We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dr. Dawn Sizemore. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dr. Dawn below.
Dr. Dawn, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard
Practical Education Solutions designs programmatic professional learning that grows people and achieves goals. Our design frameworks are stakeholder-focused, aligned with organizational goals, and driven by our unique needs-based assessment. We understand that developing professional learning programs that meet the holistic needs of diverse stakeholders can be challenging, yet critical to achieving organizational goals. For many organizations, taking the time to think through and plan this type of high-level learning is not always easy or practical when you are focused on keeping things moving. This is where Prac-Ed steps in. Our vision is to empower educational institutions and non-profit organizations around the world to employ professional learning solutions that promote stakeholder wellbeing and drive continuous innovation.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I think I’ve always been a helper and I’ve always been driven to be the best that I can be. I grew up very modest and became a first-generation college graduate after earning a business finance degree from John Carroll University’s Boler School of Business; I didn’t enjoy the career path I had chosen in the financial services industry, but unbeknownst to me, my business background would serve as a great foundation for my endeavors later on in life.
After starting a family, I changed careers and became a substitute teacher to allow more flexibility in my work schedule and this is where I found my passion for teaching and learning. This is now my 16th year in education and I have had the honor to do extraordinary work for teachers and students in many roles within both the public, private, secondary, and post-secondary education sectors.
Currently, I feel very blessed and fortunate to be able to operate an education consulting business called “Practical Education Solutions” which designs programmatic professional learning for schools and non-profits. I am also the Founder of a new education tech start-up called My Achievement Advocate which is a subscription-based parent advocacy service in which parents are able to pay a monthly fee to have a dedicated, skilled, educator collaborate with their child’s teachers on their behalf to increase their academic achievement.
I see my daily work as the perfect mix of my passion for helping others and my desire to use my knowledge and experiences to consistently grow and be better and better.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Prior to stepping out on my own as an entrepreneur, I held several leadership positions in both public education and higher education. While I exemplified great leadership skills and was effective in my roles, being a school leader was often very challenging for me because of how complicated it often can be to override policies in lieu of doing what’s best for teachers, parents, and students. I often felt that my authentic self was comprised in order to serve within the role I had been hired to do and that just was not a good feeling or acceptable for me. After resigning from my last role, I took some time off and it was during that time that I came up with the concept for Practical Education Solutions and it was by far one of the best decisions I have ever made. Being true to yourself will always guide you where you need to be.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
OMG…my co-founder of My Achievement Advocate, Matt James, we have an incredible story of how we met. We had both traveled to Boston one Saturday morning on the same flight, for different reasons, with plans of traveling back to Atlanta that night on the same flight; we knew nothing of each other. Well, the return flight ended up being delayed for many, many, hours and eventually canceled, so everyone was stuck in the airport overnight and highly upset. Matt and I happen to strike up a conversation and he shared with me that he was in the tech industry and I shared with him that I was in education. Well, we both got home safely the following morning and I reached out to him about a week or so later about My Achievement Advocate because I needed a CRM system and mobile application developed to support the service. I asked him if he would be willing to review the project scope and he agreed. After reviewing it, he thought that the concept was a good one and was willing to invest or even partner to build the needed technology and the rest is history. I am very, very grateful for Matt and even more grateful for getting stuck in that Boston airport that night.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pracedsolutions.com
- Instagram: pracedsolutions
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pracedsolutions/
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/dawnsizemore
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2B7QLdswY3EfbihA3DrS4w