Cultivating Leadership at Every Level: Michael Farrell’s Vision for Citywide Learning

Michael Farrell is no stranger to community building. As Chief Learning Officer, Farrell is responsible for ensuring that every District school across Philadelphia has an effective leader with an effective workforce supporting them. He oversees the District’s professional learning systems for teachers, principals, and system leaders, including coaching structures that anchor the District’s leadership and teacher development. His work as CLO reflects both his District responsibilities and his longstanding partnership with the Philadelphia Academy of School Leaders (PASL), grounded in the belief that solutions emerge when diverse leaders build community and learn together.

Farrell’s deep commitment to community echoes his experience as a member of the Neubauer Fellowship’s Cohort 2. He had just returned to the School District of Philadelphia after several years in charter leadership. “I had a unique experience at the start of the Fellowship,” he recalls. “I was just returning to the District as a principal at the summer kickoff.” What he found was immediate support. “I was in a room full of principals from all over the city—many of them District principals—who took me under their wings. Many of them became lifelong friends.” That sense of belonging, he explains, came not only from the design of the Fellowship program but from the people in it. “I walked away with close colleagues and friends,” he says. “I think that’s part of the beauty of the design. Over the years you come back to the same people again and again. You reconnect and deepen relationships. That’s powerful.”

Today, Farrell remains an active partner with PASL, working to strengthen a larger citywide professional learning ecosystem that spans District, charter, and faith-based schools. In December 2025, Farrell joined PASL’s Edwin M. Quezada, EdD; Program Director Natalie Catin-St. Louis; Senior Fellow and Highline Public Schools’ Executive Director Omar Crowder; and founding faculty Dr. Al Bertani to present at Learning Forward’s Annual Conference. The team shared PASL’s unique cohort based professional learning model, highlighted the redevelopment of the Leadership Competencies—a process Farrell helped guide as a member of the Review and Redesign Advisory Committee—and provided a deep examination of Leaders of Leaders, a program developed in partnership with the School District of Philadelphia to support assistant superintendents with the coaching strategies essential for principal development.

The drive to cultivate communities of ongoing learning reflects not only Farrell’s District work but his perspective on PASL and its responsive programming and distinctive strengths. “PASL is in a unique position to do things the District and other sectors can’t. They have time, resources, connections, and networking capacity—and they bring cross-sector leaders together in ways that no one else does.” he explains. “Faith-based schools, charter schools, and traditional public schools are all in the same room together. That’s not something you typically see outside of PASL.” He sees this alignment as essential rather than duplicative. “We make sure we’re not redundant or in competition. The work is complementary and because of that, it can achieve even more,” he says. “There’s real power in creating spaces for relationship building and knowledge sharing to spark innovation that everyone can learn from.”

Whether in his work in District leadership or partnering with PASL, Farrell’s philosophy centers on a belief core to both him and the Fellowship: “My mantra is: the answers are already in the room.” He sees his role as supporting leaders to uncover their own insights and build the confidence they need to make bold, student-centered decisions. “New or seasoned, leaders already have the answers within. My work is about helping them tap into that and move forward with clarity.”

For Farrell, the path forward remains rooted in that mantra which shaped his earliest coaching work and his Fellowship experience: “The cohort effect, wherever you build it, allows leaders to listen deeply, support one another, and collaborate meaningfully.” By continuing to bring together voices across sectors, organizations, experiences, and neighborhoods, he believes Philadelphia’s school leaders can take the bold steps needed to serve the city’s students—and do so together. “Through intentional programming and partnership efforts, the more we bring people together who don’t usually see each other or work together on a daily or monthly basis, the deeper those relationships become. That leads to resource sharing and a collective confidence that we’re in this together,” he explains. “My challenges at my school or network or system might be slightly different from yours, but we’re still doing this challenging work together. When people can find hope, momentum, and joy in the work through those experiences, that’s powerful.”