta reminds us, “that third grader is only a third grader this year, and this year matters.”

Why listening is one of the most important leadership tools

How stories and conversations become meaningful data

Why education leaders must move beyond debate and start asking, “What are we actually building?”

How charter schools can stay focused on the promises made to students and families

The difference between storytelling for branding and storytelling for leadership

Why the best leadership stories include tension, failure, learning, and change

What highly effective schools have in common beyond programs and playbooks

Why schools must prepare students not only to graduate, but to live, work, adapt, contribute, and lead

How educators can help students discover their gifts, talents, and future possibilities

Why movements need honest voices willing to ask hard questions and keep pushing forward

Vashaunta also reflects on the meaning of receiving the Brian’s Voice Award, and why voice matters so deeply in a movement built on people sharing what they are seeing, learning, questioning, and trying to build next.

At its heart, this episode is an invitation to stop designing schools solely around what has worked before and start paying closer attention to where students, families, technology, and the world are headed.

As Vashaunta puts it, schools must broaden the definition of readiness. Success cannot stop at credits and graduation. Students also need the ability to know themselves, discover their gifts, solve problems, work with others, adapt, and make meaningful choices about what comes next.

The Bold by Choice Podcast, powered by the National Charter Schools Institute, brings together leaders, stories, and ideas that challenge us to expand possibility and build what students need next.

Hosted by Vashaunta Harris and Jim Goenner, Ph.D.

Subscribe, share this episode with another leader, and keep listening, learning, and designing forward.

Great leadership starts with people.

In this episode of the Bold by Choice Podcast, Vashaunta Harris and Jim Goenner, Ph.D., President & CEO of the National Charter Schools Institute, explore what it means for leaders to intentionally create the conditions where students, staff, families, and communities can thrive.

At the start of a new school year, it is easy to get consumed by schedules, meetings, deadlines, and plans. But bold leaders understand that the people doing the work matter just as much as the work itself.

They pay attention to who is on the team, who needs support, whose gifts are being overlooked, and how each person can contribute to something bigger than themselves.

Throughout the conversation, Jim and Vashaunta also unpack the leadership choices that shape a strong year: purpose, clarity, culture, learning, responsibility, and steadfastness.

Why bold leaders choose people, not just plans

How to recognize and develop the unique gifts people bring to a team

Why clarity creates freedom, ownership, and responsibility

How culture is built through what leaders model, celebrate, correct, and allow

Why belonging and high expectations must exist together

How leaders can use feedback to learn, adjust, and improve

Why responsibility is about keeping promises, not assigning blame

How honest conversations can be both caring and clear

Why steadfast leaders stay courageous and resilient when pressure rises

Vashaunta challenges leaders to ask whether their people feel seen, supported, trusted, and connected to the mission.

Jim reminds us that leaders have a choice in how they see the people around them:

Do we see students and staff as problems to be controlled—or as gifts to be unleashed?

Bold leaders cultivate people. They build teams. They recognize excellence, tell the truth, create clarity, and keep students at the center of every decision.

As you move into the year, ask yourself:

Who needs to be better supported, better aligned, more seen, or more fully invited to use their gifts?

The Bold by Choice Podcast, powered by the National Charter Schools Institute, brings together ideas, experiences, and leaders committed to advancing excellence and expanding what is possible for students.

Subscribe, share this episode with another leader, and keep choosing to be Bold by Choice.

The beginning of a new school year is more than a fresh calendar. It is a leadership moment.

In this episode of the Bold by Choice Podcast, hosts Vashaunta Harris and Jim Goenner, Ph.D. unpack seven start-of-year reminders for leaders who want to begin with intention and create the conditions for students, families, teams, and communities to thrive.

Being bold does not mean being louder, busier, or more performative. It means making disciplined choices about what matters most—and then leading with the clarity, courage, and steadiness to follow through.

Jim and Vashaunta explore seven choices that can shape the entire year:

Purpose. People. Clarity. Culture. Learning. Responsibility. Steadfastness.

Together, they examine how leaders can reconnect their teams to the promise behind the work, cultivate and retain great people, create clarity around roles and expectations, intentionally build culture, use early feedback to learn and improve, strengthen ownership, and remain steady when the pressures of the year begin to rise.

Why bold leaders reconnect people to purpose before tasks

How attracting, developing, and retaining the right people expands possibility

Why clarity around roles, goals, and expectations creates ownership

How leaders build culture on purpose, rather than letting it happen by accident

Why early data, feedback, and evidence should drive learning and improvement

How care, responsibility, and high expectations work together

Why leaders must remain steadfast when the year becomes challenging

Practical questions for school leaders, boards, authorizers, nonprofit leaders, and ecosystem partners

The challenge is not simply to launch the school year.

It is to intentionally create the conditions that will shape what students, families, staff, and communities experience all year long.

Before the end of September, take these seven reminders to your leadership team, board, authorizing team, or staff and ask:

Which of these disciplines does our team need most right now—and what would it look like to lead from it for the next 30 days?

Bold leadership is not about having every answer. It is about making the choices that keep the promise visible and the work moving forward.

The Bold by Choice Podcast is hosted by the National Charter Schools Institute and explores the people, ideas, and choices shaping what is possible in education.

Subscribe and join us as we continue advancing excellence, expanding possibility, and choosing to stay bold.

Chartering was never meant to become another system protecting its place. It was built as a movement—one driven by courage, possibility, innovation, and an unwavering commitment to students.

Recorded live at the Public Charter School Alliances Podcast Festival, this episode of Bold by Choice brings hosts Vashaunta Harris and Dr. Jim Goenner together with Patricia Brantley, CEO of Friendship Public Charter School and founding chair of the D.C. Charter School Alliance, for a candid conversation about what it takes to preserve—and keep advancing—the charter movement.

Patricia reflects on more than three decades with Friendship, beginning with the organization’s earliest days and the moment she realized this work had become more than a job—it was a calling. She shares the experience of watching families leave an early school lottery without a seat for their children and how that moment strengthened Friendship’s determination to create more high-quality opportunities. Today, Friendship serves thousands of students across Washington, D.C., with alumni returning as parents, teachers, and leaders.

The conversation also gets candid about the fights that come with the work. Patricia recounts battles over facilities, funding, compliance, expansion, and decisions that did not always put students first. Her message is clear: great results alone will not protect a school or a movement. Leaders have to tell their story, build community, advocate together, and be willing to challenge rules and assumptions that no longer serve students.

That leads to a larger question for the charter community: Have we become too comfortable? Jim and Patricia explore the danger of charter schools becoming the very status quo they were created to challenge. Courage means more than opening a school. Sometimes it means admitting when a model is not working, restructuring, changing course, demanding equitable treatment, or refusing to accept “that’s just how the system works.”

At its heart, this episode is an invitation to recover the original spirit of chartering. Kids do not need another sector defending itself. They need educators, leaders, boards, authorizers, advocates, and families willing to keep building what comes next.

In This Episode

When education work becomes a calling

Friendship Public Charter School’s 30+ year journey

Why families and students must remain the North Star

The courage required to open—and sustain—a charter school

Why strong academic outcomes are not enough to protect the movement

Fair funding, facilities, and regulatory burdens

Building advocacy before a crisis arrives

Why charter leaders need community and a “posse”

Competition, choice, and staying responsive to families

The danger of charters becoming the new status quo

Challenging rules instead of simply accepting them

Knowing when to restructure, merge, change, or let go

Why storytelling matters

Building schools where students and adults feel they get to be there

Courage as acting even when you are afraid

At your next board or leadership meeting, ask:

Are we protecting an institution—or advancing a promise for students?

Then go one step further:

Where are we behaving like caretakers of what already exists, and where are we acting like builders of what students need next?

Courage is not protecting charter schools simply because they are charter schools. It is staying committed to the purpose that created the movement in the first place: delivering better possibilities for kids.

A sector protects its place. A movement protects its purpose.

Powered by the National Charter Schools Institute.

Labor Day is more than a long weekend. It is a reminder that work is deeply connected to dignity, contribution, opportunity, family stability, and civic life.

In this special Labor Day episode of Bold by Choice, Vashaunta Harris, Dr. Jim Goenner, Don Cooper, and Heather Wendling use the holiday as a doorway into a bigger question for education leaders: Are we preparing students merely to graduate, or are we preparing them to contribute, work, lead, create, adapt, and thrive in the world they are actually entering?

Don Cooper opens the conversation by connecting Labor Day, public education, and the broader American story. He reflects on the Progressive Era, industrialization, the labor movement, and the democratic purpose of public education—preparing people not only for work, but also for citizenship, community participation, and a fuller share in the American dream.

From there, Jim connects the conversation to chartering as a movement. Chartering was never meant simply to preserve institutions. It was designed to create the possibility for new and responsive approaches to education. As the nature of work changes, schools must remain focused on the North Star: preparing students for college, work, and life, while giving them the knowledge, skills, and agency to choose their own path.

Heather brings the discussion into the Future Ready work, explaining why readiness is about much more than career pathways, credentials, or CTE programs. Future Ready learning includes meaningful exposure to careers and industries, real-world application, strong partnerships, student agency, and durable skills such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and time management. The challenge is not simply to create another program—it is to design the student experience around the world young people will actually enter.

The episode closes with practical moves leaders can make right now: examine student schedules, ask students what feels relevant to their futures, strengthen community and employer partnerships, look for evidence of durable skills, confront emerging questions about AI, and pay attention to whether students and educators feel like they get to come to school—or simply have to.

In This Episode

The deeper meaning of Labor Day for education leaders

Work, dignity, democracy, and public education

Why schools prepare citizens as well as future workers

Chartering as a movement for responsiveness and innovation

Preparing students for college, work, and life

What “Future Ready” actually means

Durable skills such as communication, collaboration, and critical thinking

Career-connected and real-world learning

The role of employers and community partners

Student agency and meaningful career exposure

Preparing students to use AI responsibly

What boards should monitor beyond traditional academic measures

Why culture can either accelerate or undermine strategy

Bring this question to your next board, leadership team, staff, or student conversation:

What are we doing this year to prepare students not only to graduate, but to contribute, work, lead, create, and thrive in the world they are actually entering?

Then ask:

What evidence would convince us that students are becoming future ready—not only course-ready, test-ready, or compliance-ready?

The future will not wait for schools to catch up. If work, technology, and communities are changing, education leaders have a responsibility to keep learning, adapting, and designing experiences that help every student discover their gifts and build a meaningful future.

Powered by the National Charter Schools Institute.

What happens when education changes faster than governance practices do?

In this episode of Bold by Choice, hosts Vashaunta Harris and Dr. Jim Goenner are joined by Kathy L. Smith, CEO and Founder of EdVision LLC Education Consulting and a board member of the National Charter Schools Institute, for a forward-looking conversation about what governance must become to remain responsive, student-centered, and worthy of public trust.

Kathy begins with the story of her first days as a high school English teacher, when she was assigned students who had too often been underestimated and given fewer opportunities to succeed. That experience shaped a belief she has carried across the classroom, philanthropy, policy, consulting, and the boardroom: adults have a responsibility to make sure the mission is more than words on paper.

From there, the conversation explores what strong board service really requires. Kathy reflects on the importance of intentionally building boards with diverse experiences and skill sets, supporting school leaders while also holding them accountable, and making difficult decisions through the lens of mission rather than convenience. She shares examples of boards choosing long-term community impact over easier solutions and explains why bold governance requires both courage and care.

The discussion then turns to the future. As schools navigate artificial intelligence, enrollment shifts, workforce expectations, student mental health, growing competition, and changing community needs, Kathy challenges boards to spend more time looking ahead. Rather than waiting for emerging issues to become crises, she encourages governing teams to study trends, anticipate change, and create space in board meetings for strategic conversations about the world students are preparing to enter.

At its heart, this episode is a call for boards to move beyond monitoring what has already happened and become active stewards of what comes next.

Hosts

Vashaunta Harris

Dr. Jim Goenner, President & CEO, National Charter Schools Institute

Guest

Kathy L. Smith, CEO & Founder, EdVision LLC Education Consulting

In This Episode

How Kathy’s classroom experience shaped her view of adult responsibility

The difference between an individual board member and the collective board

Why board composition and diverse perspectives matter

Balancing leadership support with accountability

Making courageous, mission-centered decisions

Why boards need to spend more time looking toward the future

Navigating innovation, competition, and organizational risk

Watching trends in enrollment, achievement, workforce needs, and community expectations

Why educator experience matters in board composition

Keeping governance connected to the communities schools serve

Artificial intelligence as an emerging governance responsibility

Preparing students for a rapidly changing future

Before your next board meeting, identify one future reality your board may not be fully prepared to govern through yet.

It might be:

Artificial intelligence

Student mental health

Workforce readiness

Enrollment shifts

Public trust

Facilities

Leadership succession

Then ask:

What decision, discipline, or conversation needs to happen now so our school is not simply protecting what exists, but preparing students for the world ahead?

Great boards do not simply react to change. They anticipate it.

The future of governance will require discipline and stewardship, but also adaptability, curiosity, humility, and the courage to reconsider assumptions that may no longer serve students well.

The promise doesn’t prove itself. Someone has to decide.

Powered by the National Charter Schools Institute.

Renewal is not an event. It is a pattern.

In this episode of Bold by Choice, hosts Vashaunta Harris and Dr. Jim Goenner are joined again by Heather Wendling, Vice President of Professional Services at the National Charter Schools Institute, for a conversation about what it means to govern with renewal readiness in mind long before renewal ever arrives.

Heather shares the story of a school that entered its renewal cycle feeling confident. Meetings were consistent, audits were clean, enrollment was strong, and no major crisis was looming. But as the board began preparing for renewal, it realized it had plenty of information without enough shared clarity. Dashboards were full, committees were active, and reports were being received—but much of the work was disconnected from the school’s strategic priorities and the authorizer’s accountability framework.

That realization became a turning point. Instead of treating renewal as a compliance exercise, the board began using it as a governance mirror. It sharpened its focus on mission, priorities, performance, and people; aligned meetings and dashboards to measurable goals; strengthened onboarding; and created clearer systems for understanding academic and financial data.

The conversation also explores the difference between receiving information and actually building governance understanding. Heather, Jim, and Vashaunta discuss why every board member—not just the treasurer, academic expert, or longest-serving trustee—needs enough knowledge to engage meaningfully with the data and decisions in front of them.

At its heart, this episode is a reminder that strong renewal outcomes are not built in the renewal year. They are built through the habits, systems, questions, and decisions a board practices throughout the entire charter term.

In This Episode

Why renewal begins long before the renewal year

Using renewal as a governance mirror

The difference between information and understanding

Aligning dashboards with mission and strategic priorities

Monitoring academic and financial performance over time

Building board-wide knowledge and accountability

Strengthening onboarding and committee structures

Conducting annual board self-evaluations

Understanding authorizer expectations before renewal

Building governance systems that outlast individual personalities

At your next board meeting, ask:

If renewal happened tomorrow, what evidence would clearly demonstrate our effectiveness as a governing board?

Not just compliance.

Renewal readiness is ultimately about stewardship. The strongest boards do not wait for renewal to prove the promise—they build the evidence every year through consistent, disciplined governance.

Powered by the National Charter Schools Institute.

Governance does not end when the meeting adjourns.

In this episode of Bold by Choice, hosts Vashaunta Harris and Dr. Jim Goenner are joined by Alyson Murphy, Director of Partner Services at the National Charter Schools Institute, for a conversation about the part of governance that happens beyond policies, dashboards, budgets, and board meetings: building trust, relationships, credibility, and public belief.

Alyson shares the story of a board that appeared to be doing everything right internally. Meetings were organized, financials were clean, policies were current, and academic reports were reviewed. But outside the school walls, public trust was eroding. Families were unclear about the school’s mission, local leaders rarely heard from the board, misinformation was spreading, and the school leader was carrying nearly all external relationships alone.

A facility issue and potential school expansion eventually exposed the cost of that inward focus. The board realized it had governed the organization but neglected the ecosystem surrounding it. That realization changed how members understood stewardship. They began attending community meetings, building relationships with local leaders, engaging families more intentionally, learning to tell the school’s story, and becoming active advocates for students and the mission.

Vashaunta, Jim, and Alyson also unpack what authentic advocacy looks like for board members. It is not simply lobbying or public relations. It is showing up, listening, building bridges, elevating student and family voices, and developing relationships before they are urgently needed. They also explore how simple governance habits—such as opening meetings with a mission moment—can help boards keep people, purpose, and impact at the center.

At its heart, this episode is a reminder that strong boards do more than oversee schools. They help create the conditions in which schools can flourish.

In This Episode

Why governance extends beyond the boardroom

The difference between governing an organization and stewarding a mission

Building public trust before it is needed

The board’s role in advocacy

Creating authentic community relationships

Telling the school’s story with clarity and credibility

Recruiting board members who can serve as community bridge-builders

Elevating student, family, and educator voices

Why visibility and presence matter

Using mission moments to strengthen board culture

At your next board meeting, ask:

How are we actively building trust, visibility, and relationships beyond our board meetings?

Where are we showing up?

Strong governance is not only measured by what happens inside meetings. It is also reflected in how boards build trust, strengthen relationships, listen to communities, and advocate publicly for students and families.

Powered by the National Charter Schools Institute.